Transportation Committee Recap: Stride Buses by 2028 and a December 11 Federal Deadline

Bellevue Chamber of Commerce  |  October 1, 2026

At the October 1 Transportation Committee meeting, Sound Transit's East King County team walked members through the Stride bus rapid transit program, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce briefed committee members on congressional efforts to reauthorize the federal surface transportation law that expired the day before.

A Year of Ridership Records

Ariel Taylor, Sound Transit's government and community relations director for East King County, opened with the year so far. The Cross Lake Connection across I-90 opened March 28 and carried 205,000 riders that day, a record the agency then broke during the FIFA World Cup. In late July, about 43,000 people a day were riding Link and ST Express in East King County. A new overnight bus, Route 547, now follows the 2 Line during the hours trains are out of service for maintenance.

What the Enterprise Initiative Kept

Taylor then turned to the Sound Transit Board's May decision on the Enterprise Initiative, the agency's response to rising capital costs.

"East King County maintained all of their transit expansion projects." — Government and Community Relations Director, Sound Transit

The South Kirkland to Issaquah line stays funded and is delayed about five years. A member asked whether East King County money pays for tunnels in downtown Seattle. Taylor said the definition of subarea equity has not changed, and that the second downtown tunnel is treated as a regional asset every subarea pays. 

Stride on I-405

Savanna Steele of Sound Transit's government and community relations team said Stride will run 48 miles through 11 cities on three lines. S1 runs from Bellevue to Burien, S2 from Lynnwood to Bellevue, and S3 from Shoreline to Bothell. Buses will come every 10 to 15 minutes, 17 hours a day. Sound Transit expects trips about 20 minutes shorter than today's ST Express routes, because the buses will use the dual express lanes on I-405 and most stations sit in the center of the freeway. Prototypes of the battery-electric fleet, including double-decker buses for I-405, arrive in early 2027, with service expected to start in 2028. 

"Stride will be the next ST3 service expansion that we bring online." — Government and Community Relations, Sound Transit

Federal Funding After September 30

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act expired September 30. Trey McKenzie, who leads transportation lobbying at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Congress extended highway and transit programs to December 11 without the law's advance appropriations.

He put the result at an annualized cut of 15 percent for highways and 20 percent for transit. A five-year, $580 billion successor passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee 62 to 2, with about $90 billion for transit and a new $130 annual registration fee on electric vehicles. The Senate has not introduced a bill, but McKenzie expects another extension, potentially through September 30, 2027.

He also pointed to a bipartisan Senate permitting agreement announced September 30 that would put a two-year deadline on federal environmental reviews. Those reviews now average five to seven years.