The first rides in 2016 were free
(Image: SDOT)
2016 was a neighborhood-changing year when it comes to public transit on Capitol Hill. While the ten-year anniversary of Capitol Hill Station and light rail serving Broadway is coming up later this year, January brings a decade milestone for a smaller, weirder, but still hard-working piece of Capitol Hill’s transit puzzle.
Ten years ago this week, the bright cars of the First Hill Streetcar first hummed to life on Broadway and service began on the 2.5-mile line connecting Pioneer Square, the International District, First Hill, and Capitol Hill. At the time, the streetcar was envisioned as part of what would eventually grow with the infamous SLUT into a small streetcar network to service the core of the city.
Today, while the SLUT plugs away in South Lake Union, the First Hill Streetcar still stands alone. It might always.
CHS reported here as service began in January 2016:
With a “clang clang” and a round of applause, the streetcar departed just after 11:20 AM after getting the go ahead from operations that the train carrying Mayor Ed Murray and a huddle of dignitaries and community representatives had departed from Pioneer Square on the other end of the 2.5-mile route. On a day when the launch of the new $138 million streetcar line had already been downplayed by Seattle Department of Transportation officials, Murray also distanced himself from the brightly painted set of six shiny, new, Czech-designed cars. The mayor said he inherited a project that was delayed but was now happy the line was running.
Already politically orphaned by the clouds from construction delays and nearly instant realization that forming a Seattle streetcar network was going to be nearly impossible, the January 2016 launch marked the end of years of construction and the beginning of a new, if frequently debated, era for Capitol Hill transit.
Originally envisioned as a consolation prize for First Hill after Sound Transit scrapped plans for a light rail station in the neighborhood, the stub route has somehow managed to grow into a busy neighborhood circulator.
As the line marks its tenth anniversary, a report from the Seattle Department of Transportation provides a look at the First Hill Streetcar’s performance, revealing a line that is finally reaching pre-pandemic productivity even as it nears a “financial cliff” caused by expiring regional subsidies.
SDOT’s 2024 Annual Streetcar Operating Report (PDF) completed in November describes a First Hill Streetcar that has become more efficient at moving people than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Systemwide ridership across FHS and the SLUT reached 1,492,360 in 2024, an 80% recovery of 2019 levels—a rate that notably outpaces King County Metro’s overall bus recovery of 69%.
(Image: SDOT)
The First Hill line specifically is the heavy lifter of the two routes. In 2024, it carried nearly 1.3 million riders, an 8% increase over the previous year. Most impressively, the line’s productivity, measured in riders per revenue hour, jumped to 52, surpassing its 2019 level of 49. To put this in perspective, the First Hill line is now twice as productive as the overall Metro bus system, which averages 22 riders per revenue hour.
SDOT expected the First Hill line to reach its 2019 annual baseline ridership sometime in early 2025. Projections suggest that after an initial post-pandemic plateau, ridership will settle into a steady 3% annual growth rate through 2028. By the end of this decade, the First Hill line is projected to carry over 1.4 million riders annually.
The 10 stations of the First Hill Streetcar
1) Occidental and Jackson
2) 5th and Jackson
3) 7th and Jackson
4) 12th and Jackson
5) 14th and Washington
6) Yesler and Broadway
7) Broadway and Terrace
8) Broadway and Marion
9) Broadway and Pine
10) Broadway and Denny
But streetcar trains face special challenges. SDOT says that “reliability” remains the greatest threat to these gains. On-time performance for the First Hill line dipped to 80% in 2024, down from 83% the year prior. While general traffic congestion on Broadway is the primary culprit, SDOT also points to technical failures including battery issues on the First Hill vehicles that have forced cars out of service.
The streetcar’s tenth year comes with a significant price tag. Systemwide operations and maintenance costs surged by 21% in 2024. This increase was driven primarily by inflation and a new labor contract for King County Metro employees, alongside rising costs for security and essential “brake overhauls” for the aging fleet.
The vision for Seattle’s streetcar network has faded
Maintenance has become a struggle for the aging system. For the First Hill line, SDOT crews had to perform major rail repairs in 2024 and are currently studying a full replacement of the vehicle batteries, which are suffering from multiple part failures and are no longer supported by the original supplier.
The most pressing challenge as the streetcar enters its second decade is its funding model.
For the first ten years of its life, the First Hill Streetcar relied on a $5 million annual operating contribution from Sound Transit. That agreement expired in 2023. Simultaneously, federal pandemic relief funds have been fully exhausted.
This has left the city to fill a streetcar-sized hole in the budget. Local funding, now largely provided by the Seattle Transit Measure, has been slid in to cover what was once a regional responsibility. Total expenditures for the First Hill line reached $10.3 million in 2024, but farebox recovery, the percentage of costs covered by ticket, remains a meager 4%.
Riders now pay 75 cents more to board as the city’s streetcar fare was increased to $3 last year with hopes of the lines carrying more of their own weight to avoid being targeted in future budget cuts.
Meanwhile, those original visions of connections that would be part of the growth of the First Hill Streetcar have been mothballed. In early 2024, CHS reported on the growing $410 million price tag for a proposed streetcar line connecting the First Hill and South Lake Union lines through downtown. No Seattle leader has touched the idea since. Earlier extensions including a northern Aloha plan were axed long ago.
The appetite for rail has also faded in favor or cheaper, easier to construct, and more flexible dedicated bus routes like the RapidRide G line that opened on Madison in 2024.
Now as the First Hill Streetcar begins its second decade, it remains a peculiar survivor on Broadway. It is moving more people more efficiently than ever before, but it remains financially isolated, waiting for long-delayed political will to finally link it to the rest of the city’s transit network — or to surrender on the vision and tear up its tracks.
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