Hello, thanks for checking out Transiterranean, a Tacoma-centric transit newsletter-blog exploring commuting, food, drink, and destinations across the City of Destiny, Puget Sound, and beyond! I’m Michael Grass, a former journalist and communications professional who has lived car-free for about 25 years, including in Washington, D.C., New York City, Seattle, Bellingham, and now Tacoma. 

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Sound Transit is currently seeking public feedback on its ST Express 2026 service plan, which will bring changes for riders of certain express bus routes across the region in Fall 2026, including those between Tacoma and King County.

As I previously noted, for Tacomans traveling to and from points in King County, including Downtown Seattle, Federal Way, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the main impacts include: 

Other ST Express routes between Tacoma and Seattle, including the 590 and 594, would not see changes.

The extended survey deadline is November 11. 

Sig Brewing Company, one of Tacoma’s most beloved breweries, is well known for their creative and inventive beer offerings and array of brick oven pizzas. On Sunday, I was seeking out a transit-oriented mid-afternoon beer and bite to eat, something to tide me over until dinner but not fill me up. Sig’s deviled eggs entered my brain so I ventured over during a break in the recent atmospheric river. 

More on the deviled eggs in a moment, but first, transit!

From a transit perspective, Sig’s location on Tacoma Avenue S. near S. 25th Street is in a somewhat awkward location despite being located relatively near two Pierce Transit bus corridors — Jefferson Avenue (Route 3) and Yakima Avenue S. (Routes 45 and 48) — plus the T Line’s S. 25th Street Station. The challenge, of course, lies in the topographical reality that Tacoma Avenue South sits midway up the steep hill separating Downtown Tacoma and the Dome District from the Hilltop District. So any transit-oriented trek to Sig or adjacent businesses along Tacoma Avenue South using adjacent bus routes involves either a trek uphill or downhill. 

For my journey to Sig, given Tacoma’s lack of frequent transit on Sundays and my poor planning, the best option available to me was taking the T Line to the St. Joseph Station terminus and walking downhill along S. 19th Street and then south along Tacoma Avenue, about 10 minutes. 

Since moving to Tacoma, I’ve visited Sig Brewing on a handful of occasions and have enjoyed their beer, pizza, and their standard deviled eggs, which are topped with paprika, crispy fried shallots, and microgreens. They’re a good choice. 

Although deviled eggs are fairly straight-forward vessels for snacking, they do allow for some creativity, which Sig embraces through a weekly deviled egg special that rotates in on Fridays. During my visit on Sunday, the special eggs included a green onion filling topped with pickled mustard seeds and micro greens. As a big fan of mustard seeds, I wasn’t necessarily surprised by the pickled pop these particular toppings brought but my taste buds were nevertheless very engaged with the overall bite and pleased by the confluence of flavors. 

With the November 4, 2025, general election rapidly approaching, voters from across Tacoma, Pierce County, and the region have been dropping completed ballots in official dropboxes at select locations or U.S. Postal Service mailboxes. Amid concerns about the reliability of prompt USPS postmarks close to Election Day, state and local election officials have urged voters to get their ballots in early.

I got my ballot filled out, signed, and completed late last week, just as the regional atmospheric river series of storms was pushing into Tacoma. As someone who lives car free, a long walk in the rain to drop off a ballot wasn’t very appealing, so I sought out a transit-accessible location. Looking at the locations of of Pierce County Elections’ designated ballot dropboxes, we’re lucky that so many are situated at or near to transit stops or major transfer points, including Pierce Transit’s TCC Transit Center and 72nd Street Transit Center. 

But there’s one particular ballot dropbox that’s conveniently located that deserves special applause. The Pierce County Elections dropbox adjacent to the University of Washington Tacoma campus is also steps away from one of Tacoma’s most important transit transfer points: Pacific Avenue & S. 19th Street, across from the Union Station T Line stop. In addition to T Line trains, numerous Pierce Transit and Sound Transit Express bus routes stop here, something no other Pierce County Elections ballot drop off location can boast. 

Kitsap Transit, Mason Transit, and Pierce Transit announced last week that furloughed federal workers with government ID can temporarily ride buses for free due to the current federal government shutdown.  

According to Pierce Transit: “The federal government is the largest employer in Kitsap and Pierce counties, with Naval Base Kitsap (NBK) and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) collectively employing about 100,000 people. Many of them commute to their work sites on public transit, and their fares are covered by the federal government in normal times. However, since the federal government shut down on October 1, 2025, federal workers have been unable to reload funds to their transit passes for rides in November.”

In Snohomish County, Community Transit’s proposed fiscal 2026-27 budget, which is open for public comment through November 14, features plans for more frequent transit service and additional security investments, including installation of barrier doors to protect bus drivers. 

According to the Lynnwood Times, “the biennial plan allocates resources for an 8% service increase in 2026 and a 3% increase in 2027 across all modes (excluding Sound Transit Express Bus service). This includes adding over 130,000 service hours, expanding innovative services like Zip Shuttles and a DART paratransit pilot, and advancing Swift BRT network projects.”

Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck joined transit advocates at a press conference last week to kick off a new “Better Bus Lanes” campaign to improve bus service along some of King County Metro’s busiest bus corridors in Seattle, RapidRide E along Aurora Avenue, Route 7 along Rainier Avenue, and Route 8 along Denny Way. “The better bus lanes campaign today is focused on three of the most critical transit corridors in our city and frankly, in our entire state,” Rinck said, according to The Urbanist. 

Although Sound Transit’s 1 Line light-rail extension to Federal Way Downtown Station won’t officially open until December 6, the agency has entered a final testing phase with simulated service along the 7.8-mile rail extension. According to Sound Transit, “trains will run their planned schedule without passengers — every eight to 15 minutes depending on the day and time — south of Angle Lake to the Federal Way Downtown Station, stopping at Kent Des Moines and Star Lake stations along the way.” 

A Lacey resident’s recent r/AskTacoma inquiry about whether it would be more economical to book a hotel room in Tacoma for a Thunderdome EDM show in February at the Tacoma Dome vs. booking a Lyft or Uber ride to and from Lacey, drew some interesting insights about post-concert transportation considerations for live entertainment in Tacoma.

While Lyft and Uber are certainly available after Tacoma Dome shows concerts and shows, booking a ride can come with a steep cost. Following the recent Sleep Token concert at Tacoma Dome, another Reddit user, who was booking a ride to the Point Defiance area, chimed in: “The rides were anywhere from $100-150 because of event super charges. We walked our asses all the way to 9th&Pacific and it was still $80 for a ride home, which was about 4.5 miles.” 

Although T Line trains sometimes operate later on certain concert nights (like Sleep Token) and some late evening Sound Transit Express regional bus service is available from Tacoma Dome Station, Pierce Transit local buses probably aren’t going to be a post-concert option. As I observed in a recent newsletter-blog edition about getting home from an evening performance of Tacoma Opera’s Das Rheingold, if you’re heading to Point Defiance, the Proctor District, and other areas in Tacoma’s North End, local bus service via Routes 11 and 16 ends earlier than in other parts of the city. It’s another example of how a lack of more robust evening transit options in Tacoma makes it far more challenging to access local restaurants, bars, music, and entertainment without driving or an expensive taxi, Lyft, or Uber ride home.