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  • Feel the love, transit agencies!

Dow "Silverfox" Constantine, King County's top official, signed an order today directing King County Metro and Sound Transit to play nice and collaborate more closely together.

Specifically, the executive order calls for Metro and Sound Transit to improve service in areas not served by light rail and to better develop transit stations that provide riders a seamless transition between rail and buses. You can read it here (PDF).

"They work together all the time," Constantine explained. "My goal is for us to move well beyond that...for these agencies on the operations and planning side, to be able to act as one. That's the only way we're going to get the most value for each transit dollar."

This order tries to strike a balance, he said, between a super-regional transit agency that would not respect the visions of various locales, and a chaotic system of different transit agencies with their own interests competing with one another.

Why wasn't this done earlier? As the head of King County and the incoming board chair for Sound Transit, Constantine said, "I have an opportunity, wearing both hats, to say this is a time for us to take our relationship to the next level."