Happy Birthday, Dear Central Link Light Rail

by Michael van Baker on July 19, 2010

King County Council’s Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine joined then-Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on an inaugural Link light rail ride, one year ago.

Everyone else is doing a Link birthday post, so I am writing one, too. Link light rail is one year and six million riders old, and the enthusiasm is infectious. Mike Lindblom writes in the Seattle Times that:

Ridership has grown to an average 23,400 boardings per weekday in June, compared with 14,850 in September. Trains are noticeably more full.

At first it seemed Sound Transit would miss its 26,600 target by the end of this year, but that’s now within reach.

Like the evil godmother scorned at a baby shower, the Times has been nothing short of obsessive in running down the newborn; their article on Link’s opening was titled, “Light-rail trains run smoothly, if not to capacity, on first day.” Their first story on passenger numbers appeared five days after Link started running. In mid-November the Times noted worriedly that:

Estimated ridership on the Seattle-Tukwila route was around 16,100 per weekday in October, showing growth but far short of the agency’s near-term 26,600 target for Seattle to Sea-Tac by late 2010.

That’s right. In mid-November 2009, Link ridership was “far short” of the target set for late 2010. Then ridership dipped and both the Times and Sound Politics were concerned!

Thankfully, it sounds like the white-knuckled coverage will finally be relaxing a bit. Seattle Transit Blog has been more sanguine, waiting for the public “tipping point” to be reached, but even they break out the boldface when reporting that “June represented the sixth straight month of >5% month-over-month growth.”

STB is also who you want to turn to for constructive light rail criticism; their post on the number of closures and delays in service during Link’s first year should be required Sound Transit reading. They’ve also been great about agitating for better signs and real-time communications at stations. But…baby steps. There’s a lot more on the way:

The Central Link line is the first portion of what will be 55 miles of light rail serving the Central Puget Sound Region. A 3.1-mile underground extension from downtown Seattle north to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington is under construction and will open in 2016. Voters have also approved extensions to Northgate, Lynnwood, Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island and northern Federal Way scheduled to open by 2023.

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  • Buzzsaw

    Light rail is a very outmoded transportation idea especially here in Seattle. There is very limited roadspace and tons of choke points with traffic congestion. If Seattle is going to spend billions on this, put it all underground like any other normal city. All you are doing is paying gobs of money more for a fixed system that makes a tom of noise, has limited access, adds to congestion and accidents, and limits choice since bus lines serving the same areas get shut down or shrunk.

  • ozmafan

    Good points, Buzzsaw.

    The more I ride light rail in the bus tunnel downtown, the more I’m amazed by its inefficiency. They spent how many months retrofitting that tunnel and now buses have to WAIT for the train to PASS? Ridiculous. So not the direction to be going with mass transit. Maybe the extension through Cap Hill will be an improvement, but let’s first figure out how to keep buses out of its way.