Recent Stories with tag light rail

Joni Earl

When Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl presented her Proposed 2011 Budget of nearly $1.1 billion to the Sound Transit Board on Thursday afternoon, she had a sobering message: Faced with a 25-percent revenue shortfall since 2008 (amounting to $3.9 billion), Sound Transit will not be able to meet all the objectives in the planned 15-year time frame for Sound Transit 2 approved by voters in 2008.

The good news is that Sound Transit's project management toolbox no longer includes hiding under the bed and waiting for bad news to go away.

"No organization can confront an expected 25 percent reduction in revenues without asking--and answering--hard questions about priorities," Sound Transit Board Chair and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon was quoted as saying in a Sound Transit release. "It is important that we address these issues now and continue to move forward with expanding the region's mass transit system as rapidly as we can."

Earl outlined a series of program realignments designed to keep Sound Transit moving forward, albeit in a trimmer, adaptable way. In a PowerPoint presentation given to the board, she broke down the projects in the ST2 15-year plan into five categories: Design & Construct, Keep Moving, Retain Only Limited Funding, Suspend, and Delete.... (more)

The "he said/she said" in my Twitter feed

The Seattle Times has a habit of reporting on accidents involving the light rail thusly: "Car hit by light-rail train in Seattle." (For more instances, go here.)

In reading the story, you learn that the car "attempted to make a turn onto Othello Street against the light" and collided with the train. Seattle Transit Blog writes it up that way: "Car Collides with Link."

For contrast, try to imagine if the Times reported on car accidents in ways that gave no indication who caused the accident: "Car hit by other car in Seattle this morning." Doesn't seem newsworthy does it?

But in the Times headlines, light rail is always implicitly the agent of destruction: light rail "injures two" (who tried to make an illegal left turn in front of a sign marked No Left Turn), a woman "sustain[ed] injury" when she ran into the light rail, and a girl talking on her cellphone who stepped into the trackway was "struck by light-rail train." In none of these cases did the illegality, incompetence, or obliviousness of the person who caused the accident make it into the headline.

"Light-rail train hits pickup"--making an illegal turn, as it happens. From the Times headline (not even in the passive voice this time), you'd have to assume the light rail was at fault. Otherwise you might have read an investigative story about how Seattle drivers' illegal left turns are costing a cash-strapped Sound Transit a bundle further damaging light rail's reputation for reliability.

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."... (more)

What? I'm just saying. If the Governor is impressed with their getting the tunnel on time and on budget, surely she must be impressed with their foresight in putting light rail in it, too? Otherwise it'd just be...tunnel-vision.

Early Thursday morning on the second floor of Westlake Center, and we're both confused. Me, because I can't understand why the Sprint Wireless store is closed. The college student leading a trolley bag has the same problem, re: the Monorail.

"Excuse me," she says softly. "Do you know why the Monorail isn't running?"

"Probably because it's too early," I say. "Probably doesn't start running 'till nine."

"But I think it should be open," she insists.

Having never met anyone so determined to ride the Monorail, I re-examine the situation. Person in a hurry with trolley bag. Ding! "Wait, are you going to the airport?"

"Yeah," she says.... (more)

Governor Gregoire

Seattle's richest, most powerful neighborhoods are upset with Governor Gregoire. You can hear it in the Sustainable 520 Coalition's letter to the Governor, which opens with a demand-like request for her personal attention:

Here are the comments of the Coalition for a Sustainable SR 520 on the recent environmental impact statement for the 520 I-5 to Medina Project. They come with a request to you: please read them. You, yourself.

It will take you a couple of hours, but you will find new information which might greatly help you as you lead the state towards solving SR 520’s problems. We are concerned that  you are not getting the full picture on this project and think you might find it important and useful to read our full comments yourself so that there is no filter.

Their comments on the supplemental draft environmental impact statement for the 520 replacement project run 41 pages, with appendices from A to Z (literally). Montlake, North Capitol Hill, Laurelhurst, and Madison Park residents have been alarmed at the thought of substantially more cars streaming into their neighborhoods (they are joined in the coalition by parks advocates, environmentalists, and transit boosters)--but it's been a tough slog to convince 520 commuters that capacity is fine the way it is.

Finally, a light bulb went off. Now, much of the debate now centers around the prospect of running light rail on 520 from day one (in which effort the coalition has been aided and abetted by Mayor Mike McGinn). Capacity goes up, but car traffic stays down.

This puts the state in the awkward position of claiming that the project was designed all along to "accommodate" light rail, but that adding light rail at the outset is impossible--because 520 would need to be redesigned for light rail, and a different environmental impact statement would need to be done. (Says WSDOT: "...the current analysis assumes the four general-purpose and two transit/HOV lane configuration and does not address light rail.")

Drawing a line in the sand, the Governor says that delaying 520 is "not an option." The Sustainable 520 Coalition begs to differ. They summarize nine objections to the project that, when you read them, look like material for a forthcoming legal suit. We can delay the easy way, they're suggesting, or we can delay the hard way. Your choice:... (more)

"Traffic on 520" courtesy of SunBreak Flickr pool member Great_Beyond

UPDATE: Here's Mayor McGinn's blogging on the subject.

After almost 13 years of design and a legislative mandate that the replacement 520 bridge "shall also be designed to accommodate light rail in the future," it turns out that that depends on what you think "bridge," "design," "accommodate," and "light rail" mean.

Really, no one anticipated running light rail on 520, so far as I can tell. After a lot of political heavy lifting to get light rail on I-90, people thought, "Whew! That's done!" and went home. As few as five year years ago, the response to light rail on 520 was still, "I-90 will have it." Very much like light rail was a grudging political gift, rather than a practical transportation solution, or part of a larger strategy.

The defeat of Roads and Transit in 2007, in favor of simply transit, marked a sea change. A majority voted down a roads and vestigial-appendage transit plan, and then voted for a significant transit-only package. Now a meaningless, campaign-promise line like "shall also be designed to accommodate light rail in the future" was a hot potato. Because of course the replacement 520 was not designed to accommodate light rail, except "in the future," when money will apparently grow on trees.

Seattle Transit Blog says it all comes down to "the difference between 'physically being able to carry trains' and 'accommodating light rail.'" The bridge is designed not to sink, yes, if you add pontoons before putting a train on it. But it isn't designed for the train to get on or off. "The cost and disruption would be so great that a retrofit of these changes is practically infeasible, meaning that light rail would never cross 520 even if all of the transportation experts said it should." (It's worth noting--if you suspect STB of an unappeasable desire for light rail--that they are not agreed on the need for light rail on 520.)... (more)

"Tourist," a view from the Columbia Tower, courtesy of The SunBreak Flickr pool's slightlynorth.

It was a week featuring two of Seattle's most prominent architectural icons: on the tenth anniversary of the Kingdome implosion, the market for commercial space downtown has imploded, too. Beacon Capital Partners missed a loan payment on the Columbia Tower, and faces a 33 percent vacancy rate once Amazon decamps next year. Starbucks announced ten-cent-per-share dividends at its annual meeting. One of our hippos died.

Plans for a private Chihuly exhibit at Seattle Center ran smack into Seattle process; now the Center will open up public bidding for use of the space vacated by the Fun Forest. Seattlepi.com reports that "Beth Campbell filed a motion in U.S. District Court asking that construction of the southern mile of a viaduct-replacement project be delayed until a full environmental-impact study is done of the entire viaduct project."

The city council joined every other Washington Democrat in wishing AG Rob McKenna would not challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill. Seattle's direct care providers Qliance are looking forward to the new insurance exchanges. Seattle was named the top city for cybercrime in America.

Mayor McGinn claims he has an affordable West Seattle-Ballard light rail line up his sleeve. Amtrak passengers had to take the long way around when a mudslide hit the tracks near Mukilteo--for the second time in two weeks. Mudslides aside, we now have extra Amtrak to Vancouver, B.C., through September. Nick Licata wants to lean on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for help with the seawall replacement.... (more)

Lots of transportation doings this week: SDOT came out in favor of a 2-way Broadway alignment for the First Hill streetcar. It's not just "Seattle" process: over in Bellevue, a new citizen's group is speaking out against the Council's B7 light rail plan; the Council has also decided on a downtown tunnel, the C9T plan. Here in Seattle, Link light rail hit a record number of weekday riders in February.

In Olympia yesterday, the Senate passed a bill raising sales tax by two-tenths of a percent, providing an illustration of almost complete cognitive failure, as a primary driver of the state's deficit is lack of consumer spending in the first place.

We may need to change the name of the SLU Cascadia neighborhood to Amazonia: TechFlash reports that in addition to its 1.7 million-square-foot campus, Amazon has just signed a lease with Vulcan for 180,000 square feet of office space at 2201 Westlake.

West Seattle Blog has the news that Mayor McGinn won't try to annex White Center this fall after all, too expensive says His Honor. Queen Anne View was curious about the Chihuly glass house being kicked around for the Seattle Center. Beacon Hill Blog was hooking people up with El Centro de la Raza tamales.... (more)

You can see the light rail power lines in the distance. Photo: WSDOT

Buses that use the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel are in service, but due to construction, Link light rail won't be making stops at the Stadium or Downtown stations, starting tonight at 10 p.m. and finishing up at 5 a.m. on Monday, March 8. You can still pick up a Route 97 Link Shuttle bus from Westlake to the SODO station. They depart every 15 to 20 minutes. (Here's the Sound Transit alert.)

The construction, just so you know why you're being inconvenienced, is part of WSDOT's SR 519 - South Seattle intermodal access project. Crews are taking down falsework (temporary supports) for the off-ramp to Atlantic Street, and there's a danger of electrocution from the light rail's power lines. So the power's being cut.

The Coalition for a Sustainable 520--with representatives of the Sierra Club and Cascade Bicycle Club, House Speaker Frank Chopp, Sen. Ed Murray, Rep. Jamie Pedersen, Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Nick Licata, Mayor Mike McGinn--met this morning [Seattle Channel video] on a populist impulse that is not immediately clear, given that they told Publicola there's little hope of their gathering being heeded in Olympia.

Their primary request is that two of the six lanes be reserved for transit, preferably light rail. In the A+ design for 520's replacement, two lanes are reserved as HOV. Montlake doesn't want more cars, and in fact the group has a poll (who doesn't, though, really?) showing 69 percent of Seattle supports light rail on 520. (Seattle Transit Blog has a roundup of who wants what.)

They already have evidence of pushback, though, in a response from Gov. Chris Gregoire, says the Seattlepi.com. Her letter back to the City Council [pdf], who meekly asked for time to make design adjustments, brooks no hesitation:

Changing the configuration now would require a new environmental process. The office of the Attorney General tells us that revisiting these decisions from several years ago would set the project back at least 18 to 24 months. Our commitment to ensuring public safety does not allow that kind of delay.... (more)

Ever have one of those dreams where you go through your everyday routine only to find out that you've forgotten to put pants on? Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred people made their dreams a reality by participating in Emerald City Improv's No Pants Light Rail Ride.

The instructions for the afternoon ride were easy. Meet at Westlake at noon. Get on the light rail. Take your pants off. Pretend like everything is normal. Go to the airport. Have fun. Ride back to Westlake. Go home and hope your co-workers won't find the pictures of you that show up on the internet. Reminisce.

After overcoming their fear of public pantlessness, people took the ride with varying degrees of seriousness and silliness. Several gentlemen were dressed in business suits and nice shoes. A few groups of people pretended they were just going to catch a plane.  It seemed that everyone was dropping books or change on the platforms and bending over really slowly to pick it up. The rest of the participants were taking pictures, reading books, drinking coffee, or talking on their phone, just like a regular train ride in any other city, except from the waist down.

In Seattle, we've only had this particular train for a couple months. Ridership has been expected to rise with the opening of the new airport station. Sunday might have been a bit of a boost to those numbers. In the car I rode in, there were approximately 34 people. 30 of those people lacked what one might call "pants."... (more)

That's right, our brand spanking new light rail system will be hosting a half-off event this Sunday.  Well, not half off ticket prices, more like half of people's clothes off. And, Sound Transit didn't plan it--the No Pants Light Rail Ride was conceived and organized by our own Emerald City Improv as an extension of the New York No Pants Subway Ride (see video). They've already had a few years of practice, but us Seattle folk are quick learners.

Now is your chance to get famous for taking your pants off, just like mom always wanted. It appears that everyone in the city is already aware of the event (850 people are signed up on Facebook and countless more have seen it on Yelp) and even major media will be in attendance. This timid SunBreak reporter plans on being there and will bring back pictures and/or video if at all possible. Actually, you may just want to skip those--there hasn't been sun here in years.

Seattle's experiment with not wearing pants on public transportation will occur sometime in the early afternoon. It will cost you a light rail ticket to experience the moment. More information is available here and here.

We had a short holiday week here on The SunBreak, but the news never stops--tragically, in the case of the double homicide on Beacon Hill that left a mother and her daughter dead, and the father, Daniel Thomas Hicks, the lead suspect.

The place to go for unsavory details on WaMu's demise continues to be the Puget Sound Business Journal: "Documents released by JPMorgan in response to the subpoena now show that JPMorgan had a plan to acquire WaMu from regulators more than two months before the government signaled it planned to seize and sell the Seattle thrift." Meanwhile, Nordstrom's is consolidating its Seattle office space in the old WaMu tower, a big win for the Seattle Art Museum, and Seattle in general, says Jon Talton.

Ironically, the Boeing Philip M. Condit Professor of Business Administration at the UW's Foster School of Business, Dick Nolan, argued that Boeing's global outsourcing strategy may have been a huge competitive mistake.

The weather hasn't stopped, but it does seem on a break, with what Cliff Mass calls a "classic mid-winter ridge" creating dry, low wind conditions. Local areas are seeing a good deal of morning fog, and in fact Mass advises you to book your SeaTac flights late in the day this time of year, to avoid fog delays.

In local health karma, an unvaccinated King County woman contracted measles after a trip abroad: "People who might have been exposed to the disease would be expected to develop the characteristic skin rash of measles December 18th and January 10." Most of you have been vaccinated and have nothing to worry about.

Fueling our transit obsession, Mayor-elect Mike McGinn let drop that he's considering putting a light rail extension up to a vote in 2010. The Seattle Transit Blog approves. They also have the rundown on new transit fares and payment options in 2010: As of January 1, "all King County Metro fares (except for the ages 6-18 fare) will go up 25 cents. For most of us that means $2.00 off-peak, $2.25 one-zone peak, $2.75 two-zone peak."... (more)

Yesterday I was kvetching to SDOT about the absence of any bike racks at the Westlake entrance to the light rail tunnel--either outside or inside--and I was told that I'd be happy to hear about the bike racks planned for the Westlake Streetcar Plaza. (The Southlake blog was happy to hear about the Plaza, so there was precedent.)

Construction begins this January and is supposed to finish by April.

The new Plaza is on one hand designed to improve "connectivity" between the Monorail and the streetcar, and on the other, to make the intersection of 5th Avenue, Stewart, Westlake, and Olive Way less of a confusing invitation to collisions with other cars and pedestrians. The 1.3-mile-traveling streetcar is currently averaging a little over 1,300 riders per day, and as full capacity is 12,600 passengers, it could use a little connectivity.

The plan expands the existing McGraw Square (which is clearly a triangle) to take over Westlake where the streetcar's terminus is. (You can see where the nip-and-tuck that they're going to do on Westlake is here.) This is probably a good idea, streetcar or no--currently it feels like you have to cross the street three times to go a block in that area.

I can't tell you what it will cost; I've visited SDOT's Westlake Transportation Hub Strategy page and downloaded three different pdfs (there are "big tree" and "big raingarden" design concepts for the Plaza), but apparently there are no costs associated with this project that are worth mentioning. This lack of transparency from SDOT peeves the Seattle Times ("Streetcar cost overruns"), which has unearthed $4.3 million in unannounced costs associated with the streetcar line.... (more)

As of 10 a.m. this morning, you can take light rail from downtown to the SeaTac Airport in 36 scenic minutes. There's enough space under most seats to stow baggage if you're holding carry-on in your lap. The fare is $2.50 one-way. Here's a photo gallery of our preview trip. (In other transit news, everyone wants a piece of the First Hill streetcar.)

On December 15, 2009, at 10:27 a.m., Boeing's 787 Dreamliner lifted off at Paine Field for a test flight. For three hours, it flew back and forth over the Sound, until increasingly rainy weather called a halt to the flight. Testing will continue for about nine months, and involve three 787s and about a dozen flight crew. Even Ryanair's brinksmanship on its huge 737 order couldn't dampen Boeing spirits.

Other local bidness: Weyerhauser announced it's becoming a real estate investment trust, McDonald's double-dog-dared Starbucks to provide free Wi-Fi, and the Seattle Times triumphed temporarily over death (taxes).

Seattle left last week's record low temperatures behind, and started focusing on eating outside. The Mobile Chowdown will return to Interbay on January 9. City Hall and SDOT are making street-food-friendly noises regarding regulatory changes in 2010, including making it easier for vendors to set up on the outskirts of city parks. We also mistakenly pumped 10 million gallons of sewage into Elliott Bay.

Sports fans had an early Christmas, discovering Husky QB Jake Locker, pitcher Cliff Lee, and hothead Milton Bradley under their tree.

As of 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 19, there will be a SeaTac light rail station open for business. For $2.50 (one-way), you can ride the full line from the Westlake station downtown to the airport, and the Central Link segment will be complete.

It's only a three-minute jaunt from the Tukwila station, where the line used to end, to the airport station, but it cost $268 million. (The whole trip from downtown takes about 36 minutes, and trains run every 7.5 to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day.) Besides its ahead-of-schedule opening--which was originally set for December 31--the airport station has come in under budget.

The Port of Seattle handed me a fact sheet on a media preview walk-through this morning, noting proudly that the road improvements associated with the station construction cost $10 million less than budgeted in Port funds, and the pedestrian bridge and walkway came in at $1.4 million less. Altogether it's 950 feet from the platform to the first terminal skybridge, which everyone is sensitive about.

You can arrange free wheelchair service from Huntleigh (call in advance 206-433-5287), but otherwise you're hoofing it. There will be baggage carts, but nothing for you to ride on. (A people-mover was ruled out because of logistical considerations--it wouldn't really fit--and extra expense.) You won't notice the length so much on your way in; it's the return trip, when you've already hiked a few miles through airports, that the extra quarter-mile will wear on you. Still, for transit riders, a hike was already in order to get to the bus stop south of the terminal.

The Port's SeaTac employees, interestingly, may provide a good deal of the light rail regular ridership. Some 22,000 people commute to work at the airport each day, and it's hoped that some will take the new train, in addition to travelers. I'm checking with the Port on how it currently encourages its employees to take transit, and if there will be a special light rail push.

UPDATE: Perry Cooper, the Port's media officer, says via email:

We can’t predict how many employees will move to riding light rail, but we have several Commute Trip Reduction qualified employers, including the Port, Alaska Air Group, Delta and Host (who run many of our concessionaires). Another one of the largest employee groups that may take advantage of light rail are the employees of TSA, who have a significant number of employees that utilize public transportation.

 For the Port’s Aviation division here at Sea-Tac, we have approximately 280 employees that hold a FlexPass, which is good on King County Metro, Pierce County Transit and Sound Transit including the Link Light Rail. We continue to promote that throughout Port employees.

Seattle Transit Blog, whom I love for producing just these kinds of omnibus posts, has a bookmark-necessary post on where the light rail stations are, and how you can get to them after the recent bus line changes.

Martin helpfully points you to the Metro page on Link connections as well, before giving you a neighborhood-by-neighborhood rundown of how to reach a station. I feel dirty for even mentioning it, but there's also a cheat sheet on how to drive and find parking near a station.

Ann Peavey (aka @SeattleMaven) encourages you to think of your roundtrip light rail from Tukwila to Westlake as a $5 all-day pass. I can hardly believe this is the case, but if you purchase a roundtrip Link ticket, you can use it as a transfer on most Seattle transit all day. (One-way tickets "expire" two hours after you buy them, but roundtrip tickets are good for the day of purchase.)