Recent Stories with tag link

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)

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)

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)

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.)