This sells papers, so it’s obvious why they write about it:
Welcome back to Seattle’s downtown transit tunnel. Watch your head.
The 1.3-mile tunnel reopens Monday morning after a two-year shutdown for $94 million in upgrades.
There have been some safety questions raised about it, and things are a little different.
When buses start running again in the tunnel, they’ll be on a floor that’s been lowered 8 inches so that doors on light rail trains — scheduled to share the tunnel in two years — will match the boarding platform heights.
This means outside mirrors on buses also will be lower and closer to the height of riders’ heads when the buses pull up to the platform. The bus drivers’ union raised a red flag about the possible hazard, and safety measures were added.
This sounds a lot scarier than it is: anyone with sense knows not to stand within three feet of a ten-ton vehicle approaching at 15 mph. Actually a lot of safety features seemed to have been added to the tunnel:
The retrofit included lowering the roadbed in the stations to accommodate level boarding for passengers using either trains or buses, and installing new electrical, communications, and safety systems. For example, inside the tunnel passengers will benefit from better lighting and signage, more security cameras, and a new public announcement system.
I think the odds of getting “bonked”, as the union officer put it in the p-i article, in the head is not very severe.
At the tunnel sneak peak, I talked to one of the Sound Transit staffers and asked about the mirrors. She said that many safety features will warn passengers of the mirror problem: strobe lights on the mirrors, yellow tactile strip, electronic signs warnings, PA announcements, and the new security guards will be on the look out for people standing to close to the platform edge.
P.S. I have a bunch of photos from the tunnel opening if you want any of them.
I think the real concern here should be the blind people. Blind can’t see, hopefully the strip is raised or so that they can feel where they are to be safe. Other than that I don’t see any real difference to being down in the tunnel and bonked versus on 4th and Pine and being bonked. You have to be aware!
Also, Pics would be cool to see as well! I didn’t get to go cause I was at work, which by the way why don’t they ever have these things at times when people who work can see them? Alas, I will wait till it opens! Too bad they won’t display the LRV, that is what I really wanted to see!
I want thos pics
daimaoh@gmail.com
Just sent you the pics
It looks like non-electric buses will run in the tunnel? Did I hear that right? Won’t that cause some air pollution problems?
If I remember right, the tunnel has always had good lighting, much better than what I saw in the tunnels on the DC Metro. Glad that the DSTT is about to re-open.
SD-
I think they are going to use the Hybrid/Electric buses, that will use electicity when in the tunnel and then when out will use their veggie fuel of choice outside the tunnel.
THE PA System is so loud it hurts my ears. It’s way too loud! The messages are not well thought out either. they need to lower the volume and come up with better messages…. or prepare to get sued for destroying someones eardrums. -A seattle native.