Either that, or an extension of the planned Ballard/Fremont streetcar route to Golden Gardens.

Then again, maybe this is the long-awaited transit godsend that all of those Mukilteo-to-Ballard commuters have been pining for!

As for the suggestion that we “let the planners figure it out,” I think it would be important for the planners to take into account the usefulness that this project would have for people who live in Ballard, such as myself. (For most of Ballard, that usefulness is zero.) Sharing my thoughts on the question is my way of helping the planners “figure it out.” I hope that is okay with you.

Realistically, any Ballard/Shilshole Sounder stop would be served by the 46, which I understand is supposed to see more frequent service starting in a few months. But even that route will only have half-hour headways.

3 round trips, 4 round trips, I’m not sure it makes a difference — this stop would be implemented in order to throw Ballard a proverbial bone. Dozens of people will be thrilled. But it’s not a cost-effective use of ST $$$.

Ballard is likely getting streetcar service from the city in the same timeframe as ST2 improvements would be built.

How about we let the planners figure out how many riders it would get, and whether or not to implement it? It sounds like there’s a lot more going on here than you think. Consider the 48, for instance – it would serve this station.

Instead of shuttle buses, would it be possible to connect an Eastside line to the light rail? Google Maps makes it look like the rail goes all the way through Renton, meeting up with the main Sounder line near Tukwila. If the Boeing Access Road station were finished, the line could easily end there.

A 2 minute stop is all that is needed, and trains move through there pretty slowly anyway, so it wouldn’t be like they’d be slowing down from a high speed clip.

I wrote about this last December.

Don’t forget that Amazon soon plans to move into the Denny area, so there will be thousand more jobs that could be accessible via a north station.

The BAR station was put in “deferred” status in 2001 due to high construction costs (wetlands needing mitigation, configuration issues due to location between BNSF and I-5, and access limited to Boeing Access Rd. It would have to be a multi-level station as well, further adding to expense.

When ST looked at ridership potential, even including xfers between Sounder and Link, the numbers just weren’t there, certainly not in proportion to the high construction costs. During the ST2 deliberations, nobody found any changes in the analysis that lead to the decision to defer, so the station was not included in the new plan.

The DI people are troglodytes. Remind me again why anyone takes them seriously?

Tens of thousands of people live within a 5 block radius of a stop on the 15, 17, 18, or 28 which all run downtown all day long, including express during the morning/evening commutes. Perhaps a few hundred live within a 5 block radius of where the Sounder could stop. The only people for whom a Ballard Sounder stop would make any sense are those few hundred – provided they need to commute between 7-8 a.m. and 4:30-5:30p.m. All of this for 3 round-trips per day?

Most of Ballard is no where near the BNSF tracks, let alone the one point along those tracks where a Sounder stop could be located. Commuter rail makes sense for transit between suburbs and the city, where the train station itself is a point that people either drive, bike, or ride a bus to. It does not make sense when efficient bus routes already run (more frequently, with more destinations directly served) from one neighborhood of a city to another.

Let’s use the North King money for something that will provide useful service all day long. If we are really concerned about best serving Ballard, we will save it and apply it to the future light rail line that will reach that neighborhood.

You live in Ballard, work 3 blocks from KSS, but you won’t take the Sounder if its an option? With all due respect, you have a screw loose.