This one isn’t about wanting more Amtrak service.
It’s about how we just got here. I know everyone here talked to all their friends, talked to their family, figured out good talking points, understood what people feared and wanted, pitched and sold until they were blue in the face.
So thank you. On behalf of everyone on the blog, thank you for everything you’ve done, because you helped Proposition 1 win. On behalf of me, thank you for making me a little more open to other people’s opinions.
We don’t have to worry about Sound Transit being dismantled. We don’t have to worry about not getting to Northgate, or Bellevue.
I said a while back that we should focus on this and worry about what comes next after the election. It’s after the election. We still haven’t got Ballard or West Seattle. We haven’t gotten the streetcar to the UW. Metro and Community Transit have budget shortfalls. Andrew’s right - Sims is going to work with the legislature to get more Metro funding. We need to do the same for Sound Transit if we want another expansion.
Thank you so much for getting us to where we don’t have to fight the same battle again.
All the arguing and back-and-forth with the anti-transit crowds I “endured” was worth it!
You said it, Ben!
Progress has definitely been made.
I was so happy to see Proposition 1 actually win in Pierce County (so far). We are getting a lot out of the plan. More Sounder rail and more express buses in addition to the light rail extension to Federal Way at Redondo with money for preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisition for a Tacoma expansion. I’m skeptical that we will actually see a Tacoma Link expansion by 2015. That part of the plan does not appear as well thought out (or funded) as the rest.
As I just missed the 5:10 leaving King Street Station for Tacoma (sitting in Tully’s at the moment) I want to know when the four new round trips between Lakewood, Tacoma and Seattle start.
2011-2015, I’m afraid. But I think you get one more before that. :)
At least Tully’s has wifi!
I’d like to thank all of you at STB for making it easier to convince the naysayers.
I’ve always been a transit supporter for a number of reasons, but since I started reading the blog, I’ve learned a lot about how transit works and the impact it has. I’ve gotten a lot of great talking points from all of you, and that has made getting the message out even easier.
I can’t express how happy I am that this passed, but now we need to get working on getting our transit agencies through the budget crisis, as well as ways to further improve the region’s transit options for the future. I think though that things will be a little easier from here on out.
I am enjoying the victory as well. However, one nagging thought I have is how conservative were the forecasts for sales tax revenue in relation to the ST2 measure? Depending on how bad the economy gets,sales tax receipts could easily dive off a cliff.
Sorry to be a downer,a post dedicated to this topic would be appreciated..
Feb or Sept 09 (depending if work at L Street Yard in Tacoma gets finished) for the 9th train. The 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th will not come online until after Lakewood opens since there is no more room in Tacoma. The platforms will be extended to allow 8 car trains between 2009 and the opening of Lakewood. Lakewood and South Tacoma already support 8+ car long trains per the contractor working at the site.
The 9th train should be a mid-morning train from Tacoma to Seattle and a late evening train to Tacoma. My understanding is that it’ll only be a smaller 3 or 4 car train.. that’ll be odd to get used to since all of the South corridor trains are 6-7 cars long.
I think the ST Express service increase starts in Feb 2009 for the schedule change?
No, Thank YOU! While I hate the term “netroots,” without blogs like STB, there is no voice, no source of info, no wonky advocate FOR these important types of proposals. And these projects are important because they force us to assess the future of our city and region and plan for them in ways that are difficult or displeasing to “main street” (take a long time, cost a lot, price tag appears to be a moving target). Without places like STB, the anti’s of the world have to do little more than scare voters about taxing issues to win the day. And then the region loses it’s opportunities to move forward and modernize, decade by decade, until the region becomes little more than national backwater.
Call it what you will, netroots or otherwise, STB and it’s ilk help inform a new electoral playing field, where information actually matters, and voters learn to vote to tax themselves, even when that’s uncomfortable, because they care about this place too much not to.
Glad to be a reader. Thanks again.
Davi
What Davi said. Our new digital democracy might just turn out to be more intelligent than the old paper one (it’ll certainly beat the recent TV one by a long shot).