Oran via Flickr

Any attempt to get more taxing authority for transit out of the state legislature is running into the mantra that you can’t raise taxes in a recession.  That’s in spite of the short term economic impact of cutting back service: forcing the poorest, who are least inclined to save, to buy gasoline instead of a product that creates more jobs.

Now here’s Yglesias making the medium-term economic growth case for funding transit adequately right now:

Which means that a global recovery could spark a rise in oil prices that hits America specifically very hard and in effect strangles our recovery in the crib. At that point it becomes an open question as to whether we drag the world down with us, in which case the cycle repeats, or if we just get left behind as continued global growth keeps pushing the price up and pinching American consumers harder-and-harder.

The answer, of course, is to take advantage of this period of “output gap” and low Treasury rates to invest in expanded mass transit capacities. But while the stimulus bill does do some good stuff for transit, it’s not even enough to make up for the rate at which state and local governments are curtailing transit services, much less to really leave Americans in a position to ride the bus to the new jobs we’re hoping to see created in 2010.

This blog has a few pictures of the demoliton of the vacant buildings on the Capitol Hill staging grounds. All of the salvagable pieces of the interiors of these buildings have already been removed, so there’s no exciting hidden treasures being destroyed, and while it’s a little sad to see the buildings destroyed, I’m extremely excited about the construction finally beginning.

Via Slog.

Link near S 133rd Street

I managed to head out and get some photos of Link doing some testing today and uploaded it to my Smugmug account.

Link normally does testing starting on the mornings and goes until 8pm. As of late, the trains have been running between Tukwila Station and Rainier Beach Station. They are doing full speed testing and operator training. It does appear that the operators are now on their own. I don’t know if or when they will start testing between Rainier Beach Station and Mt. Baker Station but I would be safe to assume that this happens on certain days as all of the fencing was open which is normally closed and secured.

Today’s setup was One 3 car train, One single car train, and Two 2 car trains. The 8 LRV’s have been at Tukwila Station for the past couple of months.

Operator testing was also going on between the O&M and Stadium Station with single car trains. I’m not sure if this group goes into the tunnel after it is closed to buses. If you can’t make it to the South end of the line, definitely check out the North end of the line and you’ll see the LRV’s in action.

As for updates ;

The second roof truss has been installed at Sea-Tac Airport Station. They have been very aggressive with the construction on the station. OCS poles have been installed between Tukwila Station and Sea-Tac Airport Station. Wiring is all that is left between the 2 stations.

According to Adam, the great blue wall is down around Beacon Hill Station. I didn’t get a chance to confirm but I will check it out tomorrow before the snow hits.

The final bit of wiring on the initial segment is the Beacon Hill Tunnel. The Northbound wiring is almost completed but the Southbound hasn’t been started yet. Judging from my last update to now, its taken a little over 2 months to get the work done which is very surprising considering the Portland MAX Green Line has virtually all been completed already.

I am looking forward to seeing all of the answers to the incredible questions you all have asked!