Comments on: Light Rail Date Announced

By: Metro’s Tunnel Buses to Match Link Hours - Seattle Transit Blog

Metro’s Tunnel Buses to Match Link Hours - Seattle Transit Blog — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:12:19 +0000

[...] considering the hours sync up perfectly with Link’s operating hours. Link light rail begins service on July 18th and will serve all of the tunnel stops with the exception of the outdoor Convention Place [...]

By: Justin Bernard

Justin Bernard — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:30:04 +0000

Chelsea *gag*

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:22:45 +0000

Because the unofficial date that all us transit nerds got tattooed on our foreheads was “July 3″, even though all of the official ST docs said “opening in July 2009″.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:31:15 +0000

Holy crap! Best birthday present ever. :)

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:31:01 +0000

We’ve got one written, it’s just not up. I’m harassing Andrew to add it.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:28:30 +0000

This looks like on time to me. Where are you getting late?

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:27:39 +0000

Yes, exactly. That’s what I heard as well. Hence the post updates. :)

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:27:02 +0000

I’m making up for all of it by wasting money on my new Orca when I already have a flexpass. :P

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:26:34 +0000

[deleted, ad-hominem]

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:01:44 +0000

“7 months of winter ”
” 2 months of summer”

What an optimist ;)

By: Lor Scara

Lor Scara — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:29:28 +0000

Can we get a Countdown added here?

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:02:31 +0000

Yey – this is my birthday!!!!! I secretly hoped that the opening of Link would coincide with my July 18th birthday and now it looks likely to be the case!

Tim

By: Transit Voter

Transit Voter — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:54:26 +0000

Your source was mistaken. Two free days of rides. All trips will be “special service” and not mimic a regular weekend service schedule. Trains will NOT run the full 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. schedule on Saturday and 6 to midnight on Sunday; a significantly shorter time span is in the works.

By: Oran

Oran — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:19:50 +0000

Sound Transit added a Flash countdown the Link Grand Opening page.

Only 88 days, 6 hrs, 40 min, 9 sec … to go!

Made it a widget on my dashboard.

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:44:52 +0000

I’ll just bring a little crowbar and pry them open! :)

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:24:53 +0000

If ST2 comes two weeks late then I’ll be pretty happy. But as others have noted, there was never a start date announced previous to this.

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:12:04 +0000

I didn’t know we were allowed to camp on Link!

By: Brant

Brant — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:07:41 +0000

Ssshocking. A government product coming in late! I’m sure ST2 will be right on time.

By: John Niles

John Niles — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:54:35 +0000

Nobody should be complaining about a mere two week additional delay for an urban rail system specified in the mid 1990s that is partially opening three years later than the commitment when it was funded back then. I’m sure not. What’s two more weeks on top of three years? Things happen. Safety first.

However, based on what I’ve been reading, there’s at best a 50-50 chance of meeting this new deadline. July 18th does provide a hard goal for the entire team of Sound Transit (system builders and testers) and King County Metro (system testers and operators) and General Electric (systems contractor) to strive for. Good luck to them.

Since Sound Transit is now on record saying the opening could have been as early as July 3, a delay beyond July 18th will only transpire if something unexpected happens. Houston had a lot of wham-bam-tram collisions in the pre-revenue testing, Phoenix did not, neither system opened late, and I’m guessing a few more fender-benders for Link in testing — IF they happen — won’t delay the opening.

My best guess as to the likely problem area leading to a Link revenue service start-up delay, based on Federal monitoring reports, is related to the token ring communication system and all that hangs on it, previewed in the thousand page, 9.3 megabyte pdf at http://tinyurl.com/csvxz4 .

By: Oran

Oran — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:06:33 +0000

The supervisor said test trains running in pre-revenue service mixed with in-service buses. They’ll stop at all stations and dwell for 20 seconds. They just won’t open the doors for you to hop on ;-).