Comments on: Phoenix Adds Late-Night Rail Service

By: Late Night Airport Transit - Seattle Transit Blog

Late Night Airport Transit - Seattle Transit Blog — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:01:48 +0000

[...] goes out of service. And in the future, we should find a way to fund extra trains at night, much like Phoenix has – but take note, we’re not going to get 24 hour service. The systems that do that (NYC [...]

By: Mike Orr

Mike Orr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:15:37 +0000

Pugetopolis needs more owl bus routes, not 24 hour Link (although that would be nice). In Europe, night buses cover all parts of the city and suburbs. Here, riding owl is feasable only if your activity is downtown or you live downtown. And if you work at a bar, forget about cleaning up and being out the door before the 2:15 buses leave. I grew up near Crossroads, and the closest owl bus is on Bellevue Way, more than an hour’s walk away. Fremont and Georgetown have gotten more nightclubs, but good luck riding an owl bus from them unless you live downtown or on the other end of their route.

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:50:15 +0000

The 174 hits two major employment centers with major activity in the wee hours: the airport and the UPS facility in Sodo.

By: Kaleci

Kaleci — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:10:13 +0000

4-track sections for one.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:39:52 +0000

“Although every system in the nation except New York must shut down for part of the night for maintenance…” What does New York do that allows it to keep running?

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:53:08 +0000

It seems to be very rare for a transit authority to identify specific markets, like people leaving the Arena or the Opera House, and provide service keyed to the times people actually leave the buildings.

In fact, it got even harder when the Bush people ruled that public transit agencies couldn’t provide special services to Seahawks or Mariners games. We haven’t heard anything from the Obama people about changing this.

But this, of course, is exactly what you would like to know when you buy a house in the city- can I actually live a city life? If you buy a house on a transit line (or rent) will you actually be able to go where you want or need to go on the transit system? You leave the game or show at 11, you don’t want to wait a half hour to start your ride home.

The bus was born with a silver megaphone in its mouth, proclaiming that it was “flexible” and could go where people wanted to go. Maybe the transit agency should make it easier for people to tell them where and when that is, and publish the numbers so we can see. It could be that a few targeted buses or schedule tweaks could do a world of good.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:33:47 +0000

Northgate and Lake City both really need owl service badly, it is probably the most glaring hole in the current night-owl network. The 83 should be extended to Lake City on the same route as the 72 and the 82 could follow the route of the 16 and the 5 to serve Northgate. In order to make the timings work out the Wedgewood portion of the 83 would probably have to be dropped and the Queen Anne portions of the 82 would likely need to be taken over by the 81.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:22:14 +0000

I assume so they don’t have to keep their windows open in order to keep their building cool during the summer.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:20:46 +0000

The 81, 82, 84, and 85 have relatively few riders most of the times I’ve taken them over the years and are more or less how you describe. The 83 varies, sometimes it is just the graveyard workers, a few homeless people, and a barfly or three, other times it is full of college kids on their way home from a night of partying.

Of all the night-owl routes the 84 probably has the lowest ridership, there have been a number of times when I was the only person on the bus other than the driver.

Another couple of routes that can get surprisingly busy for night owls are the 174 and 280. The 174 often pulls into the downtown night-owl layover zone nearly full. As for the 280 while it is popular with the homeless during the winter as a warm place to hang out there are times when I’ve seen it with few homeless and with quite a few people just trying to get somewhere. Not anything like the 83 but still with more riders than I’ve ever seen on an 84.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:09:30 +0000

I heard more sirens and gun shots living near University Way & 50th in the early 90’s than I did living in the CD off and on between 2001 and 2007. This included a year living a block from 23rd and Union which is a relatively high-crime area. Still never really had a problem other than my housemate’s car getting broken into an having the radio stolen. During that time I also spent a year in Belltown which did have sirens and gun shots you could hear from your window all night.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:50:25 +0000

Hmmm. Don’t forget the airport!! Travelers to and fro will need a way to get there 24 hrs a day.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:13:57 +0000

The international district sits at the terminus of s king st

As for the convention center maybe building a light rail station there should be at least part of st 3 if not sooner.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:35:10 +0000

This is exactly what I was going to say–let’s wait and see what people do on Link before we start planning Owl service.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:33:41 +0000

After I moved to a new house when I was a kid, I learned that BNSF uses the horn at all times of the day. I’ll be that it’s been proven necessary.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:32:33 +0000

Air conditioning?

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:30:30 +0000

Because Link doesn’t stop at either of those stations, and I don’t see the point in running on a 1.3 mile line for an hour.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:28:42 +0000

If there’s no night Link service, at least there are no trains for drunk drivers to drive into.

By: Tcmetro

Tcmetro — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:52:28 +0000

San Jose used to have 24h LRT service, however this was cut in the early 2000’s. I believe that LA is running their Red Line Subway between Downtown and Hollywood until 3 am on Saturday and Sunday nights. Some European systems run 24h on Friday and Saturday nights (Copenhagen and Berlin come to mind). The only 24h rail lines in the country (and world) are the Chicago Red and Blue Lines (many more used to run 24h also, but they were cut), most of the NYC subway system, the PATH (NYC-Jersey City-Newark), and PATCO (Philadelphia-Camden-Lindenwold). I’m not sure, but I think SEPTA used to provide 24h subway service. Also the Long Island Rail Road runs 24h (imagine a 24h Sounder!). In Toronto the subways end at appx. 1 am, but there is certainly demand for 24h service. The Yonge and Bloor-Danforth subway night buses run every few minutes.

Perhaps LINK should run until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays as a trial service, and have a ‘LINK Shadow’ bus run while the line is shut down.

By: Lou

Lou — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:01:57 +0000

new jersey has two subways with 24 hour service. the PATH which connects nj with ny is sorta an extention of new york subway but PATCO in south jersey/philly is not and very cool.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:16:33 +0000

Unfortunately none of the agency’s have the money right now. They maybe able to do Saturday and Sunday morning (but again that’s unlikely with the budget constraints)

But if we are wishing how about some sort of Northgate/Lake City owl service or extend one of the owl routes that goes through the U-District to Lake City