Comments on: One Week From Now: Opening Day

By: Get Onboard With Twitter Promotions

Get Onboard With Twitter Promotions — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:01:47 +0000

[...] course, people did retweet, and the news was picked up by the Seattle Transit Blog, which posted the rumor that there was going to be a ticket giveaway for the inaugural journey: [...]

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:42:55 +0000

I just checked and it appears Pioneer Square has two Readers per Mezzanine. For the South Mezzanine than means one next to the station entrance/exit and another near the top of the stairs to the platform. For the North Mezzanine there is one near each station entrance/exit.

Not as bad as I thought, but I still think there needs to be a reader in the center of each platform for all tunnel stations.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:04:49 +0000

The Link TVMs will issue ORCAs, I believe.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:04:05 +0000

Tim, that doesn’t affect payment. It’s still free, although you have to have a transfer if you’re going *to* the airport. You don’t have to have a transfer or any form of payment if you’re coming *from* the airport.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:02:30 +0000

Chris, I thought I saw readers at the stairs down to the platform.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:01:41 +0000

I think Paris’ trams still have offboard payment. I could be mistaken, I thought I used an RATP ticket and validated it before boarding.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:13:24 +0000

Just be warned that the customer service center at Westlake will not be open on the weekend. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere along the line there are people that are handing them out.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:11:51 +0000

It is going to be operated by a contracted agency.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:14:16 +0000

Hey Bill,

The informatiom provided by ST on their site an in the travel guide make it look like that’s the case but it doesn’t work yet. Hopefully at least the Link TVMs will be able to issue ORCA cards on the 20th, otherwise you could probably order one by mail now and get it in time for your next trip here or get one from Metro’s King Street customer service location or the Westlake station.

- Rob

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:11:40 +0000

I am planning to visit Seattle from Oregon next weekend (not this weekend- I don’t *have* to ride Link on the first day). I would like to pick up an ORCA card for my occasional trips up to the area. Will I be able to obtain a card at a Sounder TVM? It seems like you can, but the websites barely mention the option, instead urging online ordering. Will there be a $5 charge for the card? I won’t be up often enough to need any passes, just the “e-purse.”

The light rail will make things so much easier up there.

By: Matt L

Matt L — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:39:43 +0000

The SoundTransit site has the answers you seek. In short, there will be no need to pay a fare to ride from the airport to the Tukwila station.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:48:25 +0000

Does anybody know how much it will cost to ride the shuttle from the Airport to Tukwila Station? Will it be operated by Sound Transit (i.e. will I have to pay even though I have a U-Pass)?

thanks!

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:27:45 +0000

I don’t like the idea of having to play “hunt for the ORCA reader” if I’m using either University Street or Pioneer Square stationI don’t see why not… Easter only comes once a year, and now you get pretend it’s Easter every time you are in the tunnel!

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:22:46 +0000

That’s a valid fare, assuming it covers the cost of your trip. Just show it if you get inspected.

Incidentally, I was fare-inspected about 5 times on San Francisco Muni during my trip last weekend. That’s as compared to 0 in about half a dozen trips to Portland over the years. Interesting.

By: Mike Orr

Mike Orr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:54:58 +0000

I’ve had better luck with the card inside my wallet rather than separate. The readers seem to be attuned for that position. If I take the card out, I have to slowly move the card across the reader until it finds the exact right position, which takes a second and holds up the line.

I get around a 66% success rate with the readers. Twice drivers have mumbled about paying my fare, including one woman who made me come back to the front to try again. I told her I’d felt uncomfortable holding up the line waiting for the machine to reset when it was 50% likely to fail again anyway, but she just said, “I’ve got plenty of time.” I carry a printed receipt of my pass purchase in case the driver really insists, but so far it hasn’t gotten to that.

Not having platform readers at every station is just ridiculous. I’m sure ST will change their mind once they get a lot of people not tapping in because there’s no reader. People will obviously transfer at every station, and nobody will go back up to the mezzanine to look for a reader, much less walk to both ends of the platform. (Don’t forget that the ends don’t have “down” escalators, which makes it even more tedious to pop up for a second.)

By: Jer

Jer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:05:36 +0000

I’m still getting the mag-stripe pugetpass from work, will I be able to use it in combination with an ORCA, or will it be completely useless for Link?

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:43:54 +0000

You should be able to transfer whenever the fancy strikes. I have trasferred at every single DSTT station, though most often transfer at International District.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:40:43 +0000

Well I plan to take the train for inter-downtown trips, but I don’t like the idea of having to play “hunt for the ORCA reader” if I’m using either University Street or Pioneer Square station.

There are ORCA readers in both the University Street and Pioneer Square stations, however there is only one per mezzanine and it is right by one of the surface entrances/exits (which sucks if you are using the other surface entrance/exit).

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:34:05 +0000

Still the readers in the other stations are too few and inconveniently located. One reader near one entrance/exit kind of sucks if the station is crowded and you are using the other entrance/exit.

Besides due to crowding I often will transfer at a station other than Westlake, which can get really jammed, especially during PM peak.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:30:41 +0000

Can’t remember all of them but I’ve had a bad reader for a couple 66 and 67 trips, and at least one 77, 312, and 73 trip.

The driver who tried to demand payment when the reader didn’t work was on the 66.