Comments on: First Revenue Day

By: Tri Nguyen

Tri Nguyen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:48:30 +0000

Oink, indeed! Did you know Beacon Hill used to have an outfit called The Swinery? Alas, they are no longer.

By: Tri Nguyen

Tri Nguyen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:34 +0000

Believe it or not, there are bitter Southeast Seattle NIMBYs who have declared that they will never ride the light rail. Not ever! They refuse to Sound Transit the satisfaction.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:19:24 +0000

And that satisfying beep that everyone hears when you bypass those lines. I can just sit there and listen to the beeps.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:13:43 +0000

What? Out of sync clocks??? That’s not the way a railroad should be run. Clocks are a prominent feature in railway stations around the world. We need more of them (that are accurate).

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:57:54 +0000

I rode it today for the first time-leaving Westlake Station about 11:15, going to Tukwila, and then coming back with a short stop at Beacon Hill. The trains were relatively full, I would say about 2/3 of the seats were taken. The lines at Tukwila Station were long for the TVM, and there were a lot of tourists. I definitely think that ridership will drop off a little bit, however when Airport Station opens there will be a lot more people taking it. It seemed like a lot of people preferred to take Link/shuttle over the 174 or 194, in my opinion.

I did see a few security folks, but they were mainly passing out the info brochures. I think, in all honesty, that they need to be more aggressive in checking fares, because there were a lot of people who got on in the Tunnel and were “so glad we can check it out cause we’re in the RFZ!”. For me, since I’m up in the north country area, Link won’t be an everyday thing for me. But if I lived down in the south end I’d be taking it, no questions asked.

By: John C

John C — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:17:35 +0000

ORCA has been mentioned a lot on this page. I got mine when it first came out and I use the E-purse feature for my trips. I have to say it looks like problems with ORCA readers are diminishing. And, what I really love about it is I can pass the TVM’s and avoid lines. That said, I also accidentally dropped it when I got off a bus today, realized it about 100 feet away, turned back and it was already in someone else’s hands. Thankfully, she had no idea what it was and it was simple for me to say, “That’s mine. Thanks” and take it back.

Lesson learned: I’m already addicted to ORCA because it helps me avoid lines even though I’m not a pass holder.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:16:51 +0000

when i lived in freiburg, ticket controllers would board random trams at different times of day.

we saw lots of people get busted (the controllers would board in groups, walking from back and front to center) and you paid (40 euros) on the spot, or at least at the nearest geldautomat (atm)

for foreigners, getting busted 3x got you kicked out. we had lots of friends that had 1 or 2, the students could purchase a (6 month) semester pass that covered not just the city but the region, for a song. ($70 bucks)

sure made ths huskypass look like a piece of sh*t.

By: Casey

Casey — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:49:55 +0000

My wife and I took the day off to enjoy the sun and ride the Link for our first time today. We left home in Columbia City and were downtown 35min from our front door to Westlake. Orca worked great, and at around 1pm most seats were taken with 60 or so passengers on the train we were on. After picking up some goodies at Pike Place, we headed south, stopped at Beacon hill (very cool) and took a break in Tukwilla, enjoying the great views along the way. Made me think about how great the Link will be say on snow days when all the buses are jack-knifed around town and the Link will be humming along smoothly. All the trains we saw were near sitting capacity, some standing this was between 1pm and 4pm.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:33:47 +0000

Capitol Hill envies you, Beacon Hill.

By: Brian H

Brian H — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:20:54 +0000

Did a round trip commute from Beacon Hill to University St. No problems at all. 7:30-ish am departure from Beacon Hill had about 10 people boarding, maybe 30 total on the car I was on.

Evening boarding around 5:35 pm car was pretty full already when it pulled into University St. (most seats taken, with some standing). Saw a bike hung and it really did not move much the whole way to BH. The handlebars did stick into the aisle quite a bit though.

Now we just need a coffee cart on the plaza at the Beacon Hill station…

By: Mike F

Mike F — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:58:43 +0000

ORCA user data is “owned” by all of the agencies participating in the Central Puget Sound Regional Fare Coordination Project (CPSRFCP), and those agencies have ensured they can be pretty free about sharing your personal information and your usage data if they choose. Read the ORCA privacy and terms of use policies (both are PDFs). These are linked at the bottom of most pages on the orcacard.com site, and are card policies, not website policies as implied by the phrasing and location. The ACLU asked the CPSRFCP for privacy protections across the system, but succeeded only in getting some minor concessions related to business accounts.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:57:48 +0000

Haha “acceleration stance”. I like that.

By: ericn

ericn — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:29:44 +0000

I took a train from Mount Baker to ID Station this morning around 7:45 (to transfer to UW). The train wasn’t very full (about 20 people per car), but that was probably because it was only 3-4 minutes after the previous train. I also finally got to see a bike hanger in action, and it looked like it was working all right.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:01:36 +0000

Also true on Saturday late morning. Northward from Tukwila there were lots of football fans, outnumbered from Columbia City north by locals from the valley.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:57:35 +0000

Please, ST! We need a mega-presence of officialdom on the trains chatting, asking about payment, taking suggestions – customer service of the best kind. This is crucial to the long term success of Link – ask real riders what they think, do not rely on the trolls and the meida and the polls.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:57:17 +0000

Riding the U-Bahn all over Munich for a few days a couple of years ago, we never saw a fare inspector once. We did, though, see the posters warning of the fines for riding without a valid ticket. I don’t think you need to see an inspector all the time, as long as you know that if you do get caught it’s going to be expensive, and that people ARE getting caught.

By: Pete Lorimer

Pete Lorimer — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:37:05 +0000

I agree with you Oran. Habits and expectations are formed from the very first ride, and we want to make sure that the culture of riding Link is what we want from day one. Consistancy (whether through enforcement, or just presence) is what shapes people’s attitudes and actions.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:33:04 +0000

If I remember correctly, they were having some minor problems with the signaling in the RV. That might have caused a train to be a few minutes late.

I don’t have all the details. (I was listening on the scanner and not paying real close attention) but I think they got everything worked out quickly.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:25:49 +0000

Hey, I’m a minority! I rode Link to lunch and there was a diverse group of people on every train.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:23:02 +0000

Ha yeah I decided to stand for a bit on one of my Saturday trips. It is definitely different than standing on the bus, but most of the time it’s easier.