An advantage of following 5th through Belltown is a possible station on the East Side of Seattle Center near the Gates Foundation offices and EMP. I’d keep a station on the West side of the Center in Uptown too, I think the area has enough going on to warrant two stations.

IOW run down 2nd and 2nd ave extension to 3rd, follow the 3rd ave ROW to South of the stadiums before swinging over to 1st.

This allows you to put a station in with a direct connection to the Sounder station and skybridge to the ID station. It also allows a transition from a tunnel to either at-grade or elevated somewhere between Jackson and Qwest Field.

I’d put the Pioneer square station roughly in the vicinity of the sinking ship garage. Demolish the damn thing and make the site either a station entry plaza or TOD over a station entrance. This also allows a connection to the DSTT at Pioneer Square as well.

North of there I think you’d want a station centered roughly on Pike St. This allows an entrance near the market, a connection to a possible extended Westlake mezzanine and a possible connection to University street station. At the very least entrances to these two DSTT stations would be fairly close to the north and south entrances of a 2nd Ave Pike St. station.

I’m not sure if you’d want another station in between Yesler and Pike, though something around Madison or Marion could serve the Ferry terminal.

I see the main problem with the 2nd Ave route to be dealing with that 100 year old brick sewer main that is buried under 2nd.

Great map, and I wish I could Photoshop it because I have a few routing suggestions for your “Green Line”.

First, what I see as the problems:

1) Having only one transfer point between the Green and Blue lines will force everyone to transfer at the same station pair. As ridership builds, this has the potential to overload these stations.

2) Passengers transferring to the Green Line from Sounder at KSS are forced to first transfer to the Blue Line at KSS and then transfer to the Green Line at University.

3) Transitioning from 2nd to 1st Aves mid block would require tunneling under some fairly large buildings in marginal soil conditions.

Now my suggested routing mods:

1) Keep the Green Line on 2nd Ave until it gets to KSS, then cut through the KSS passenger drop-off area and then diagonally across the North Parking lot and back to 1st Ave.

2) Move your station at Pioneer Square over onto 2nd Ave in the vicinity of Cherry St.

3) Add a station at KSS under the drop-off area and/or the North Parking lot.

I see the advantages of the mods as these:

1) Having two transfer station pairs between the Green and Blue lines will split the transfer load roughly in half. This level loading will reduce station congestion and improve utility.

2) Adding a station at KSS will facilitate Sounder transfers to the Green Line (more level loading and improved utility)

3) Transitioning from 2nd to 1st Aves under the un-built triangular area in front of Salumi’s and then via the North Lot would eliminate most issues with tunneling under large buildings.

Of course having a station nearer to Salumi’s is a huge advantage, but that might just be my stomach speaking – time to go get some lunch.

North King chose rail over buses, and that’s where our money goes, as it should.

I didn’t look at it long enough to see why they were doing the study or what their assumptions were. It was in a pile of stuff getting tossed. I wish I had snagged it.

I don’t know but University Street station has an entrance under Benaroya Hall that’s pretty visible from 2nd Avenue.

The problem is, when you take the capital costs of Central Link, U Link and North Link, there isn’t any budget left to pay for buses.