Comments on: Conlin: Rail to West Seattle, Fremont, Ballard – Soon

By: Tom Rasmussen

Tom Rasmussen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:57:05 +0000

Lightning: You may have received that impression because I have reviewed the comparative costs and question why we would spend approximately $30-45 million a mile to extend a street car line versus $7-$8 million to extend electric trolley bus lines.

I strongly support commuter rail, intercity rail and high speed rail but with all the modes of transit now in Seattle I question the wisdom of expanding the streetcar lines or creating new ones when we could get so much more through investments in the current electri trolley bus line system.

Tom

By: Andrew Stephenson

Andrew Stephenson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:21:27 +0000

I would love the light-rail to expand all over Seattle… but it has to be underground. Sound Transit made a horrible decision in having the light-rail placed in the middle of the congested MLK Way. Seattle has a high population-density, therefore it deserves an underground subway.

By: Squints

Squints — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:10:01 +0000

Despite living in ballard myself, I have to agree that the first priority should be to get to fremont. In and of itself, this would likely increase bicycle ridership significantly from Ballard since people could take the Burke Gilman to Fremont and hop on the streetcar to downtown.

It can be decided later where to go from there: Wallingford? Greenwood/Phinney? Ballard along 8th avenue, bringing back the last of the old streetcar lines?

The main point of a streetcar is to connect residents with jobs and activities, so a line along fremont avenue N to Phinney and Greenwood would probably be the best choice since this is a fairly high-density corridor with a wide range of businesses and as well as a great park and access to green lake.

By: A Very Short Interview with Richard Conlin - Seattle Transit Blog

A Very Short Interview with Richard Conlin - Seattle Transit Blog — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:31:50 +0000

[...] chat yesterday with current (and likely future) Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin about his plan to act on rail to both Ballard and West Seattle soon, with City [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I handed out a lot of his fliers. One of his bullet points was building light rail on the west side.

By: Anc

Anc — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:17:50 +0000

Speaking of streetcars, is this still the most accurate masterplan to date?

http://www.seattlestreetcar.org/img/Streetcar-Combined-Lines-ma.gif

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:15:25 +0000

Actually you can run modern large LRV’s in mixed traffic and many places in the world do. The two biggest issues are the somewhat larger turning radius and limits to how many cars you can string together (typically no more than 2 in street-running).

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:25:13 +0000

U-Link/North Link are going to be very light-metro like. 100% grade separation and very frequent service during peak.

By: Zed

Zed — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:04:02 +0000

This might interest you, if you haven’t read it before;

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020516&slug=tunnel16m

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:38:16 +0000

Paul,

I think that’s the most obvious way to do things. If I’m doing this correctly there is enough room for West Seattle trains, but not for Ballard trains, because the constraint is how many trains come out the North end of the DSTT.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:56 +0000

I’d like to see a 5th Avenue tunnel studied as well. It would provide a convienient transfer at Westlake and International district and could have a station at Columbia serving the Columbia Center, Municipal Tower, 5th Avenue Plaza, and whatever gets built at the church site.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:38:26 +0000

It might be possible if the City is willing to remove some auto lanes on the bridge. Otherwise a new rail-only bridge would be probably around $300 million. I’m not sure what a submerged tube crossing would cost but it might be worth it if it could be done for around the same price.

By: Anandakos

Anandakos — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:18:17 +0000

A connection for a West Seattle line (and express service along Airport Way for trains from Tacoma and far south King County) is already in place at the maintenance facility. There is a running track that completely encircles the yard which could have turnouts at the south end to pass West Seattle and express trains in and out of the loop in the proper direction.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:23:31 +0000

The map of the SLU-Ballard streetcar line here shows a line to the zoo from Fremont as a dashed line: http://www.seattlestreetcar.org/future.asp

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:20:09 +0000

Maybe a Downtown-West Seattle line could branch off of Central Link just south of the Sodo/Lander St. station? Trains could run from Northgate to Downtown about every two minutes in the peak periods with service to Bellevue, SeaTac, and West Seattle about every six minutes from Downtown. A future ST package could pay for the new downtown tunnel and extension to Ballard.

Before spending the $$$ on a new bridge over the Duwamish I’d want to see if LRT could run on the existing bridge like the monorail planned to do.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:13:10 +0000

Lake Union Street Tram!!!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:58:21 +0000

Link is not a light metro just yet. Vancouver’s SkyTrain and Canada Line would be a light metro. They are completely grade-separated and run very frequently.

By: NJL

NJL — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:20:08 +0000

Awhile back there was a debate in the STB comments over whether Link was “light metro” or “pre-light metro.” I come out on the latter side.

By: NJL

NJL — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:17:30 +0000

It’s confusing because “light rail” is a really broad term that can sometimes be used to include streetcars. Generally, I think that the term “streetcar” is used to designate vehicles small enough that it can run mixed in traffic. Though it doesn’t always need to; for instance the Waterfront Streetcar had mostly its own right-of-way. But the Waterfront Streetcar clearly could run in traffic, as does the South Lake Union Streetcar. But Link Light Rail, while it crosses the street at some places, always has its own right-of-way and couldn’t really be integrated with traffic.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:14:13 +0000

Licata could have been a help if he’d actually been a critic of the monorail project. As I recall he was probably the last true believer on the City council.