[Attention RSS Readers: an early draft of Sherwin's piece was accidentally posted and distributed this morning. Please disregard it.]
According to KING 5, Tuesday morning’s service should suffer no adverse impacts from last afternoon’s derailment.
The Sound Transit website put a note up as I was typing this message. Sadly, as of now there is nothing about this at all on the Sound Transit website: no acknowledgment that this happened, and no “everything is OK” message for the thousands of people that went to bed not sure if their service was going to be functional this morning.
Indeed, RPIN, Metro, and ST have nothing on this at all.
http://www.soundtransit.org/Riding-Sound-Transit/Rider-Alerts/Resumed-service.xml
Well, maybe not a BIG announcement on the website, but an announcement.
Yes it isn’t as big as it probably should be but you know exactly what is happening right from the homepage. It is where one expects it too, right under a bold red “Rider Alerts” title.
I really love how Stockholm’s SL communicates the information. Take a look at this screenshot. It would be nice if the new ST website has something similar to it. wink wink
Personally, this is not where I would expect it. For major news, I would expect to replace the promotional ad in the middle.
No no, sorry let me clarify. I completely agree it really should be much bigger as you said but for the current layout it is where I would expect it. I was saying this in reference to Metro’s website where the alert icon doesn’t take you to alert information.
ST still has a lot they could do to improve communication during major disruptions like this.
The trains are running on time. What’s the big news? Now, if the service delay extended beyond the end of the day on Monday as was previously announced that would be news.
The big news is that it takes one ST employee 5 minutes to write on the webpage that all service is back up and running. I bet you a double digit percent of Link riders checked ST’s website this morning to make sure that Link was running. It should take them 2 seconds to know exactly whether it is running or not. They shouldn’t have to guess.
It was reported last night that delays might extend into the morning.
Yep, pull up the website… no news is good news. The system’s back up and running just like everyone should expect it to be.
All it takes is money.
Folks, I love all the comparisons to European systems as a benchmark of what’s possible. I hope that rather than some of the ranting that amounts to “why the heck can’t we do this?!?” considers that the economic model in these countries (read “tax base and spending priorities”) is waaay different than it is here.
Yes to a certain extent. Like have 24-hour communication staff. But from my experience it is more about the transit agency realizing how valuable this information is for riders and how much it does to engender trust and support for the transit agency.
Glad to see they put up a notice. We went to Canada while WSDOT was replacing Hood Canal Bridge. They weren’t supposed to be done by the time we returned, but all the signs had vanished, so we took a chance and it turned out they had finished early. They should have left the signs in place saying the bridge was open.
Seems like this stuff can often be a PR-miss. Do the hard work, get the train righted, forget to do make sure the good news is spread far and wide.
In other news on the ST website, First Hill Streetcar is opening in 2013!
Pretty ballsy to cut 3 years off the opening date considering they don’t even know where it will run, but it’s nice to see ST be ambitious. Interesting that they still have all the employment hubs on First Hill listed as the service area — isn’t there still a strong push to move the routing away from there?
The reason it was pushed back to 2016 was because of cash flow problems, not planning or design problems. ST simply didn’t have enough money to cover the costs any earlier. The city stepped in and will cover the additional 3 years of interests payments that allows for the accelerated construction. At least this is what was happening last time I read about it.
Thank God they didn’t choose some ridiculous routing like the waterfront, to the CBD, then up Pike or Pine to Capitol Hill.
What a brilliant route! The International District to Capitol Hill, completely bypassing downtown. Pure genius.
Yes, it is not like it is being build due to the dropping of the First Hill station on Link and being required to serve the population that the First Hill station would have served.
Oh, wait, it is. D’oh!
Another reason why using 12th all the way is not a very good idea…
That route you mention would bypass First Hill, which is the whole point of this streetcar. And I would consider International District part of Downtown anyways.
Was it a derail or did they split the switch but keep the wheels on the rail?
A light rail train in San Francisco derailed today too. It would be interesting to compare the Sound Transit response vs. the Muni Metro response.
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/11/17/derailment-shuts-down-muni-metro-service-in-twin-peaks-tunnel/
No service in the tunnel for about 12 hours – MUNI can be good or verrry bad about providing bustitution – it is often a toss up with them.