Comments on: Airport Link Opening Tomorrow: T Minus 17 hours

By: Jeff Welch

Jeff Welch — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:59:15 +0000

Brent,

If you want to call Bachtel on the carpet for his comment, you might want to muster some guts and come to the next union meeting and do so in person (you might even be able to engage in a dialog with the man to encourage him to make public statements that you find more helpful). Union meetings take place at 8pm the first Thursday of ever month at the Labor Temple downtown. See you there? I don’t recall seeing similar comments from you showing up in the monthly newsletter either.

By the way – didn’t you know that Paul Bachtel – like all non-maintenance union officers – used to be a full-time Operator? Before you go slamming the guy – democratically elected by the workforce – as a “union businessperson – not an operator”, you should probably get your facts straight.

very few Monday through Friday shifts.

On the contrary, we part-timers – over 1/3 of the Operator workforce – are FORCED to work Monday through Friday only so that you full-timers can protect your overtime, which for some reason has become a perceived entitlement rather than a protection against being forced to work too many hours. I’d happily give up my Monday-Friday work if I could pick up a sick shift or vacation relief on weekends, evenings, or holidays instead of the crappy 3.5 hours of work I’m able to scrape each day.

Those of us who live in-city are able to take an Owl bus if we really want to. If YOU really want to take transit to work – pick a later shift that will let you do that. Each base also has a carpool list and other resources. If you live close enough to be able to WALK to base – I’m not sure what you’re complaining about

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:53:49 +0000

There could be an OWL run. Really I think it would probably make sense to provide a van for door-to-door service for early shift operators.

By: John Thacker

John Thacker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:29:29 +0000

“I work in transit, but I have to walk to work because my shift starts long before the first bus comes.”

Unless it runs 24 hours, won’t some transit workers have to start their shift before the first bus comes? How can the first bus come unless some transit workers have already gotten to work to operate the first bus?

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:06:41 +0000

marks,

If a quarter mile is a dealbreaker for someone they have much larger problems than the walk from the station, whether they’re arriving by bus, taxi, or car.

There much easier ways to accommodate riders with special needs than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on changing the alignment.

By: Say Goodbye to the Airport Connector Shuttle - Seattle Transit Blog

Say Goodbye to the Airport Connector Shuttle - Seattle Transit Blog — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:05:34 +0000

[...] garage skybridge. And it goes without saying that we all agree– the walk to the terminal is nothing. I had more trouble getting from the bus bays at the south end of the terminal to the north end. [...]

By: VeloBusDriver

VeloBusDriver — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:47:33 +0000

Supposedly, the 195 will have 4 or 5 trips between 2am and 5am.

By: VeloBusDriver

VeloBusDriver — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:31:18 +0000

I have a suspicion that they would be safer riding a bike in traffic than doing all of that walking in a parking lot filled with people driving while talking on their cell phones and looking for THE parking spot.

And yet, cycling is DANGEROUS!?

No statistics to back me up though – just intuition.

By: VeloBusDriver

VeloBusDriver — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:24:57 +0000

It’s not the train I’m worried about – It’s the oblivious moron walking behind me on his cell phone who might bump into me and push me onto the tracks.

By: marks

marks — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:34:35 +0000

How nice for you that you have no mobility impairments. The same cannot be said for my 85 year old mother. And there are plenty of people in this country for whom walking the quarter of a mile from the station to the terminal is a major challenge. If SeaTac needed a station for their residents, SeaTac should have gotten a separate station. The siting of this station was a political compromise dictated by budget constraints. Neither SeaTac nor the airport are very well-served by the station where it is located.
And just to be clear, personally I couldn’t be more excited about the option now to take the train to the airport! I love it!

By: James

James — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:04:35 +0000

There’s going to be a new route 195 which runs from 2 to 5 am. I assume this is planned to start with the next schedule change in February?
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/sc/plans/2009/012009-sesea-dts-sta.html

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:50:09 +0000

The terminal map does say “Light Rail Passenger Service between downtown Seattle and the airport”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/viriyincy/4196819110/

By: Mike Orr

Mike Orr — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:50:08 +0000

I thought the 195 was just going to make one morning trip around 4:30 or 5am. It’s probably coming in February.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:41:45 +0000

What happened to the planned Route 195? It would’ve filled the gap in Link service and provided 24-hour transit service between downtown and the airport.

By: Eastsider

Eastsider — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:01:51 +0000

Link needs to run later – with departures from Seatac at 1230am and 1am – 30 minute frequency after midnight is fine

I think the best bet if you miss the last Link will be to follow the walkway to the Link station and then follow the bridge over to Int’l Blvd where there is a 174 stop. I hope they don’t close the walkways at midnight.

By: Eastsider

Eastsider — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:55:48 +0000

So how do we lobby ST to either extend the span of service, especially for earlier morning arrivals at Seatac, even with just 30 min frequency, or else to run a shadow bus?

By: Mike Orr

Mike Orr — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:42:30 +0000

So what do you do if your flight arrives at 11:45pm and you’re going to Capitol Hill? My friend is coming in Tuesday night. If we miss the last train, the old 174 stopped inside the airport. How do you get to the new 174 stop from the airport? Everything coming out is a freeway.

By: AndrewN

AndrewN — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:36:38 +0000

While I think Seatac airport should only have one stop (because of the one terminal and the regional aspect to Link), the Minneapolis system works fairly well. The Mpls line was planned that way; the stops are over 1.2 miles apart (a bit far for an intra-airport tram), and the trains operate at 55 mph between terminals (a bit fast for an intra-airport tram). Also, the Hiawatha Line in Minneapolis is more like MAX, with much more frequent stops, so it fits the character of the line to stop twice at MSP. And people don’t seem to have an issue with that… with ridership beating 2020 forecasts the year it opened.

By: Erik G.

Erik G. — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:00:31 +0000

I gather the M/V Spokane ferry does not actually go to Spokane, nor do the Wenatchee and Walla Walla. Look there will always be stupid people. I leave it to ST to put up maps as advertising in the airport itself.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:55:59 +0000

One mall where I might do that is the Totem Lake Mall, and no surprise that mall is barely alive.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:25:14 +0000

Too bad that system is behind the security wall.