"Mt. Baker Station", by Oran
- Greenwood residents water down an upzone. Neighbors find reasons to oppose a Ballard lowrise. In related news, poor people finding it harder to live in Seattle.
- Seattle Council enacts part of Mayor’s parking tax proposal.
- Metro would like to move Routes 3 and 4 to Yesler when they have money to move the wire; saves time, $1m annually.
- Transit signal priority coming to Tacoma; Tacoma’s six-year transpo plan.
- I-5 HOV lane inches closer to Tacoma.
- SR520 toll rate proposal out next week.
- An overview of budgets in Washington’s smaller transit systems.
- Bellingham will move quickly to restore Sunday service, thanks to voters.
- The new (Republican) U.S. House Transportation Chair, John Mica, provides reason for optimism.
- C$5m to spruce up Vancouver’s train station.
- Old streetcars on Rainier.
- A new pastime: epic bus riding.
Looks like Snohomish County doesn’t care enough to force restoration of Sundays service.
On another note, the epic bus journeys look like fun. Something for to check out sometime soon.
Are you suggesting a tax increase to restore Sunday service? In Tim Eyman’s hometown? Or can you suggest specific programs that can be reduced to pay for it? There’s also the issue of whether Snohomish County can transfer money directly from another program to Community Transit; I’m not sure of the relationship of the county to the transit agency.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20101109/od_yblog_newsroom/a-secret-subway-stop
Some people here might find this interesting. Click on the picture in the article to see a slide show of the NYC City Hall subway station, which has been closed for decades. Apparently, you can now ride a subway through this station, although nobody can get off or board the subway at this station.
The 6 turns around through City Hall Loop. It used to be that if you were skillfull enough to avoid the conductor, you could ride the loop and gawk at the station. I heard they got much more stringent about checking the trains after 9/11.
This station is very, very cool. I got to go down there as part of a tour this summer. It’s extremely dirty (brake dust) and was hotter than hades, but a great experience.
The glasswork, lighting, and tilework are all from a different era.
It baffles my mind that NYC has numerous abandon subway stations and lines, all built and simply not being used, throughout the city. Yet in Seattle, we will never be able to build a single line of true subway.
Here is a link to a tour of abandon NYC Subway stations:
http://www.nycsubway.org/abandsta.html
That’s because it used to be possible to make money by building a subway. It’s a different story today.
“It’s a different story today”
Take away the numerous subsidies that private automobiles enjoy and things will change…
Take away federal (and possible state) road and air travel subsidies and see what happens. Things would change pretty quickly.
All cities with old and extensive subway systems have unused segments and stations. Chicago, check. London, check. Moscow, check. As new lines get built, routes get reorganized, housing and industries change, and budgets get cut, some segments become unproductive and have to be abandoned.
Supposedly Moscow has entire hidden Metro line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro_2
There are also totally abandoned subway systems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Subway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Subway
“The all-new, open platform, London double decker bus has been unveiled…”
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/254119/
“rear wheels are driven by an electric motor, which is powered by both a lithium-Ion battery pack and a 4.5-litre diesel engine/generator,…”
“…two additional doors and has twin staircases. The aim is to make loading and unloading passengers much quicker than on conventional buses.
The open rear platform can also be closed off at certain times of the day, via slimline folding doors.”
Good to hear that there are other Republicans, John Mica, that understand transit & rail can be compatible with fiscal conservatism. It’ll be interesting to see what he is able to come up with.
I used to do a lot of “epic” bus riding… San Francisco to Sacramento was one of my more common long trips (late 1990s): AC Transit route F to Berzerkeley, AC route 7 to El Cerrito Del Norte, Vallejo Transit route 90 to Fairfield, Citylink route 30 to Davis, YoloBus route 42 to Sacramento. It’s about a 5 hour trip for 100 miles and about $7 in change (back then). Some of the transit agencies have changed but the concept is similar.
I’ve also done Seattle-Olympia a few times around 1990, before they made it easy. ;-) Metro 174 or 194 to Federal Way, Pierce 500 or 501 to Tacoma, Pierce 300 to Lakewood, Pierce 601X to Olympia…. Nowadays it can be done in two buses at certain times of day, but back then it took four.
IIRC the whole idea for Sound Transit originated with Pierce Transit running express buses to Seattle at rush hours.
Sorry for replying to myself but I have a funny story about that first Seattle-Tacoma express service. This was in 1991. I rode from Tacoma to Seattle with my girlfriend and her 6 yo daughter. We were going northbound in the PM peak, so the bus was empty except for us. We sat far in the back right corner of the bus. They were having one of their stupid fights. When we got to Seattle, they got off the bus first, via the back door. The bus driver ordered me up front before I got off. He asked, “Are you ever going to ride this bus again?” I said, “I don’t think so,” expecting a lecture on my companions’ behaviour. Then he said gruffly, “If you do, you better do something about your body odor!” I was shocked. I admit I stank pretty bad in those days, but I was all the way at the exact opposite end of the bus from the driver, and didn’t see how I could have been more annoying than the people I was with. It was years later before I learned that the way the ventilation system is set up on buses, air from the far back right corner is blown straight to the driver. Poor driver!
RE the article on the new I-5 HOV lanes. It says this new stretch cost $56.7 million. Does anyone know if that $56.7 M includes both the northbound and southbound lanes, or only the southbound lane, which just opened?
I’d like to know how much of that money came from revenue sources other than the gas tax.
Bring back the Yesler Cable!
I’d support that. Perhaps the Madison cable car, too.
Good morning from Downtown Seattle! My first epic bus ride and I’m on my way to Vancouver for the weekend. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it goes – especially with my power wheelchair crossing the International Border.
Can anyone give me some pointers on accessibility on Translink?
Allegedly, all their buses are now accessible:
http://www.translink.ca/en/Rider-Info/Accessible-Transit/Wheelchairs-and-Mobility-Aids.aspx
One would think that a city that just hosted the Paralympics would have done alot for getting itself to be accessible in the past few years.
But remember that Canada does not, AFAIK, have a law on the books like the USA’s ADA. Just a lot of case law.
Well good morning from Cordata. Waiting on the 11:45 AM #55 http://www.ridewta.com/route_55_new
(There’s a glitch in Epic Transit Journeys that says the 55 left Cordata at 10 AM, but the new schedule says 11:45 AM).
Will report back when I’m on Translink (here’s hoping they allow me across the Border – I do have documentation handy)
Oh wow, I didn’t realize WTA cut a lot of service off that route.
That journey timetable needs to be updated.
Good evening from Vancouver!! They were surprised to see someone in a power scooter trying to cross the border, but they still happily let me in :)
[Sock puppet]
Richard Morrill (“poor people find it harder to live in Seattle”) has long been anti-transit. I took a geography class from him at UW, and he said it would be much cheaper to give everybody (or the elderly/disabled) taxi rides than to have a bus system. Huh? He’s correct that poor people are moving out of Seattle, but to worse conditions mobility-wise. The cheapest apartments are in south King County far from bus lines. Why are they cheap? Lack of transit makes them unattractive. So the solution would have been to increase density and transit-oriented development in the suburbs when they were built — in the 1950s-1980s. Then poor people could live anywhere in the tri-county area and have decent mobility without the expense of a car. But it wasn’t, so we have to make the best of things. But keeping Seattle neighborhoods low-density is not a solution. So what is Morrill’s solution?
The cheapest apartments are in south King County far from bus lines.
That’s so incredibly wrong, it’s hilarious.
I live in Somerset Apartments, a low cost complex on Kent East Hill. Within walking distance there is the 164,168,169, 159, 158 as well as some local shuttles.
All of these buses go to Kent Station, a major hub.
Almost all the other apartment buildings are along Kent Kangley which hosts several local and express bus lines.