If you’re looking to bail out from work today to beat the snow, Sounder’s giving you a new option:
In anticipation of adverse weather, two extra Sounder trains will operate Tuesday afternoon in addition to regularly scheduled Sounder trains. An early train will depart King Street Station southbound for Tacoma at 2:30 p.m. Another train will depart Tacoma Dome Station northbound for Seattle’s King Street Station at 3:50 p.m.
no Sounder love for the north? :(
BNSF probably needs the track for business purposes. Much of the South line is double tracked; giving them a bit extra flexibility.
Practical capacity between Seattle and Everett is 45 trains/day; there’s no way BNSF is running that much traffic these days.
However, BNSF may running something that needs the tracks between 14:30 and 16:00.
Extra Route 510 and 511 trips depart 6th/Atlantic at 3:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. on Tues 1/11/11
Would love these everyday!
2nd the motion!
Sounder should have some minimal daily service, preferably one that lets people connect with reasonable wait times with the Amtrak Cascades at Seattle, Longacres and Tacoma.
That means a train, say, every 90 minutes during off peak in either direction.
Wait, aren’t you the one always denouncing waste and profligacy in public transit? You do know that the cost per boarding for Sounder is about three times as high as Link, right?
Oh of course, you’re trolling as usual.
I guess I’m capable of holding contradictory thoughts in my head at once, and realizing there are no easy answer.
Cost is important. But sometimes you have to spend money early to achieve a goal.
Therefore, I might argue for spending more or less money.
But also want the refinement of arguing where and how it should be spent.
I might also change my mind as I argue and get new information.
It sounds like you only support this decision because it benefits you directly.
ST is unable to run extra trains northbound due to construction at MP 16-18 and 26-28. The work window typically closes just before the first Sounder heads that direction. Right now, BNSF is only running 15-20 movements a day and the line has a capacity between Seattle and Everett of around 40-45 trains a day. When the rest of the work finishes, they could in run 80 trains a day easily. The bottle neck will be the 1 mile strech between Everett Jct and Everett Station (unless BNSF/ST/WSDOT upgrades the lower line for 30-40mph that would reconnect over to Lowell Jct., which is very much possible to do, just a bit of extra $$$)
There are no current work windows between Seattle and Tacoma.
Would love a northbound, reverse Seattle to Everett commuter train as well.
I understood that the agreement was that there would NEVER be a north line reverse direction movement. Don’t know if that is still in fact the case, but as much as I love Sounder and still wish there would be a Ballard station (so I could use it to commute with), a reverse north line trip would not be well patronized. For fun during the long days I take the first SB Sounder to Tacoma and then turn around on the NB and even after all this time, the reverse NB in the afternoon is not well patronized save when there is a Mariner’s game.
Reverse peak Sounder runs solely exist because the trainsets have to get back to do another peak run. Unless peak volume increases on the north line, there will be no reverse run.
Not to put Everettians down, but the Southbound corridor based on ridership (5x greater) and population trends (2010 census: largest growth area is Tac-Oly) is so, so much more critical to transportation future that I would like to see (as I said) at least enough trains so that making the 1pm or 2:30pm southbound Cascades from Tacoma from any of the south of Seattle Sounder stations is feasible.
Brian, Do you know the capacity of the line of the track between Seattle and Tacoma? Also do you know what the current usage of that stretch of rail?
I know this won’t answer your question, but there’s a northbound freight train that meets the first Southbound Sounder at 37th NW in Auburn at 15:40 daily (+/- 2 minutes).
@Tim
Ummm, Ok…???
And this cannot be made a permanent daily (M-F) operation because?
Because the agreement is likely just coming into effect
http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/07/23/sound-transit-board-votes-to-extend-sounder/
Most likely the service will be added during service change periods; the next one is February 5.
Rain Sleet Snow or Hail! We’ll Deliver you by rail!
Sounder is awesome.