Anonymous reader
Update 3:37pm – Streetcar up and running again.
Update 12:17 – I just spoke to Linda Thielke at Metro. The streetcar was heading northbound on Westlake but for some reason the switch at 6th and Westlake malfunctioned, sending the streetcar onto the southbound tracks and causing the rear wheels to derail. A re-railing truck should be on the scene by 1 PM.
Publicola is reporting that the SLU Streetcar has jumped its tracks close to Westlake. We’ll post updates as they become available. I would expect delays or more likely suspension of streetcar service for the next few hours.
How long will it take the S.L.U.T. to get her groove back?
[ot]
Oh, I forgot. The SLUT gets blocked any time an emergency vehicle uses its trackway as a parking spot.
The city blew it by having outer (curbside) tracks instead of inner tracks with center-island boarding platforms, or left-side platforms on one-way streets.
Except I recall a study saying that riders preferred outside boarding for the streetcar.
Of course, no decisions are made in a vacuum.
The curb-side stations are nice. Ever stand at the Fairview & Campus Drive station? Even with the big safety bollards and metal railings, it’s an unnerving experience to say the least. The cars zooming by at 30mph on both sides is scary for a little pedestrian.
This is pure conjecture, but in my experience the SLUT has been more reliable than Link. I take neither very often though.
How on earth does a simple rail car like this one jump the track, on the straight and level with no specialwork?
The only explanation is that there was something like a big rock or piece of hard litter in the “groove”, as Norm puts it.
Precisely, I heard it was fossilized transient skat.
It’s too bad the city council ignored all public input about the groove width. The bikers had a very good point.
I don’t suppose there is any sort of retrofit that can cheaply deal with the gauge problem.
There is no retrofit as the rail is just fine. This sort of girder rail has been used for a century with very, VERY few incidences. The issue here is with the embedded switch, not with the rail itself. There is also no gauge problem since the rail is precisely aligned before the concrete is poured. My guess is the spring mechanism in the switch failed and didn’t realign the switch points until after the streetcars first bogie went over it, then it snapped back to the proper track. And when the first half of the train tried to go one way, and then the other half goes the other direction, this happens. I’ve seen it happen with a 400,000lb freight locomotive before.
The cyclists had no technical knowledge of rail systems and were simply looking out for their own kind. Their concern was with the existence of the flange-accepting gap in the rail and its effects on the . A rail system such as this has to utilize girder rail or it would not be able to operate in the streets. I don’t ever recall anyone having concerns with the gap aside from cyclists. And they were given a rather nice cycle corridor a block west to mitigate safety concerns.
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramway_track
*effects on the bike tire.
Not to nitpick with Mike B, but the “rather nice” cycle corridor on 9th is nothing too special – just a couple of narrow painted bike lanes that butt up against car lanes. Ninth Ave also doesn’t extend to 5th the same way Westlake does; it ends at a rather nasty intersection (from a bike point of view) with Denny. I ride my bike in the cycle track on Westlake most of the time rather than jumping over to 9th.
A switch it special trackwork. In railroad parlance, it picked the switch.
Monorail riders laugh!
Seriously though it looks like it jumped both front bogies off the track. Anyone see Kemper Freeman buying ball bearings?
I’d laugh a lot less at a malfunctioning monorail switch.
Precisely.
So narrow minded. It was always my dream as a little boy to fall 30 feet in an 8 ton deathtrap. Now, that is little more than a distant pipedream.
See! We should have installed a chair-lift transit system!!
Like Rio is doing:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/st_riogondola/
Hey, they won both the Olympics and the World Cup right?
We just visited Medellin, Colombia and saw there Metro Cable, gondola transit system. According to some locals the cable cars have united once fighting neighborhoods and have created TOD around the stations. Most of all, it seems like a great way to provide transportation and access to jobs in the dense, poor, hillside shantytowns.
For the Westlake to the foot of Eastlake, no switch is necessary. If I had been in Paul Allen’s shoes, I’d have asked the city to extend the current Monorail into a loop track that came out to the Hutch, and back down to Westlake. That would have given the monorail a commuter purpose and the commuters a dedicated right-of-way.
Why does everyone want to keep extending the stupid monorail? Give it up already.
I might get some photos. I rode the streetcar this morning and was going to ride it back. Guess I’ll be walking from Westlake.
I saw Mike Lindblom down there trying to get information to piece together a scathing anti-streetcar story.
Is anyone surprised?
Doesn’t seem out of whack.
He only had 140 characters!
It looks like it went quite a distance from where the switch is to the location where it stopped. Does anyone know if this would cause damage to the wheel flanges, riding on the hard concrete?
The steel rails that the flanges normally interact with are harder than concrete; it’s more likely that they cut a groove into the pavement.
When running on the rails the wheels make contact using the flat part of the wheels, not the flanges. Under normal operation the flanges only serve to keep the wheel on the tracks. They are thin compared to to rest of the wheel, so when riding on the flange would create a greater point load than running on the rails. Thats why I’m wondering if this would cause damage to them.
Yes, I was there and it did indeed cut a nice groove into the pavement.
The damage to any car unable to back up when it saw the oncoming streetcar would probably be more severe. By the grace of the Creator, that didn’t happen.
Still, can we start dreaming of dedicated ROW for the SLUT, when it extends to Brooklyn Station?
Then it’s no longer a streetcar
So?
In my experience, the slow part of 70/7x or 66 trip from downtown to the U-District is getting out of downtown on Olive. An Eastlake SLUT extension doesn’t need dedicated ROW, just some signal priority, and if if was done as center-running, it wouldn’t even need to take much parking. This is convenient, as there’s practically no ROW available on that street unless you start condemning tons of well used buildings.
Puget Sound Business Journal has some numbers on SLUT funding:
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2011/02/splashy-seattle-streetcar-still.html?comments=1#
Almost half the revenue comes from a lump-sum estimate of what the SLUT would take in in pass revenue, if it had ORCA readers. The $411,000 figure seems, um, embellished. Maybe that’s why ORCA readers aren’t being installed.
Thanks for linking to my comment. :)
I don’t doubt the passes being about 75% of revenue. The streetcar gets most of its ridership during commute times, and the vast majority of SLU employees work for companies like Group Health, UW, Hutch, Amazon etc that almost hand out passes due to CTR (Commute Trip Reduction) requirements. I hope to see ORCA readers at some point but since riders are mostly transferring there’s not a lot of payoff.
A photo from the scene
Looks like they are going to lift it up from a jack on the steel beam, pivot it back into alignment, then lower it back onto the tracks.
So no service on the PATT (Paul Allens Toy Train)? Such a pity. Too bad the customers can’t use the more efficient 17. It was routed around that leg of westlake to force people to use the streetcar. The reroute won’t change.
Although this “toy train” will be great when Amazon and its thousands of employees move in.
Won’t they be moving into condoes next door to work? Hence, no commute?
Amazon is already in South Lake Union. And my understanding that unless there is a waiting street car, it’s faster to walk from Westlake than ride the SLUT.
Only a fraction of Amazon’s employees have made the move so far.
Funny, I was just riding the 17 last night, with no traffic to speak of. The word “efficient” did not accurately describe the journey.
Running duplicate service is more efficient?
It’s amazing to me how jealous people are of Paul Allen in this town. Maybe when you contribute as much as he has to our economy you can have your own streetcar too.
I’d probably pick a route people actually will use and might benefit the city as a whole.
I’ll bet there’s a bunch of rust-belt cities who wish they had the Paul Allen “problem”.
“I’d probably pick a route people actually will use”
There’s plenty of people using it, and more will in the future. It’s more productive per mile than Link and most of the bus routes in the region.
Sorry, have been quite sick. After for the effeciency of the 17, you can reroute a bus, not a tracked, in traffic trolley. Many people whom rode the 17 I drive last year were quite ticked off. They (amazon and vulcan) bought condos in ballard and the cd. They now how to transfer. how does this benifit the public, when a route is intentionally discoursed to prove that you should buy your condos from your boss?
The 17 still runs on Westlake north of Denny, I don’t see how the re-route would have affected people who work in SLU.
And unless you can prove there was some nefarious intention behind the reroute you probably shouldn’t make unfounded accusations.
Does someone want to bet me that no one thought to put notices up at the stops along the line that the street car will be out of service for several hours?
Umm… Geoff says “check the tweets and emails!”
Well one would hope they can switch the automatic signs to say that..
I’m curious if there are any backup plans to put replacement bus service in down the corridor?
Sure they can. But they probably didn’t. That would just make far too much sense…
Yes…. we did put messages to the platform signs
Wait..it was John T. Williams penknife.
I wish I could have watched the re-railing truck in action. That must be interesting.
Even my American Flyer electric train sometimes goes off the track. But, I still love it!
Now wait a minute!
SLUT is operated by King County Metro, no?
So why are those motley Gentlemen (and Ladies, if any; can’t “c-um”) who are laying-pipe under and giving the SLUT a hip-”czech” to thrust her deep, deeper, back into her groove…
…wearing Vests issued by the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority???!!!???
P.S. Nice to see those (basically-) PCC trucks under the SLUT’s lifted skirt!
It’s basically the Central Link crew doing the work. They had some experience with derailments.
The official explanation from Seattle Streetcar’s PR rep: