began contributing to the blog in 2008 in the run-up to the 2008 Prop. 1 transit package, and worked with Ben on the Mass Transit Now campaign. He grew up in the sprawl of Orange County, California before moving to the Puget Sound in 2003. A software engineer, John has lived in Redmond, Bellevue, and Capitol Hill. After serving as a board member and the blog's first general manager, he stepped down in late 2011.
It looks like Metro made the right call last night to plan on AM snow, as snow is down and sticking in many areas of Seattle. All Metro routes remain on their snow routes. Route 90 — a snow-only route — is currently operating with 3 buses an hour. Link light rail seems somewhat unaffected thus far.
So far — and we’re still early in what could be a cold, icy week — Metro is having a pretty good performance. This is a far cry from the chaos of Snowpocolypse 2008. Metro will be severely challenged, however, if the slush on roads freezes tonight as some expect.
For OneBusAway users: Metro has further taken the step of shutting down real-time data to services like OneBusAway, since the data is inaccurate when buses are on reroute.
The local transit operators union that service King County’s Metro has agreed to forgo raises next year, according to a tentative agreement posted on the ATU 587’s website. The ATU is promoting the following compromises:
As we reported last week, transit operators will forgo a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first year of the contract, effectively freezing current wage levels. This will save about $7.8 million compared to the expiring contract.
In years 2 and 3 — beginning at the end of October in 2011 and 2012, respectively — bus drivers will get modest raises of 0.7% in year 2 and 0.6% on top of that in year 3.
In addition, drivers will receive a COLA based on local inflation in those out years. The COLA has no cap and just a 0% floor — so drivers can never face a wage decrease. This represents a major concession from the union, which had secured a 3% floor in the last contract
Metro will gain some “efficiencies,” the union document says, by allowing part-time operators to do more overtime work that is current given to full-time operators. Metro has long desired to pay part-time wages for some services, because a full-time overtime hour is much more costly than an additional part-time hour.
Overall, the proposed agreement looks like a good deal for Metro (and, thus, for taxpayers). Particularly important is the move toward giving part-time operators to get more work, which is a no-brainer savings for Metro and also seem more equitable because part-timers are often starved for hours. The rule change would allow part-time operators to take extra work that would put them beyond 8 hours in a given day, a change that Metro has been pushing for years, according to a part-time driver we spoke with.
The agreement means “fewer employees working more hours,” local ATU President Paul Bachtel told us in an email last night, “whether it be part-time working additional [trips] or full-time working overtime.” Bachtel said Metro’s part-time driver base would shrink due to “attrition,” which “means fewer benefit packages being purchased” — more savings for the transit agency facing a long-term budget crunch.
“The negotiated agreement is reflective of the recent audit findings, saves Metro money, provides more hours for both part and full-time employees,” Bachtel said.
Bus drivers don’t come away in a bad position: while a year’s inflation even if modest will give them a small real pay cut, the modest pay raises in later years may mitigate that or have drivers come out ahead. Metro operators are paid well compared to other agencies in the region, so it makes sense for their wage to mostly grow with just inflation.
Smaller changes in the proposed contract include the maintenance efficiencies — like buying able to buy some components instead of fabricating them — and the Union throwing its hat into the scheduling ring.
The proposal must be ratified by union members before entering effect. Spokespeople for King County Executive Dow Constantine wouldn’t comment to us, saying they have an agreement with the union to not discuss the contract until it’s approved by union members.
Metro’s Regional Transit Task Force has recommended scrapping 40/40/20 — a policy that allocates new bus service disproportionately away from Seattle toward generally less efficient suburban service — reports PubliCola.
Seattle car tabs will cost $20 more beginning next May. The funds will be dedicated to transportation projects.
The Obama administration has released more funds for high-speed rail. $27 million will go to King Street and Tukwila Stations. Will future money be appropriated under a GOP Congress?
Have you noticed that Verizon is sponsoring some ads on our site? This weekend’s Verizon Urban Challenge is a real life puzzle/explorer game — sort of like The Amazing Race. Apparently, a few of the elements in the game acknowledge Seattle’s public transit system. A two-person team can win up to $3,000 and some new phones.
“Some unfortunate soul peed and pooped on the train, and it was not a little accident.”
The ATU (bus operators union) and county likely to end up in arbitration — a process that’ll likely favor union interests compared to a process without arbitration. The ATU is one of two county labor groups who has so far refused to give up a raise for next year.
Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl gave money to Patty Murray’s re-election campaign. Have you mailed in your ballot yet?
Buy a used Metro bus for less than $10k. (h/t cookieguru.)
The New York Times has an excellent photo gallery that covers the last century of New York City subways.
Lindblom at the Seattle Times reports that the state has made the Highway 99 tunnel contract a bit sweeter:
As a bid deadline nears and pressure mounts, Washington state has sweetened its Highway 99 tunnel contract by offering a pair of bid teams $230 million in concessions.
The changes reflect a view by construction executives that the real costs are higher on this world-record project than the state projected several months ago.
The money can be shifted out of a large pool of risk and contingency funds, so the overall tunnel budget remains $1.96 billion, said Ron Paananen, state program administrator.
Why make these changes?
They’re designed to reduce the companies’ risk, so bids are more likely to meet the target price of $1.1 billion, published many months ago.
“Both teams, and maybe the two teams that dropped out, expressed concern the [state’s cost target] is too low. They couldn’t figure out how to bid the project at that amount or lower,” [one of the bidders] said.
WSDOT’s expert panel and the Seattle city council’s risk consultant say that reducing the amount of contingency funds is fine, and perhaps some of that contingency money exists for exactly the type of bid inflation we’re witnessing. But it’s slightly concerning that the engineer’s estimates are already unrealistic in a period where construction bids routinely come in under budget. Imagine what happens in 2014 or so, when construction is beginning in earnest and the change orders come pouring in.
PubliCola’s recap of yesterday’s Link light rail rider alerts shows that we either have a train system that is unreliable at providing service or reliable at providing riders messages. Or, more likely, somewhere in-between.
Two of yesterday’s four delays were delayed to buses in the downtown transit tunnel. The joint operations there will likely be a headache for the years to come, but of course Metro would probably like to remind you that there are more bus riders who use the tunnel than Link’s system ridership.
Due to an accident south of Mount Baker station, passengers sholud board Metro bus Route 97, which will operate between Mount Baker Station and Othello Station. Regular service between Westlake Station & Mount Baker Station & between Othello Station & SeaTac Station.
Preliminary concept of a typical streetcar platform.
The transit nerds at CHS Capitol Hill Seattle have an update on the latest information on the First Hill Streetcar. At a presentation (embedded after the jump) to the city council’s transportation committee yesterday, the Seattle Department of Transportation gave an early look at preliminary station designs.
The First Hill Streetcar will connect Capitol Hill’s light rail station to the International District, through First Hill. The project was funded funded through the Sound Transit 2 vote (2008) and will open in late 2013, three years ahead of the original schedule.
During the presentation, the department also announced its intent to move the Capitol Hill station terminus just south of Denny, to preserve the ability for Denny between Broadway and 10th to serve as a permanent location for a farmer’s market. And it looks more and more like SDOT is leaning toward a Broadway cycle track. SDOT says that bike path would pay for itself, reports Seattle Bike Blog.
CHS reports that Councilmember Rasmussen indicated that a northern extension to Aloha, which would allow the streetcar to serve the busy Broadway shopping district, is a top priority. The council has asked the Sound Transit Broadway to fund early preliminary design on that section, but officials at Sound Transit tell us that the extension wasn’t part of the Sound Transit 2 plan and the agency has tight budget constraints. The city, for its part, is estimated to deliver streetcar project millions under budget, even if early engineering for the extension is funded.
Revenue is expected to be 25% lower than planned because of the recession.
A 25% percent drop in expected tax revenue will force Sound Transit to re-develop some of its 15 year plan that voters approved in 2008, agency CEO Joni Earl told the board today. She said that procedures that voters also approved meant the agency must identify contingency plans if revenue is 5% or more less than expected.
“All elements of ST2 program no longer affordable within the original 15-year timeframe,” read a slideshow given to the board. The detailed budget proposal is available online.
Northgate Slips to 2021
University Link is on schedule and isn’t affected by the recent news, but the CEO’s budget pushes back the start of Northgate service a year, to 2021, “due to design and construction challenges.”
Additionally Earl told the board that the extension from Northgate to Lynnwood has been identified as risky. It may need to be changed if the recession is even worse than the July forecast, and much of the project’s details are unknown since little has been done on the extension so far.
North King County (mostly Seattle) had the most mild drop in revenue forecasts. It is “only” facing a 16% shortfall, with the rest of the system facing a 28% shortfall.
South Link to Federal Way Reconsidered
South King County will be particularly hard hit, she said, because of a near 31% revenue shortfall. Link light rail’s extension from S. 200th St to S. 272nd in North Federal Way cannot be completed on schedule because of the drain, according to agency officials.
The agency will not recommend any options for that corridor to the board but instead will recommend a $2.5 million study to evaluate the various options to provide high-capacity transit to South King along the corridor.
All options are on the table, officials said. It seems likely that South Link will be terminated further north than expected, similar to Central Link terminating at SeaTac Airport instead of the originally planned S. 200th St station. The line could also be phased later than planned, like the University Link project currently under construction and expected to open 10 years behind the 1996 schedule. Under any option, South Link will undergo significant changes from what voters approved in 2008.
New York City-based field operations was widely seen as the flashier of the two leading contenders for the contract to overhaul more than 20 acres of waterfront space when the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down […]
During his public presentation last week, Corner—a native of Manchester—said he wanted to integrate the waterfront’s “gritty” industrial feel into his waterfront design. “We found the work James Corner did to be compelling and relevant to the waterfront,” said SDOT central waterfront project manager Steve Pearce.
JCFO is probably best known for designing New York City’s Highline, and has a history of delivering beautiful and innovative urban park projects. We hope they do something great with the waterfront once the Viaduct is torn down.
We continue to question how an unactivated section of town is going to be activated by just a park. Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, wrote in the early sixties that urban parks that aren’t surrounded by diverse uses will inevitably have problems; they are “volatile places.” A park along the waterfront may face these problems if the only commercial activity along its edges are daytime tourist traps — every Cal Anderson needs its Capitol Hill, after all. PubliCola asked about commercial development, and the response isn’t great:
Asked whether the city’s current waterfront “guiding principles”—which say that city-owned land that will be opened up on the waterfront must remain public—will inhibit development (and effectively force the design team to propose a linear park), DPD director Diane Sugimura said, “That’s one of the challenges: How do you make this a real urban area for all the people of the city … and something that’s not just a big park.” However, Sugimura said, “At this point we’re not looking at private development per se,” although the waterfront design could include things like pavilions with restaurants inside.
Perhaps a pavilion for all the quality restaurants that want to sit on city-owned property? Right.
Unless the city, and JCFO, recognizes that people must live, work, and play on the waterfront for it to really click, the waterfront will no doubt be visually impressive but still fall short.
