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	<title>Seattle Transit Blog</title>
	<link>http://seattletransitblog.com</link>
	<description>Transit in the Greater Seattle Area</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:26:12 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<item>
		<title>Sunday Open Thread: Moving through Metro</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My hometown system&#8230;

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		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/14/sunday-open-thread-moving-through-metro/</link>
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		<title>A New Business Opportunity for You*</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Community Transit is auctioning off some old DART and paratransit vans on March 20th:
The auction will include 13 El Dorado 14-passenger mini-buses, as well as three 15-passenger vans and one eight-passenger van. The El Dorados are equipped with wheelchair lifts. Two of the El Dorados are not in running condition. All the vehicles are retired [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/13/a-new-business-opportunity-for-you/</link>
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		<title>A Modest Fare Proposal</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The last fare thread had a lot of complaining about differential fares between agencies.  And although ORCA is intended to smooth over that complexity, in ideal world similar service would cost the same on each agency.
Judging from the comments, people seem to think this is really important.  An interesting way to judge the actual priority [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/13/a-modest-fare-proposal/</link>
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		<title>Ferry News Roundup</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bremerton ferry was once again down to one boat due to the M/V Kitsap having a cracked hull, discovered during a maintenance inspection. The route is back on a two-boat schedule with the 90-car M/V Sealth on the Bremerton run and the 34-car M/V Hiyu on the Pt. Defiance &#8211; Tahlequah route.
Return of the Port Townsend passenger-only ferry? Not if [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/12/ferry-news-roundup-2/</link>
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		<title>Scans from the Central Link EIS</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I wasn&#8217;t around for the public process of Central Link and I was curious to what was being considered before the preferred alignment was selected. I found a book of drawings from the 1999 Central Link Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) at the UW&#8217;s Engineering Library. Combing through the pages, I took some photos of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/12/scans-from-the-central-link-eis/</link>
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		<title>Senate Kills Transit Without A Vote</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve just learned that the amendment on SB 6774 to save Community Transit and Pierce Transit is dead. For those just tuning in, it would have allowed &#8211; not created, just allowed &#8211; transportation benefit districts to be created by those agencies. It failed through a scoping process &#8211; reportedly a Senator asked the lieutenant [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/11/senate-kills-transit-without-a-vote/</link>
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		<title>Thinking About Transit</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Every day, when we discuss future transit options, how things are going, what we&#8217;re expecting, I see that a lot of us have very different metrics for how we determine success in our transit system. As a result, a lot of our discussions turn into debates about how &#8216;good&#8217; or &#8216;bad&#8217; something is today. I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/11/thinking-about-transit/</link>
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		<title>Seal The Deal: Call Your Senators To Save PT and CT!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[UPDATE: The bill is dead.  Lt. Governor Brad Owen ruled that the Liias amendment was out of scope of the bill.  ]
Late last night, the House voted to insist Liias&#8217; amendment to provide Pierce and Snohomish with the tools they need to keep transit from falling off a cliff. This is great news for us, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/11/seal-the-deal-call-your-senators-to-save-pt-and-ct/</link>
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		<title>Oregon DOT purchases two Talgo trainsets</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Oregon Department of Transportation moved forward with purchasing two 8th-generation Talgo trains on  February 26th,  joining Wisconsin&#8217;s train order and saving roughly $6m in the deal. The trains are marketed for North American operations and meet FRA requirements. The trains will consist of 13 cars (instead of WSDOT&#8217;s planned 14-car trains), seating 285 passengers (instead of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/11/oregon-dot-purchases-two-talgo-trainsets/</link>
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		<title>Breaking: Car-Link Collision</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[UPDATE 4:36pm According to Metro the accident is cleared, meaning Route 8 is back to normal.  One can only assume the same is true for Link.  Good job, emergency services, and good job, Metro alerts.]
There was a car-link collision just South of Othello at 3:30pm today.   Fortunately, no fatalities, though it&#8217;s not clear from the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/10/breaking-car-link-collision/</link>
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		<title>News Roundup: City Government Ethics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Some laws may have been broken in crafting Bellevue&#8217;s letter endorsing option B7.
Legislature passes a bill limiting contributions in local races, which would have come in handy during last year&#8217;s Bellevue City Council race.
Sound Transit tax shortfall now $3.1 billion through 2023; thanks to conservative planning, still no cuts imminent.
Should I walk or take the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/10/news-roundup-city-government-ethics/</link>
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		<title>Legislature Poisons, Steamrolls Transit Funding</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[Update: Chopp may be reconsidering, there could yet be support for the Liias amendment if he gets enough pressure. Please call him - that's on SB 6774! The bill we need calls to Gregoire on is SB 6381 - we want her to veto the "private provider" provision.]
Sources in Olympia tell us that transit is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/10/state-leg-poisons-steamrolls-transit-funding/</link>
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		<title>Signaling on MLK (II)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are some miscellaneous questions and answers from my interview with SDOT Senior Engineer Darlene Pahlman.  For the most part, these words are paraphrases.  See also Part I of this report.
What can operators do to improve their practices? SDOT has transmitted to Metro&#8217;s training staff the accumulated best practices.   If operators would like SDOT to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/09/signaling-on-mlk-ii/</link>
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		<title>Bellevue Picks B7 as &#8220;Preliminary&#8221; Preferred Alternative</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[UPDATE 3/9 Adam Parast] Here are some informational links about Freedom of Information Laws, of which the Open Public Meetings Act is included. In this situation the sticker is usually about wether an &#8220;action&#8221; was taken. Details about what is considered an action is about half way down in the second link.
[BREAKING] The Bellevue City Council [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/08/bellevue-picks-b7-as-preliminary-preferred-alternative/</link>
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		<title>Bellevue City Council Meeting Right Now</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As this posts, the Bellevue City Council is in the midst of another &#8220;extended study session,&#8221; including another council/staff discussion on East Link.  You can stream it here.
If you attended you can share your report and impressions in the comments.
[Update from Sherwin: 9:07pm] You can also follow along on the Government Access Channel, which is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/08/bellevue-city-council-meeting-right-now/</link>
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		<title>More on the License Fee Amendment</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[UPDATE 8:45pm: The legislation page says the Senate has officially "refused to concur" with the House amendments, which moves the bill to a conference committee back to the House, where it can "insist" or not.]
If you&#8217;re interested in why the Pierce and Community Transit relief passed, Metro relief didn&#8217;t, and the license fee&#8217;s overall prospects [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/08/more-on-the-license-fee/</link>
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		<title>Signaling on MLK (I)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The two main takeaways from my interview with SDOT Senior Engineer Darlene Pahlman:

The City of Seattle&#8217;s policy is that Link trains always receive signal priority, regardless of time of day, location, or direction of travel.  The objective is that trains never stop between stations, aside from stops caused by unavoidable human factors.
The signal settings and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/08/signaling-on-mlk-i/</link>
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		<title>Trains Running in the Tunnel Again</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s some weirdness in the timestamp of this update, but Oran reports that he overheard on Metro&#8217;s radio that WSDOT is done and trains are running to Westlake again.  Train headways are still at 15 minutes, reasonable given the original decision but highly questionable in the first place.
]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/07/trains-running-in-the-tunnel-again/</link>
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		<title>Sunday Open Thread: Boondoggles</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sportswriter Joe Posnanski, a national treasure, does some deep thinking:
How long do you think the Yellow Brick Road was on the ballot before the people Of Oz and Munchkin Land actually voted for it? And, even more to the point, WHY did they vote for it? How in the world did THAT bond get passed? [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/07/sunday-open-thread-boondoggles/</link>
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		<title>Mercer Island Link Workshop</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
If you&#8217;re interested in the Mercer Island Link station layout, be sure to attend Sound Transit&#8217;s community workshop on the subject this Tuesday, March 9th, from 5-7:30pm with the presentation starting at 6.  It&#8217;ll be at the Mercer View Community Center (8236 SE 24th St.)

Learn about the East Link light rail system and view in-progress [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seattletransitblog.com/2010/03/06/mercer-island-link-workshop/</link>
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