While not official from SDOT/Metro Transit, the SLU Streetcar ridership has climbed from 960 riders a day to 1325 riders a day. With the start of the Summer tourist season, new buildings in Downtown Seattle opening, and the recently opened Lake Union Park contributing to the increase.
Per the operator of Sunday’s run, weekdays between 6am to 8am and 4:30pm to 6:30pm are the busiest, being near crush load (130-145)
Average ridership appears to be gaining as construction eases however some trips are still only 2-6 passengers.
He did mention that the City is trying to improve the signal timing and add priority queue to the Streetcar, giving the operator the ability to change the light or leave the light green an extra 15-30 seconds. By doing this, would shave the run to dramatically but SDOT is studying if this would benefit the system or not. (duh)
I was on a SLU car on Friday and that thing was completely packed. It was odd actually, being on a packed train in Seattle.
How was the A/C on the Streetcar anyways? I haven’t rode on the new ones (Portland or Seattle) to see what the new system is any better.
I cannot wait until they realize that 3 LRVs are not enough for all the people who will eventually be using the system once Amazon.com et al have moved into the area.
maybe they can get some Inekon Pento’s to supplement their Trios
http://www.inekon-systems.com/showdoc.do?docid=286
I noticed that Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma all left room for longer platforms. That was smart on their thinking if that is what the extra room is actually for. Now the maintenance facility on the other hand…
I’m just putting this question on this subject because I’m not sure where else to get the conversation started. But the question is, how much of a percentage increase of riders(as a share of all trips) can our current transit agencies handle before the system becomes chronically overcrowded and on time performance degrades susbstantially due to all the people getting on off,etc.
I was talking about this with someone and the subject came up if this person had noticed more people on the bus lately due to higher gas prices,etc. Than the question became how many people can the current system handle if people get to the point where they switch en masse due to some economic shock,etc.
I know we don’t have this problem yet except on some routes, but it could become one in the near future if current trends continue.
brian in seattle:
That’s the best problem we could ever have. There is, of course, a maximum load, just like a lane of highway, that causes congestion. When we have that load, we’ll have a public discussion, buy more streetcars, build a bigger base (that thing was super cheap anyway), maybe even buy longer trams. I wouldn’t worry about it, though – while I was just talking about planning ahead, this streetcar is more a learning experience for the city than anything else.
Brian, on most the routes I would take (all the ones enter/leaving/traversing Capitol Hill), I think we reached that point awhile ago. I avoid waiting for buses because they are going to show up whenever they show, not when the schedule says they will. I was passing a busy bus stop on my bike one day and overheard someone say as the bus was arriving “Oh my god, it’s on time!”.
I think I have heard that most federal funding for transit has to garner new trips not benefit current trips (is this true, anyone know?) which would seem to justify why the areas with the most transit riders do not see much improvement. Though, I wonder how many there are like me who will just hoof it instead of waiting for the bus and would not that count as new trips garnered if they improved the service/network so as to make the route reliable enough for us to actually use KC Metro?
Wesley, FTA New Starts grants do have to get you new trips, yes.
That’s why I love the arguments from people saying Link will just get bus riders – because our anti-transit federal administration doesn’t agree with that, and they have about the most conservative numbers you’re going to find!
the Seattle streetcar South Lake Union line has been half-baked from the start: only 1.3 miles long and only 15-minute headway and not penetrating downtown Seattle very well. As a poster suggests, SDOT should buy another car and improve the headway to 10-minutes. the service subsidy could come from redirecting the SLU curbside parking revenue to transportation from the general fund. The Portland streetcar is funded by parking fees.
Seattle wants to fund the service subsidy for the SLU line from the redeployable hours from south-first Link LRT restructures in southeast Seattle in late 2009. of course, that will mean that the service subsidy will not be available to improve service in southeast Seattle or elsewhere in the subarea.