Martin’s let you know that Mukilteo Station is now open on Sounder North, but I actually went!
First, though, I have a sad story about bus transfers in Seattle. I nearly missed the entire thing because my bus passed its timepoint early, but fortunately, as some of you know, I live where I have many options – so another route came along soon enough.
I caught a Sound Transit bus (the 510) to Everett, and then an Everett Transit bus (23) out to Mukilteo. There was already quite a crowd at the new station – I took some pictures that I can post later on.
On the 510, I met a seasoned train rider who had come to be on the first train that stopped at Mukilteo. He wasn’t the only one who mentioned it – several on the bus from Everett to Mukilteo were Clinton-Seattle commuters who are looking forward to using the train instead of driving or bussing. I also learned that while the ferry schedule lists a 20 minute trip from Clinton to Mukilteo, the actual time taken is often only some 15 minutes – especially during the calmer waters of the summer months – so the transfer to the train in the morning isn’t as bad as we thought.
At the new station, several tents were set up by local transit agencies, and a few food stands were serving free clam chowder (thanks Ivar’s!) and other goodies. There were a few hundred people, and several speakers: the Snohomish County Executive, the mayor of Mukilteo, Deanna Dawson (an Edmonds city councilmember), Senator Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island), and Greg Nickels.
I’m blogging from the train right now – we’ve just gotten south of Edmonds, and it sounds like the train picked up 350 in Everett and more than another 300 in Mukilteo. Sounder South tops out at a bit over 1000 people per trip with seven cars – we have five cars, and they’re all packed! This won’t be normal ridership, of course, this is game service being offered for free, but it’s nice to see people interested!
I guess I’m kind of behind, but I didn’t realize ther was wi-fi on sounder.
Sounds like a big crowd. Looking forward to the pictures.
I was there! Took the 511 to Lynwood, then CT 113 to Mukilteo. From the conversations going on around me, it sounded like there were a lot of first-time transit riders using the free trip as a way of testing out the system. Hopefully this means that ridership on that line will be going up in the near future.
Also, Greg Nickels took the train back to Seattle—I saw him getting out of the last car after we got to King Street Station. From the speech he gave in Mukilteo, it sounded like he really wanted to get system expansion on the ballot this year.
Wi-fi is on the 100,300,400 series cars. They haven’t converted the 200 series cars yet but they really need a new provider.. it’s painfully slow compared to Metro Transit’s.
Which Metro routes have wi-fi?
ericn-
I went to Larry Phillips’ salmon bake. It was a lot of fun, Al Rosselini was there, as was Booth Gardner (who’s hilarious) and Mike Lowry who looks great.
Phillips and Nickels both said they want ST2 on the ballot this year.
eric, I saw Nickels and Joni Earl sitting together. I was in the same car, on the second level at the back end. They were on the mid-level at the front end. I actually wandered down to them to post.
Brian, wifi isn’t on all the 100-series cars. I was on 101A (or something like that), a cab car, and I had to connect to the neighboring 408’s wifi.
anonymous, my Sound Transit bus 545 has wifi. I’m not sure what Metro lines have it now. I’d imagine they’re commuter routes rather than all-day routes, but I know I’ve seen the wifi sticker on a 48…
There’s a press release from a year ago here:
http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/news/2007/nr070405_wifi.htm
I don’t know if that’s still accurate, though.