With snowpocalypse upon us, it’s difficult to make time to post on all of these, so here’s a news round-up.
- The Beacon Hill Station construction is coming along, according to the Beacon Hill blog. Apparently the big blue wall will come down in February or March. Via Seattlest.
- Thurston County’s Intercity Transit will probably ask voters for a tax increase, according to the Olympian. Currently, Intercity Transit gets a 0.6% sales tax, and the increase would move the rate to .8%. Under state law, transit agencies can have up to a .9% sales tax. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this over the coming year.
- According to Community Transit, Swift was supposed to break ground Thursday. I doubt that it did, with Snowpacolypse and everything. Swift has been moving along really quickly, especially compared to Rapid Ride. Both Swift and Rapid Ride were approved in 2006, and Swift is ready to begin construction, and Rapid Ride construction has not started yet.
- Obama’s stimulus plan keeps growing and is now up to $850 billion. Every time I read an article about the stimulus that doesn’t say “transit”, I worry a little bit.
- The results from 520 Bridge tolling poll I mentioned last month have been released, along with a HOT lane discussion.
Photo of Snowpocalypse by Oran in the STB flickr pool.
Yeah, a month or two ago I called the PR person associated with the Beacon Hill Station according to the ST website, and she denied that there ever was a problem with the elevators…
YEah I think the problem went away when the construction boom abruptly ended.
I read that Swift news release and understood that they’ve started construction already. The Swift project page has a map and list of all the stations, a schematic explaining station amenities including 2 ORCA readers and 2 TVMs, and a construction progress newsletter.
On Swift, construction has already began on the Airport Road station and the 4th Ave W station. They already closed one lane of Evergreen Way for construction at both locations.