Just a heads up for the masses, after the Seattle Streetcar has exceeded over 500,000 riders! Congrats to the City of Seattle! With that wonderful news, Mayor Greg Nickels has annouced that the streetcar will be free from December 12-26th. It has so far, ran delay free since the winter weather has hit the Seattle region.
Also, Tacoma Link has been running delay free.
Portland MAX and Streetcar are dealing some frozen switches but are otherwise running on-time, except for the Yellow Line which is running with buses until the afternoon. Portland Aeriel Tram has been 100% up.
Correction. It has run delay-free and (virtually) passenger-free since the winter weather has hit.
Downtown has been virtually people-free since the winter weather has hit.
Oh, and on Friday, it was sardine tin packed most of the day.
i mentioned this in a comment on an earlier post, but on friday i ended up waiting almost half an hour downtown for the 70 northbound from 3rd and pike. in hindsight i should have just walked a couple blocks up to the streetcar.
also, i think you meant 21st to 26th.
oh, you did mean the 12th .. the post reads as if the announcement was just made.
I was given a scanner a few years ago as a Christmas gift. I have mostly police frequencies programmed into it, but I also put Metro in there. It’s interesting listening to them during this weather. So many calls are from drivers who have lost one or both of their chains, and can no longer move the bus. Some of these buses have full loads. They are put on a rather long list to be helped. It seems like the chains come off rather easily. Even a slight spin of the wheel can thrown them off, or wrap them around the axle.
Just now … Coordinator said “they lost Madison.” Route 12’s will not be going up Madison street at all.
So many “lost my chains” calls.
All Route 70 trolley coaches are blocked at Virginia St.
According to the the Metro site, the SLU Streetcar operations are temporarily suspended. http://transit.metrokc.gov/up/rr/adverseweather.html
Frozen switches have brought it to its knees
Yeah, the folks who clear that aren’t working.
Which is fine, it’s a Sunday.
Oh they were out with torches at all of the switches when I was driving around Downtown. When I asked one of the guys, the switch motors are in the ground and harder to heat up the motor and unfreeze it. They are hoping to have the service up by late this evening or tomorrow morning.
Working on the sabbath?! Shame!
… yeah, got nothing haha.
I love our failtrain.
Hahaha. It is amazing what a little (ok, a lot) of ice and snow can do to a railroad. I was talking with a couple Union Pacific guys from La Grande, Oregon who got called out to our area while taking pictures – they have never, ever been called out of their region for snow in the 20+ years they have been working. They were already shocked by the amount of snow that was falling and has fallen since they have been in town. Since there are over 400 mainline switches in Washington and Oregon, it would be impossible to add switch heaters to each and every one of them.
BNSF and Union Pacific Railroads both have laid off a huge group of MoW employees, which would be useful for this weather right now instead of the 15 or so guys to cover the entire railroad….
Attended South Seattle LINK Light Rail/SDOT/METRO Open House last weekend and was told that LINK has been designed with HEATED switches. That’s Big City Thinking, even if needed infrequently. Now, if access to LINK from my neighborhood during the next ‘blizzard’ via METRO on SDOT maintained streets can be assured, I’ll be an even Happier Camper.
That’s great to hear! Score one for Sound Transit weather preparedness.