For those curious, the Ninth Seattle – Tacoma round trip will start in June/July 2009. The service was supposed to start for the February schedule change but it was found that there is not enough room at the Tacoma/L Street yard. RailWorks Inc., is currently rebuilding the yard at L Street which will allow the 9th train room in the yard.
Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the progress but will make an effort to get down there tomorrow if the weather holds out.
It is my understanding this will be the last train added until service is extended to Lakewood Station.
Can’t wait. Would be easier to get to see my father. How often would trains run (I think they’re every 40 minutes now)?
Hey Jessica!
The trains currently run just about every 30 minutes. I can’t find where the 9th train is supposed to go but I think it is a 7:30pm departure from King Street Station or it is the mid-day train.
Gees, I’d be happy with either of those!
I found the information located in the 2009 SIP. I was wayyy off. We end up losing the later train for a slightly more frequent trains.
http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/newsroom/SIP/2009DraftSIP.pdf
Add a ninth round trip with a departure from Tacoma at 6:00 and from Seattle at 15:15.
Southbound out of Seattle
Train 1501 – 6:10am
Train 1503 – 6:50am
Train 1505 – 3:15pm
Train 1507 – 3:50pm
Train 1509 – 4:20pm
Train 1511 – 4:45pm
Train 1513 – 5:12pm
Train 1515 – 5:40pm
Train 1517 – 6:15pm
Northbound out of Tacoma
Train 1500 – 4:55am
Train 1502 – 5:35am
Train 1504 – 6:00am
Train 1506 – 6:25am
Train 1508 – 6:50am
Train 1510 – 7:20am
Train 1512 – 8:00am
Train 1514 – 4:25pm
Train 1516 – 5:00pm
If the schedule does hold up, it would shift the current schedule around..
Eh…this is a tough one. I think I might have to ride 1517 (the 6:45 PM King St departure) to see what ridership looks like
So I got to ride 1517 and yeah, there’s riders (plenty of them) who could NOT make a 6:15 departure for whatever reason (I met one who gets off work at 6 at Pacific Place and thinks 6:15 would cut too close).
I have always been confused by Sound Transit’s scheduling philosophy…. why do they have a condensed schedule with very short headways instead of a really temporally robust day that spreads the departures much wider (even 00:45 would spread things out better)? It just seems like there would be a reasonable market for an “oops” train (plenty of people on the 6:45pm southbound now) that would allow people to have a reasonable dinner or partake in other entertainment downtown. And in the morning…come on, give us more northbound departures that don’t feel like the middle of the night. In my entire circle of friends, I know no one who starts work before 8am (9am seems more common). The couple of times I have asked Sound Transit about this, they link me to the bus schedule.
Some trials would be a good idea. Shift the evening schedule 15 minutes later for a month or two and see if ridership increases. You can get to work 15 minutes early and you can wait 15 minutes at the end of the day but you can’t get to work 15 minutes late or miss your ride by 15 minutes in the evening. It might even be a seasonal thing where people want to hang later in Seattle as days get longer and the weather gets better. OTOH, aren’t they doing a pretty fair job of filling seats as is?