April 2009 – Page 3 – Seattle Transit Blog

Metro Service Change, Maps and Commentary

April 25, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

by mujalifah, STB Flickr Poll — by mujalifah, STB Flickr Pool

If the list version of the Southeast Seattle and Southwest King County Link-related service changes wasn’t helping you visualize what was happening, I’ve obtained .pdf route maps of both SE Seattle and SW KC.

Tuesday is the deadline for your last chance to comment on these changes before Metro starts making timetables. You can comment in person, or by email or phone.

Thanks to Rochelle Ogershock and Jack Latteman from Metro.

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In related news, Dick Burkhart, transit activist and representative of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce, criticizes the plan for reducing connectivity of Seward Park to light rail, and generally doing a pretty poor job of connecting people to the train instead of downtown.

I’m actually sympathetic to Burkhart’s points; longtime readers might recall my August proposal to nuke the whole system and replace it with circulator routes. However, Metro resources are far from infinite, and as I predicted then, such a radical change to the status quo would create a torrent of negative comments. Even cuts to express bus service to downtown — the most obviously replaced by rail — provoked a firestorm of protest.

Part of this is due to an instinctive and well-earned distrust of authority in the Rainier Valley. To make matters worse, Sound Transit took so long to even announce options for their fare structure that the early rounds of comment were polluted by a fear that the train would cost radically more than the bus, although that turned out to generally not be the case.

Furthermore, after to talking to some of the Metro planning staff, it’s an article of faith in some quarters there that “circulators don’t work.”

The text of Burkhardt’s letter is after the jump. I’ve posted a specific reaction to some of the points afterwards. Again, I agree with him in spirit but don’t think the service hours are there to fit his vision. Taking those hours from elsewhere in the Southeast is, for now, politically impossible.

Continue reading “Metro Service Change, Maps and Commentary”

83 Days

April 25, 2009April 24, 2009 by Andrew Smith

Sound Transit — Bus tunnel, photo by MSPdude

It was in 1983 that King County and the City of Seattle approved the Downtown Transit Tunnel. Construction begain in 1987 and it opened for buses in 1990. It will open for light rail in 83 days.

Pedestrian Hits Light Rail Train

April 24, 2009 by Ben Schiendelman

We’ve just gotten word that a pedestrian near Othello Station has run headfirst into the side of a light rail train.

I think this proves that pedestrians are unsafe and should be banned from city streets.

Seriously, though. It sounds like the person has “facial injuries” from running into the side of the train, but will be okay.

It’ll be a while before we get used to these.

Let’s Not Cut Metro Service 20%, Please?

April 24, 2009April 24, 2009 by Ben Schiendelman

Westlake station in the evening — Buses to disappear? Photo by Oran

This is the last time this legislative session that we’ll ask for help – but ask we must.

Metro is $100 million in the hole because sales tax revenue is dropping like a rock. This will mean service cuts to the tune of 20% – and I’m hearing maybe even more than that – as soon as next year.

We have some tools to help out. SB 5433 is the biggest one, and we pretty much just have today to help it pass. This would enable a county council vote to use ferry district revenue for Metro, with which we could cut some $30 million from this shortfall. The other provision in Rep. Simpson’s amendment, the ability to go to voters for a tab fee, could cut the shortfall even further.

This is an easy way to make next year much, much less painful. Buses will simply go away as a result of this shortfall. Please help us out and give your legislator a ring to ask that the transit funding portions of SB 5433 are kept intact!

84 Days

April 24, 2009April 24, 2009 by Andrew Smith

SODO — Link Elevated in Sodo, photo by Slack Action

Link Opens in 84 days, and when ST2 is built out in 2023, there will be 84 km of Link Light Rail lines (not including Tacoma Link).

Times: Tunnel Overruns “may be toothless”

April 24, 2009April 24, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

I was all set to write an editorial slamming the tunnel overruns provision, but this morning the Times reports that it’s likely to be unenforceable. That explains Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis’s relative indifference to it, since coming out strongly opposed would delay things even further.

Read the article for the rest of the legislative gossip; it’s worth it, and Jim Brunner’s reporting deserves the page hits in this case.

Metro’s Tunnel Buses to Match Link Hours

April 24, 2009April 23, 2009 by John Jensen

According to the image above, provided by a bus driver that we’ll keep anonymous for no particular reason, Metro’s tunnel buses will now stay in the tunnel beginning on May 30th and the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel’s hours will be extended.

Metro told us that the change is “related to the coming of light rail.” They’re not kidding, considering the hours sync up perfectly with Link’s operating hours. Link light rail begins service on July 18th and will serve all of the tunnel stops with the exception of the outdoor Convention Place station.

Sometime between now and 2016, the opening of the U-Link extension that’ll serve Capitol Hill and the U District, light rail headways will become too small for bus operations and the downtown tunnel will be light rail only.

Rail Costs

April 23, 2009 by Frank Chiachiere

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

The Overhead Wire points to a Charlotte blog that shows that Charlotte’s light rail University extension will cost more than planned:

The Lynx extension will be much more complicated to build than the original light-rail line, which opened in 2007. That line cost $48 million per mile. The extension could cost more than $100 million per mile.

TOW wonders, “Why must they cost so much!!!??!!!” In a separate article, The Infrastructurist proclaims that “Building A Subway Is 96 Percent Cheaper In China”, a figure they arrive at by comparing the cost of building a subway in China as”$100 million per mile versus $2.4 billion per mile in the Big Apple.”

Okay, $2.4B is on the high end because… well, it’s New York. But $100M per mile for China — considering that there’s NO environmental review and abysmal labor conditions — actually sounds like it’s in the ballpark of most US systems, no? Sound Transit’s Link will be in the neighborhood of $150M – $200M per mile (guessing here), and that’s got a substantial subway component.

Obviously there are lots of differences between China, Charlotte, Seattle, and New York, in terms of rail technologies, costs of construction, labor, etc., etc. Still — $100M per mile doesn’t seem all that expensive to me, in Charlotte OR China, especially when you compare it to the costs of building a new highway that would carry that many people.

85 Days

April 23, 2009April 23, 2009 by Ben Schiendelman

In 2030, when Sound Transit 2 is built out and we’ve had another real estate development cycle, 85% of regional jobs will have access to light rail. I suspect that this means “With a half mile drive to a park and ride,” but that’s still fantastic – if anyone knows more about this number, I’d love to know exactly what it includes.

Sounder cars are also 85 feet long. With seven in a train (plus a locomotive), they add up to nearly 700 feet, with seats for 980. I’m glad we’re not waiting 980 days for Link…

Almost Done: Budget Conference Committee

April 23, 2009April 23, 2009 by Ben Schiendelman

Right now, a conference committee in Olympia is hashing out the details of the 2009-2011 budget. We’re almost done – the session should be over Sunday – so we really only have today and tomorrow to remind our legislators that we’re still paying attention.

This is mostly a recap, but here’s a list of what we care about in the budget conference, and where it came from:

Regional Mobility Grants are fine in the Senate at $40 million, retaining the competitive grant process (and Sound Transit has three of the five most cost-effective projects), but gutted in the House to remove Sound Transit’s projects entirely and cut the total down to $15 million.
Representative Simpson’s amendment in the House gives us a good solution to the ‘asset assessment’ for the I-90 express lanes, both requiring Sound Transit and WSDOT to be at the table and funding the assessment. While Senator Jarrett’s amendment was a step in the right direction, it left holes in funding and in process that Simpson’s amendment fills.
Representative Clibborn funded $10.6 million of R8A preliminary design work in this biennium, which keeps the WSDOT portion of the project on track. The Senate version as it stands would derail East Link entirely, but we’re hoping Senator Jarrett will help us out here!

There are other non-budget items of interest for transit as well:

SB 5513 means I can’t get drunk and unruly on nearly as many transit vehicles as I used to (without getting kicked off, anyway). Oh well. It basically just ensures that transit workers can enforce safety measures on more than just buses.
HB 1225 makes sure Sound Transit and other public and private transit agencies are exempt from special fuel taxes. Keeping government from taxing government!
And of course, SB 5433, which I posted about earlier in the week, would give transit agencies new funding tools, which we need everywhere in the state right now.

Those budget items could use phone calls! And if there’s anything I’m missing, please let me know.