In 2020, Sound Transit is projected to open light rail service to Northgate, Downtown Bellevue, and Highline Community College.
The elevators in the Beacon Hill Station are supposed to take 20 seconds to travel between the platform and the surface.
Link will operate 20 hours a day every day but Sunday.
Some random flotsam from the internet:
- Hugeasscity gets just a little bit suggestive about the Link opening. And they say we at STB love rail too much!
- Trimet wants to exempt Portland’s buses from the Fareless Square. They figure the free rail options downtown are good enough.
- Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl is spreading the light rail gospel in Honolulu. Attention Hawaii light rail boosters: STB staff speaking fees are extremely reasonable.
That’s right TheBus. You want a speaker? I’d gladly pay my own expenses to come over and “preach” Central Link and The Tide (where my family lives).
No Charge for me to come and discuss :D
As for Fareless: I think I want to head down to Portland and see if it’s possible
Oh and yes Hugeasscity, STB loves their Light Rail ;)
20 Days until I leave Western Washington, most likely. And, perhaps, for good.
Experience tells me that people who make pronouncements about “leaving town for good” rarely do.
I’ll pay you to make good on that promise.
Haha, the TIDE. Did you hear that Paul Fraim already wants to extend it to Norfolk Naval Station, but instead of going through the most densely populated, transit-conducive neighborhood in Norfolk, he wants to elevate it and build it through the uninhabited, highly polluted coal piers?
Because nothing says “ridership” like not going through Ghent. But I digress….
Off topic: Does anyone know if the tunnel is closed? I took a 150 downtown and he used surface streets. He never explained why. I asked the driver of the 24 I took to work and he had no idea why it’d be closed.
How do the TriMet drivers not “track” people that cross zone boundaries? If people just pay as they leave – problem solved! No?!?
Because it’s possible to alight from the rear door when it’s open to accept new passengers. Also, riders could claim to have ridden within a single zone when having actually crossed into one or more zones.
Yeah, and after riding the Max, I think Portland’s Zones are much smaller than Seattle’s. A trip from the airport to downtown covered three zones, and the fareless square occupies about half the area of zone 1. I can only imagine that at lot more of the tri-met busses cross from one zone from to another, compared to Metro.
I think they should just exempt buses from Fareless Square. With frequent light rail trains and streetcars crisscrossing the city center, who would get on a bus for a free ride? Take the train, its free and more comfortable (within the city center)!
Which is the premium service in downtown Portland? If it’s the rail, why would you make your premium service free?
Oh, simple.
For light rail tickets, they print the location of your TVM and the number of zones, such as 1 zone, 2 zones, All zones. It’s easy to know just by looking.
For bus transfers, which are purchased upon boarding, the driver stamps it with either ALL ZONES, and the type (all day, honored, youth, etc.), 2 ZONES, and the type (1-2, for starting in zone 1, going to 2; 2-3 for starting in zone 2 and going to 3), or just ONE ZONE, and the zone number.
I think it’s interesting that TriMet wants to charge for buses but have LRT free, while we’re going to do the opposite.
Wish we had light rail years ago when there was land available for common sense routes.
We’re doing fine on common sense routing. A lot of the ‘straight’ routes people suggest would actually be more expensive per passenger mile than what we’re building. A lot of it is just knowledge – there are a ton of factors that go into making a good route, and a lot of them aren’t evident just looking at a map.
I have to say that the Beacon Hill elevator only thing would NOT make me want to ride LINK. I just would not feel safe in such a small enclosed space with random people. So what if there are security cameras, ever hear of a hat? Anyways I know that it’s far too deep for an escalator but there is no way I would use that station.
Those high speed elevators are fun. People crowd in at the zoo station’s elevator in Portland all the time, and that station is far deeper than Beacon Hill.
Of course, that one is made to be fun– instead of “floors”, it shows you where you are in depth and in relation to the geologic time scale.
justin, many other areas of public life are just the same. Try getting off a crowded escalator halfway up, or walking down a street at night. You’re probably more safe on a light rail elevator than you are in Renton. :)