Buried in Mike Lindblom’s impressive followup on last week’s Link/truck accident was this:
Ironically, the Seattle agencies had just started training a new employee Monday [Aug. 2], to focus solely on customer updates. This person will be a “bridge” between the Link train-control center and the bus-control center, each operated by Metro in the same building in the Sodo neighborhood, said Gray.
The job includes writing customized messages for the electronic signs at stations; changing the announcements on public-address speakers; and feeding updates by radio to bus and train operators. Messages at stations have tended to be general and the public-address systems typically use automated messages, not specific live updates.
The new communications job was created largely to improve travel through the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, shared by buses and trains, where rush-hour congestion or electronic glitches cause occasional delays.
It’s good to see this happening, although one wonders why Metro and ST thought they could get away with not having useful variable message signs up to now.
As for the incident response, a lot of the most complete solutions, such as having bus drivers ready to respond, or more turnarounds, are expensive. What is relatively cheap, however, is pre-planned procedures and staff trained on how to execute them.
For instance, if a serious Rainier Valley disruption will lead to a bus bridge between Stadium and Rainier Beach, that bridge will take time to implement. Operators should know enough about the system to direct riders across the street to the 8 stop, which can at least get them to Rainier Beach and onto the operating Link segments. In the middle of the day, it might take at most 30 minutes for enough bus capacity to go by to take all of the passengers on to their destinations.
Thanks for the update and for the “sober” comments about “incident response” – some of our transit fans still seem to believe that the system should be flawless every minute of the day. Certainly much can be improved to prepare for incidents, but in any system there are bound to be delays caused by moronic motorists insistent on turning in front of the train.
… probably why runways aren’t shared with cars during slack periods.
… or we could have been in SF yesterday, where they have streetcar and light rail service for a century:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Underground-Muni-service-stalled-100227594.html
So, are you suggesting that because it happened in SF it’s quite alright that we also fail at communications here? You’re right, why improve the status quo… Let’s continue the trend of leaving customers stranded and only communicate outages via Twitter – a service that not everyone has access to on their phones, let alone cell service at some of the stations.
Why is it a problem for customers to want something? Why was it unreasonable for us to have these features from the get-go? I agree that not everything will go as planned and that any new transit system will have its share of problems (noise from wheel grinding, maybe some service interruptions due to the tunnel traffic, etc), however the communication and signage were and still are low hanging fruit that are just NOW being addressed. Things that people are fairly accustomed to in other cities we just left out.
As one who voted for rail transit in his first time voting in 1968, perhaps I’m used to waiting for improvements – after all, it took 41 years to get the trains running. No, I’m not at all happy with the slow progress, not at all – the messaging, wayfinding, automated voices, lack of modern maps, lack of preparedness for alternative transport, etc, etc, etc ad nauseum are very disturbing and annoying. However, I’ve ridden on more than few rail transit systems in my 6+ decades, and every one of them has flaws, some serious, others merely annoying. Nothing’s perfect; it IS nice to try (but without holding one’s breath).
Hey, at least ST is learning and they seem to be listening to the public and to this blog in particular.
We knew it wouldn’t be perfect from day one and we all lament that it’s not the way “Portland or Vancouver” is or why we didn’t learn from their mistakes or do what they’re doing now from our day one instead of waiting for year one, but…at least they are listening.
It’ll be interesting to see if ST is considering ways to deal with the more important question: How do we prevent cars from going through an intersection when a train is coming?
Could silent crossing gates do the trick, while not adding too much more inconvenience to MLK drivers? Or even just flashing warning lights like the lights at a crossing gate?
Yes, I know it would be expensive, but the cost would be a capital improvement cost, rather than an ongoing item in the operating budget, and the rewards would show when the whole system isn’t gridlocked from Lynnwood down to Federal Way and over to Redmond.
Moreover, the best way to maximize confidence in ST’s incident response and remove the possibility of multi-million-dollar liability lawsuits, is to prevent the accidents from happening in the first place.
There already are flashing warning lights, no left turn on red signs and signals, and horns and chimes on the trains themselves. You have to be very distracted not to pick up on all of this.
Agreed. A red light is a red light is a red light — any motorist who has earned the right to operate a motor vehicle in this country should not only thoroughly understand that fundamental concept of traffic control, but also know what their behavior in such situations is supposed to be.
Unfortunately, stupid people are going to continue to do stupid things, regardless of what kinds of protections are put in place; drivers unwilling to obey the law and incur a short delay to their travel will just blow through lowered gates anyway, which is why railroad signal maintainers’ vehicles often have a spare crossing gate carried on-board — replacing these devices is that much of a commonplace occurrence.
Not to mention the flashing train logo light when the train is approaching.
I think they need cel phone blocking equipment. My guess is at least some of the accidents have occured as a result of texting while driving.
Still too much noise pollution in the tunnel.
WAY too much.
Try riding BART.
“Operators should know enough about the system to direct riders across the street to the 8 stop, which can at least get them to Rainier Beach and onto the operating Link segments.”
Perhaps a required piece of equipment could be a laminated card with various emergency routes and/or instructions to announce for passengers to catch other service. I don’t know the routes along Link well enough to comment on the contents, but we are already required to carry similar information when we drive in the tunnel. In practice, I never pull it out since I drive in the tunnel every day. However, for those, like me, that rarely drive routes that intersect with Central Link, this would be a handy piece of equipment and relatively cheap to produce.
I second that idea. I would like also to access One Bus Away while at a station to forward on information on how long before any particular bus route is due. But I would have to leave the cab, of course, to do that.
I am looking forward hearing the announcements generated from the new employee at LCC.
Lets put troubleshooting tips on the back of the card also to help us deal with the technology glitches that sometimes delay us unnecessarily.
We operators, bus or rail, really have the ability to minimize the inconveniences our passengers suffer from and can make the impacts to our services that inevitable incidents will cause shorter and less severe.
One place they could actually do less messaging is inside the Sounder. I got a phone call and had to wait 5 minutes before I could talk will all the announcements going on. “Doors Opening”. “Doors Closing”. “THE train FOR Ta CO ma is leaving IN five minutes.”
Turn it off!!!
Actually, once it starts moving, the Sounder seems pretty announcement free to me aside from announcing arrivals at stations.
The announcements you refer to King Street Station while waiting for the train to leave seem pretty necessary to me – the trains to Tacoma and Everett look alike, there are no signs on the platform, and if someone misses the destination sign on the train, it seems that those announcements are pretty helpful to make sure someone on the wrong train gets off before the train departs.
If only the announcements on buses were made that clear. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a bus to destinations in Snohomish County where someone gets on at the stop on 5th Ave. in front of the jail and the next thing you know, the bus is on I-5, and they are panicking when they find out their next stop is in Everett, Stanwood, or Snohomish and that they will need to take 3 buses and a couple of hours to get back to Seattle.
The Cascades has a train to Portland at 7:30am and Vancouver at 7:45. An agent told me once that every day there’s at least one person who gets on the wrong train.
“THE train FOR Ta CO ma is leaving IN five minutes.”
Yes, I’ve heard it before. The way he pronounces that is just weird.
Give a five minute warning, a one minute warning and then a 15-second one.
Most of the DSTT announcements are “weird” sounding as well. There must be more natural sounding text-to-speech software out there somewhere. I understand that they need audio announcements as well as visual ones to comply with the ADA, but I’m not sure a blind person could make out what is being said. If I weren’t sighted and able to look at the variable message display signs, I know I wouldn’t be able to decipher the gobbledygook. (The worst one is: “ORCAcardusersmustbothtapONandtapOFFwhenusingLinkLIGHTrail.”)
Also, “familiesandgroupsshouldstaytogether.” Is that necessary?
For novices it’s probably not a bad reminder. My wife and I have an agreement to get off at the next stop if we are ever separated when riding a subway or rail system. We agreed on this protocol after one or two unsettling experiences on London’s tube.
Those are strange, but you grow used to them commuting on the sounder over a period of time, they become AWESOME, like the blahblahblah WAtch your head on the luggage racks one. such strange places to put accents. and the russian-ish-sounding doors-closing
yeah, they grow on you after a while.
“the Seattle agencies had just started training a new employee Monday [Aug. 2], to focus solely on customer updates.”
Yaay!
I’d like to think that I, being a better role model than Sam, contributed to this in some small way by repeatedly requesting it.
Also, previously I complained about Link stations having just an ST map and not a local-area map. I realized this has actually been fixed, at least at Columbia City and Stadium. My only complaint now is that it should list the route destinations rather than just the numbers. “7 39” means nothing if you don’t know where each one goes.
Although, maybe it’s too unfeasable to keep the maps up to date. The SLUT maps are seriously outdated. They think the 30 is still the 74, and the 194 is still running. Bad luck for a tourist who thinks the maps are accurate.
Hmm.. the local area maps have been there since Day One. Sound Transit is also looking for a graphic designer (I applied).
Fingers crossed for you, Oran.
Good luck Oran. You’d be awesome at that post!
Really hoping you get it – and hoping that if you do, ST gives you the clout to make some cartographic decisions, too!
For the record – I’m glad this is finally being addressed! I’m glad ST listened and is making some good progress on this. I know that I’ve been posting some… negative… comments around regarding the late implementation, but we’re moving forward!