They’re trying to figure out ways to improve station access:
February 22, 2012
5:00 pm – 8:00 pmJoin us to see what we have learned about how riders get to and from Mukilteo Station and share your thoughts on future access improvements.
Rosehill Community Center
304 Lincoln Avenue
Mukilteo, WA 98275
The Sounder Station Access Study is a product of ST2. From the press release:
Potential station improvements that could be funded include more parking, enhanced connections for pedestrians and bicycle users, and new bus facilities…
For the convenience of Mukilteo residents, the event is being held in conjunction with Washington State Ferries and the Federal Transit Administration’s public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mukilteo Multimodal project.
The single easiest way to improve access is by coordinating the ferries with the Northline Sounders. But I guess that’s to hard for them to figure out in Mukilteo, even though we tell them all the time.
Since North Sounder serves two ferry terminals, the coordination would need to be done at the WSF end. But the timings between ferries depends upon crossing times. Does that mesh well with Sounder headways for both Edmonds and Mukilteo?
The ferry times are actually reasonably well aligned with Sounder in the morning, less so in the afternoon. Sounder is scheduled to take 15 minutes from Mukilteo to Edmonds. The connection to the ferries at Mukilteo is much better than at Edmonds because Sounder timings are set up for :11 and :41 (mornings) and :17 and :47 (evenings), which aligns well with the ferry arrival and departure times (WSF runs the Mukilteo-Clinton route on a clockface schedule at :00 and :30). It still works at Edmonds, just not as well due to the higher ferry headway, larger boat/slower loading, and railroad tracks causing loading/unloading delays.
The ferry travel time has a few wildcards in it. Weather and vessel traffic. What may work on a quiet day, may not work on a stormy or high traffic day. It would be easier for Sounder to adjust.
The biggest improvement in convenience would be to significantly reduce the shutdown days. Could some of the station improvement money be applied toward pathway improvements like coverings in the mudslide zones?
Just minutes after I posted this, the news comes in that North Sounder will be closed for a mudslide, again.
Without dealing with the mudslides in a more permanent way, all the station amenities feel like good money being thrown after bad. I’m generally not in favor of shutting down train lines, but North Sounder is looking more and more like a write-off. Once Link goes far enough north, I don’t see North Sounder surviving.
Despite the fact that these crazy mudlsides keep the trains in the yard sometimes, I think the Sounder Northline is going to survive. Remember, when the yearly count is done for total trainsets being ran, a few days of closure due to mudslides is no big deal.
That doesn’t mean I’m happy with closures. The ST site does me no good, this morning I got lucky and had a flat tire on my bike at 4 am before I left for Ballard. Didn’t get the update until 9:30 am, and I catch the train at 5:56 am in Mukilteo. Had to drive here, and that SUCKS. I’ll gladly put up with mudslides vs. I-5 any day of the week…..
Anthony,
You need to get faster electrons. :)
I got the cancellation e-mail at 6:24. Still after you catch the train at 5:56, but a lot earlier than 9:30.
J.