Month: July 2016

Nearly accurate rendition of the LADOT logo in a cartoon.

Peak hour queue to exit Capitol Hill Station — photo by SounderBruce — Flickr

Those of you who have spent any time at UW Station, Capitol Hill Station, Mt Baker Station, Tukwila International Boulevard Station, or SeaTac Airport Station may have noticed something obvious about the station escalators. They usually involve long queues in only one direction: exiting.

You may have also noticed that station escalators sometimes shut down for maintenance for extended periods of time in the middle of the day.

UW Station, Capitol Hill Station, and SeaTac Airport Station are blessed with two pairs of escalators between each level. This affords the possibility of having three escalators set in the egress direction, and letting just one handle the more-spread-out arrivals heading to the platform. And then when one breaks down, leave one in the ingress direction and two in the egress direction.

There will, of course, be some ingressing crushloads, such as right after a Husky football game. In that case, Sound Transt could reverse two of the escalators some time before the game ends, and then switch them back once the crowd is gone.

I talked with an ST service supervisor about the escalator directions on opening day, and he said the escalators are reversible.

At yesterday’s Sound Transit Board meeting, CEO Peter Rogoff gave board members a brief update on new Link vehicle procurement planned for 2018 (see video below from 4’30” to 6’30”). The 122-car order went out to bid late last year, and Rogoff told the board that ST would soon issue a Notice of Award to Siemens to build the new vehicles, beating out Stadler and the maker of the current fleet, Kinkisharyo. The Board will take final action on the procurement later this year.

The new Link vehicles are needed to fulfill the operational needs of Sound Transit 2 (ST2). At roughly $730m, the order is the largest single contract in Sound Transit history, and will triple the Link fleet from today’s 62 cars to 184. The purchase is required to run “all 4-car trains, all the time” once Northgate Link opens. (By choosing to batch the order into a single contract, the 2016-2019 period has left Sound Transit short of vehicles, and unable to run as many 3 and 4-car trains as riders want.)

The S70 Siemens light rail vehicles (LRVs) are some of the most commonly used in the United States, and can be seen in places like San Diego, Portland, Minneapolis, and Charlotte. In a phone call, Sound Transit’s Bruce Gray said that while the final specs aren’t yet determined, the new vehicles will likely have higher capacity, a more open floor plan, double the bike capacity (4 hooks per car), and both a wider walkway and better seating in the center section. The new vehicles will not be compatible with the current fleet for coupled use in revenue service, as enabling compatibility would have added 20% (or roughly $140m) to the order. So future trains will be composed of either Siemens or Kinkisharyo cars, but never both.

Light rail vehicles are admittedly still an awkward fit for our grade-separated “light metro”. When coupled into 4-car trains, there are 8 operator cabs per train, wasting a lot of space that could be used for passengers. “Open gangways” are also not possible at this time, as Gray said that longer cars are incompatible with current and future Operations Maintenance Satellite Facilities (OMSF), and accommodating them “would require cutting up and rebuilding all the existing maintenance bays.”

Fortunately, places like Portland – where 2-car trains are forever the maximum due to at-grade running on short blocks – have enabled greater capacity by reducing operator cabs to 1 per car, and using the other end for additional seats. I hope that Sound Transit will look to do similar things with this new order, as Link is being sold to the public on account of its high capacity. If all-4-car train operation is the plan, consists could be permanently coupled into sets, only needing 2 operator cabs for push-pull operation and 6 for seating, yielding up to 48 additional seats per 4-car train.

During Thursday’s meeting of the Sound Transit Board, a motion was approved to order 32 double-decker buses from Alexander Dennis for $33 million. The order is a joint procurement with Community Transit and Kitsap Transit for a total of 143 total buses; Community Transit will receive 57 buses for its commuter routes and Kitsap Transit will receive 11; Sound Transit also has the option to purchase 43 more buses at a later date, to support their goal of having all Snohomish County trips operated by double-deckers.

By 2018, Sound Transit expects to operate double-deckers on all Snohomish County routes. That includes routes 532 and 535, which currently do not have double-decker service because of vertical clearance issues at Bellevue Transit Center. Last November, Sound Transit began operating its double-decker buses in Snohomish County, contracted out to Community Transit (whose facilities are the only ones in the region that can handle them). Community Transit had begun using double-decker buses in 2007 and ordered additional fleets in 2011 and 2013, with the latter including the Sound Transit order. Kitsap Transit tried out a double-decker bus last summer while seeking higher-capacity options for its ferry feeder service.

As part of the deal, 32 articulated buses currently used on ST Express routes in Snohomish County will be transferred to King County Metro, replacing older buses and being used for future service expansion.

Production of the buses will begin in November and delivery will begin in April 2017. The relatively fast turnaround and delivery was made possible by a new parallel production line at the Alexander Dennis/ElDorado National factory in Riverside, California. Each bus has 81 seats, a 30 percent increase over typical articulated buses, and is only 42 feet long.

Sound Transit – Angle Lake Testing 30 second from Sound Transit Video on Vimeo.

Wednesday afternoon Sound Transit (ST) gave media a short preview of Angle Lake Station. The 1.6 mile extension south of SeaTac Airport will open some time in late September (exact date to be announced soon), and the project is also running $40m under its $383m budget (or 10.4%).

Sometime in late August, Sound Transit will begin roughly 30 days of pre-revenue simulations, with trains running their full schedule and terminating at Angle Lake. During full testing, the main difference for riders is that SeaTac Airport will no longer alternate between platforms, but deboard from the west platform and board from the east platform. Airport riders accustomed to always having an out-of-service train on which to sit and wait will begin having to wait on the platform, as the train will only dwell at SeaTac for the customary 20 seconds.

At an elevation of 450′ (the highest station in the system until Federal Way opens), the station affords sweeping views of Mount Rainier, Vashon and Maury Islands, and approaching aircraft. And in a welcome turn from previous practice, the station graciously lacks a mezzanine. If Tukwila International Boulevard could be described as “Big Station, Small Parking”, then Angle Lake is just the opposite, with a much smaller station footprint but nearly double the parking (1,050 stalls). The adjacent garage will offer paid permits from Day 1, in addition to free general parking. To discourage airline passengers from using the parking facility, the standard 24-hour limit will be enforced, though CEO Peter Rogoff said that no effort will be made to discourage airport employee use. This sets up potential conflicts with the spirit (if not the letter) of state Commute Trip Reduction requirements for the airport, its airlines, and its contractors. Widespread employee transit use is a big reason why SeaTac’s ORCA Business Passport rates are the highest in the region.

In operational terms, neither frequency nor span of service will change upon Angle Lake’s opening, just as with ULink. The primary difference will be the addition of 1 trainset to the rotation, for a max of 19 trains during peak hours. This exacerbates Sound Transit’s shortage of Link vehicles, and slightly reduces their flexibility to add 3 or 4 car trains as demand dictates.

Photos below the jump… Continue reading “Sound Transit Previews Angle Lake Station”

• David Rolf righteously demolishes the record of neighborhood councils ($).
• Yonah Freemark reviews the transportation platforms of the federal parties and candidates. Spoiler alert: the Democrats are better.
• Sammamish Council split on ST3; comments narrowly focus on Sammamish, not thinking as a subarea, much less a region.
• The Seattle City Council killed microhousing, and hundreds (thousands?) of low-income people with modest needs will lose out.
• SDOT hiring a Senior Transportation Planner.
• WSDOT hiring a communications consultant.
• The Mass Transit Now is hiring a field director; email here.
• 267 units open in Roosevelt.
• University Bridge to close the next two weekends.
• New app combines bikeshare and transit.
• Snohomish still would like a tourist train.
• In despair for Bay Area housing shortage, Facebook now getting in the apartment business ($).

This is an open thread.

Sound Transit has a series of ads and art wraps out on Link Light Rail trains reminding passengers not to hog space in various ways.

When someone takes up two seats, either by putting their belongings on the adjoining seat (if the stuff could have fit under the seat or on their lap), or taking an inner seat next to a vacant outer seat, they probably know they are being rude. But this is happening less and less.

Sound Transit spokesperson Bruce Gray proclaims, “Folks have really responded well to this latest [ad] campaign.”

Blocking doorways as riders are trying to get in and out is problematic, but often a result of the train being packed, and somebody blocking the aisle leading to the center articulation zone or the stairwell to the raised end area. Stairwell blockers, consider this: Ten riders could be standing on that raised area. All too often, nobody is standing there, and the entryways are full of standing passengers. Please, let them by, or move to the end of the raised area. This stairwell blocking behavior is the equivalent of taking an inner seat, and putting one’s stuff all over ten other seats. The same thing happens on buses, resulting in riders being passed up.

Gray added that, “We are looking into adding some marking on the platforms to encourage folks to stand aside where the doors open and give those deboarding a clear path off and away from the trains before people start boarding.”

Something else that could help in the downtown transit tunnel is moving all the buses to the front quarter of the platforms. This has already happened on the northbound side, with the elimination of Bay B and consolidation of King County Metro routes 41, 74, and 255 at Bay A. It could happen on the southbound side, now that Metro route 106 will be re-routed out of the tunnel in September. There could potentially be enough space for ST Express route 550 at Bay C, joining less-crushloaded Metro routes 101, 102, and 150. That would get route 550’s long passenger queues out of the way of those trying to deboard and board the train.

The planned move of Tacoma’s Amtrak station to Freighthouse Square, already home to Tacoma Dome Station, moved closer to fruition on July 13, as local officials celebrated the start of construction. Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar was joined by Tacoma mayor Marilyn Strickland at the Tacoma Dome Station plaza, and both spoke about the change that the new station will bring to the city and how they were welcome to embrace it.

The new station is part of the Point Defiance Bypass project, which will create an inland route for passenger rail between the Nisqually River and Tacoma Dome, increasing reliability and allowing for additional daily roundtrips on Amtrak Cascades between Seattle and Portland. When the station opens late next year, Amtrak will abandon its current 1970s-era station on Puyallup Avenue, and be located in close proximity to Tacoma Link and Sounder service.

The ceremony also honored the contributions of a citizen advisory committee that played a key role in the design of the station, suggesting a slew of incremental improvements to the initial concepts presented by WSDOT. The new station will integrate the existing warehouse on the site, which was built in the early 20th century for the Milwaukee Road, and instead build a glass facade next to the current Sounder entrance; an earlier plan had proposed a complete demolition and replacement of the structure with a modern steel-and-glass station and was met with backlash from Tacomans.

The project has, however, not been without controversy. Negotiations with the owner of the Freighthouse Square mall stalled earlier this year after he attempted to raise the price of land on the station site, resulting in WSDOT considering the use of eminent domain to acquire it; a month later, the owner backed down and signed an agreement with WSDOT, allowing for construction to move forward while the final price is determined at a later date.

These are Seattle Transit Blog’s endorsements for the August 2, 2016 primary elections. As always, we choose candidates entirely based on their positions and record on transit and land use. The primary only decides initiatives and races with at least two candidates, so that’s what we cover here.

Seattle Proposition 1, The Housing Levy Renewal: YES. The only way out of the housing shortage is to build more units, both subsidized and market rate. If we hadn’t spent the last several decades suppressing housing construction, we would only need taxpayer dollars to house the very poorest sliver on residents. But we did suppress it, so Seattle needs it all. The housing levy renewal will build more units. Vote yes.

Seattle Initiative 123, The Waterfront Viaduct Park: NO. After the monorail debacle, we should forever put to rest the idea of creating and managing new public assets by initiative. The proposal to build a mock version of New York’s High Line on the future Alaskan Way lacks institutional support at all levels of government, contradicts city and state plans for the waterfront, and threatens to reinstate the one silver lining of the deep bore tunnel: the removal of the viaduct. It is a poorly thought out project whose primary funders have since abandoned and even donated to the opposition. Put the idea to rest and vote no.

Governor of Washington: Although Jay Inslee‘s full devotion to highway expansion disappoints us, he has also been on the right side of statewide transit issues. When discussing Sound Transit 3, his opponent simply regurgitates anti-transit talking points and has no interest in building high-quality transit. Bill Bryant is happy to endorse BRT when there’s rail on the ballot, but in the same campaign says he wants to let more general traffic into bus lanes. The other candidates have no chance.

U.S. Senate. It’s not often that a federal officeholder makes a really big difference for regional transit and land use. But Patty Murray has certainly done that over her four Senate terms. She consistently delivers dollars for critical Puget Sound infrastructure projects, and has the seniority on the Senate Budget Committee to keep it coming. With her help, the highest-performing ST3 projects could enjoy billions in grants.

U.S. House – 7th District. It’s refreshing to see a candidate eschew the “all of the above” boilerplate common to Transportation Issues sections of campaign websites. Yet new highways are nowhere to be found on Brady Walkinshaw’s page. Instead, he explicitly calls for reducing car volumes, a fix-it-first approach to maintenance, and more federal funding of Seattle transit projects.

43rd Legislative District, Position 1: The 43rd race is crowded with many good options, Thomas Pitchford envisions a Seattle without I-5 and stands alone in opposing rent control.  Nicole Macri and Sameer Ranade mostly say the right things about transportation. But forced to make a decision, we noted that Dan Shih seems more ready to acknowledge the importance of more housing units, and in particular the continued importance of market-rate housing alongside subsidized units. That’s a shockingly rare insight in the 43rd, and enough to earn Shih our endorsement.

The Pierce County Executive controls 4 of 18 Sound Transit Board seats. Rick Talbert is the chair of the Pierce Transit Board, and we believe he would be a vote for continuity from Pierce County.

Pierce County Council Pos. 2: Pat Jenkins gives every indication of thinking transit first as a solution to congestion, and is positive about ST3. His opponents don’t mention transit at all.

Pierce County Council Pos. 6: Linda Farmer also suggests improved mass transit as an answer to congestion, which is more than her opponents have to say.

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In the suburban Eastside, the key transportation issue before the Legislature in 2017 is HOT lanes on I-405. Under pressure from a noisy SOV commuter lobby, few candidates remain willing to forthrightly defend the HOT lanes. Our endorsements are for those more likely to advocate balanced policies. The express lanes are critical to future transit investments in the corridor, and offer an affordable alternative to the hamster wheel of ever-widening freeways.

1st, Senate: Guy Palumbo supports added general purpose lanes on I-405, but also supports BRT and has not taken a position against the HOT lanes. Luis Moscoso, currently vice-chair of the House Transportation Committee has declared that “he stood up to his own party to demand changes when the 405 HOV lane experiment failed. He will always stand against tolling 405.” Mindie Wirth wants a “time out on tolling”. She voices support for BRT, but in unmanaged 2-plus HOV lanes.

1st, Position 1: Derek Stanford supports greater spending on highways, and was a sponsor of a compromise bill that removed tolling on nights and weekends. But he’s preferable to his likely opponent, Neil Thannisch, who views tolling as “social engineering and adding unearned taxes on commuters”.

1st, Position 2: Shelley Kloba is a sitting Council Member in Kirkland whom we’ve previously endorsed for supporting transit and resisting Kirkland’s onerous regulations on multifamily parking. Her most competitive opponent, Jim Langston, supports more spending on highways and believes “it is time the state realize cars are what we drive”.

5th, Position 2: Matt Larson has three terms as Mayor of Snoqualmie, shepherding the city through a period of remarkable growth, and has served as President of the Sound Cities Association (the 36 smaller cities of King County). He favors “transit in high growth communities in east King County”.

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The STB Editorial Board currently consists of Martin H. Duke, Zach Shaner, Dan Ryan, and Erica C. Barnett.