Month: December 2017

This May, Nashvillians will vote on a transportation plan that includes among many things a three-station downtown transit tunnel shared by rapid buses and light rail trains. Unlike Seattle’s tunnel, it will have all off-board payment.

2017 was not a great year, both worldwide and in our little corner of the universe. Here is our customary summary of the 10 most-read and most-commented posts of the past year:

Most-Read

1. Mercer Island to Sue Sound Transit, WSDOT (2/13 by Zach Shaner) Mercer Island’s tantrum over HOV lane access was a fine opportunity to pillory a privileged group defending their privilege. Although many of their points had no merit, it wasn’t hard to empathize with a few others.

2. House Democrats All Vote Against Sound Transit (4/13, by Brent White) Sound Transit opponents couldn’t win at the ballot box, so they fired up some angry constituents to scare legislators. This sorry episode is one of the best examples of why we shouldn’t hold public votes on highly technical issues.

3. Seattle Times Editorial Board Flunks Geometry (3/7 by David Lawson) David dismantles the Times Editorial Board’s latest primal scream against change, growth, and the facts of living and working in a prosperous major city.

4. Ban Cars from Third, Now (2/21 by David Lawson) I am a firm believer in rail’s sometimes magical powers, but no one has explained to me why 12 streetcars per hour deserve absolute dedicated right-of-way, while 240 buses per hour on Third are going to have to go through a “data-driven” process to earn the same treatment.

5. 5 Democratic Senators Side with Republicans Against Sound Transit (3/2 by Martin H. Duke) There is a certain willful ignorance among progressive advocates for scrapping the Sound Transit Board. The Republicans they’re voting with are dedicated to gutting urban transit in all its forms, and have no interest whatsoever in efficient delivery of high-quality services. Someone here is a sucker, and I’m guessing it isn’t the Republicans.

6. The Technical Challenges of Seattle-Vancouver High Speed Rail: Part 1 (2/17 by Zach Shaner) We knew Zach and Alon Levy’s series on this project was going to be a crowd-pleaser. It was even reviewed in the legislative report on the project, on which more next year.

7. SE Seattle Representative Sponsors Anti-Sound Transit Bill (1/31 by Martin H. Duke) Another one about “governance reform.” Nothing goes viral like legislative session reports, I guess.

8. Sound Transit to Sue Mercer Island (2/18 by Brent White) As is usually the case, the dueling lawsuits were eventually settled with money. The power of local governments over Sound Transit is one of the principal reasons costs escalate.

9. Amtrak Cascades to Add SEA-PDX Service by the End of the Year (8/16 by Frank Chiachiere) The gradual evolution of Cascades into a fast, reliable service is a good news story, notwithstanding the tragedy this month.

10. “I think that vote was rigged” (5/12 by Martin H. Duke) Mayoral candidate (and State Senator) Bob Hasegawa criticizes ST3 as dishonest, claiming he didn’t understand what he was voting for, months after it wins big in Seattle. (Though it narrowly lost in his district.)

Most Commented

Continue reading “Top 10 STB Posts of 2017”

Metro recently released a summary of community feedback on its proposal to move a short segment of routes 3 and 4 from James St to Yesler Wy.  As we’ve come to expect with proposals to change the oldest parts of Metro’s network, the feedback was deeply muddled.  Metro’s Magic 8-Ball said: “Reply Hazy, Try Again.”

Online survey respondents favored the change, 53 to 40 percent.  Most of the few people who contacted Metro by email or phone opposed the change.  Stakeholder organizations were split along geographic lines; First Hill Improvement Association and WHEEL (which operates a women’s shelter near 8th and James) opposed the change, while Yesler Terrace Community Council supported it.  Supporters cited better reliability and improved service to Yesler Terrace, while opponents concentrated on potential difficulties accessing services on James for seniors and people with limited mobility.

In keeping with this split feedback, Metro plans to study a variety of options using both James and Yesler.  The agency will study transit priority measures on James, to see if there is any way to speed up buses despite the very high volume of I-5 traffic.  Previous studies have found bus lanes on James infeasible because the volume of I-5 car traffic trying to use James would create gridlock on other streets (including 9th Avenue, which the current routes use), but Metro will have another look.  At the same time, the agency will continue designing trolley overhead and other infrastructure along the Yesler route.  Finally, the agency will look at putting another (presumably less frequent) route onto James to provide access while moving routes 3 and 4 to Yesler.

By its nature, this feedback process could not include any voice representing the over 5,000 net new residents (including about 1,100 low-income residents) who will come to Yesler Terrace once redevelopment ($) is complete.  Redevelopment will turn Yesler Terrace into one of the city’s densest areas, and no comparable development is proposed for the area around James Street.  Yesler Terrace and downtown are currently connected only by infrequent route 27, which is obviously insufficient to serve the new population.  As a regular route 3 rider, I think the combination of reliability improvements and Yesler Terrace redevelopment makes the move to Yesler the obvious best option for routes 3 and 4.  Community feedback regarding access to the James/5th and James/8th stops, though, may warrant moving a low-ridership coverage route (the 27?) to James to serve those stops, despite the delays for riders that will certainly result.

• Seattle test will lead to regulations for dockless bike-share.
• What the Washington train derailment means for Cascadia high-speed rail.
• Speed control faces challenges ($), slowly gets rolling on Sounder trains.
• What Vancouver, B.C., can teach us about housing.
• When historic preservation clashes with housing affordability. Sightline’s Dan Bertolet catalogs several recent insane decisions from Seattle’s various landmark and historic district boards. Having read that piece, I’m really to nuke the entire dysfunctional process.
• 120,000 square feet in the heart of Seattle is set to disappear; with the caveats that this square footage (a) is below grade and (b) will require about $100 million to bring up to code.
• Denver vs Seattle: How our Pacific Northwest peer adds people without adding traffic. Streetblog gives a preview of the Moving People Forward conference in February, which looks very interesting.
• Amtrak crews express concerns about training on new route where train derailed ($).
• I-405 express toll lanes between Renton and Bellevue are on their way ($).
• Driving from Everett to Seattle? Plan for a 94-minute commute, new report says ($). Hmmm… if only we had some technology that could provide an efficient alternative to driving for many thousands of people per day.
• Seattle extends its run as the nation’s hottest housing market — but we may be starting to cool ($).
• Margaret Hurley forced state to take alternate route for north Spokane freeway.
• Elon Musk’s ideas about transportation are boring.
• 150 studios with no parking going up in Ballard. Excellent!
• Switzerland’s border-busting streetcar rolls Into France and Germany.
• Boston tests faster bus service simply by laying out orange cones.
• Agency OKs $126M budget for Tacoma Dome Link design ($).

This is an open thread.

With a fresh blanket of snow Christmas morning, even in the lowlands, it is a good time for a refresher on getting all the information you need to find your bus in a snowstorm.

First, since it is Christmas, most transit agencies are either running on a Sunday schedule, or off for the holiday, so be sure to check what schedule your agency is running on.

Metro has an adverse weather page which shows whether it is running on regular-scheduled routes or snow re-routes, for each part of the county. Each route map also shows a red-dashed snow route.

The best way to get the latest information on re-routes is to sign up for transit alerts. You can sign up to get alerts from Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, and Kitsap Transit.

Community Transit has the most technologically-advanced system for warning riders that buses will not be serving their stop during a snow re-route: stickers on the bus signs.

This is a Snowpen Thread. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, or just Blessed Be, and hope you had a safe and wonderful Solstice.

A look at the people and technology behind Tokyo Metro’s renowned punctuality, safety, and exceptional customer service.

Despite having all the necessary equipment for positive train control (PTC) operation installed between Everett and Tacoma, the safety system is not fully operational on all Sounder trips, Sound Transit said Wednesday.

In a letter to boardmembers, CEO Peter Rogoff said that currently, due to technical issues associated with new deployments, only about 56% of trips operate under PTC. 

PTC technology requires the installation of wayside equipment along the track as well as onboard locomotives, monitored by a back-office system. In the letter, Rogoff said Sound Transit, which owns the stretch of track from Tacoma to DuPont where Monday’s incident occurred, has already installed all wayside PTC equipment and all Sounder locomotives are equipped with PTC hardware. According to Rogoff, BNSF has also fully installed and activated PTC along the section of track from Tacoma to Everett. BNSF also handles Sound Transit’s PTC back-office system at its control center in Texas.

“Before PTC is operational on a given segment all of these equipment systems must communicate with each other seamlessly following complex configuration work and the completion of testing,” Rogoff said in the letter.

He told boardmembers “the system can actively and automatically control a train if an engineer fails to adhere to operating parameters such as speed limits.”

Continue reading “Sound Transit Working to Install PTC Ahead of 2018 Deadline”