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”

Unsurprisingly, regional and national transportation news has been dominated since Monday by the tragic Amtrak 501 derailment. Because many of our readers are following the news of that accident via traditional or social media, and every outlet is working with the same (small) set of facts, I elected not to try and summarize all the 501 coverage, but to focus on other things that happened this week. STB’s reporting and commentary will continue in other posts.

If, nonetheless, you have room in your brain for one more 501 story, make it this KNKX interview with All Aboard Washington’s Lloyd Flem, who knew two of the deceased, Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre, through their transit advocacy. “I can say with clarity, on behalf of both men […] that we do not believe the future of transportation is an infinite amount of pavement so everybody can drive alone, all the time, everywhere.” Words to live by.

The roundup:

• NE 65th St plans move ahead with reduced sidewalks, lack of crossings.
• Airports are losing money ($) as ride-hailing services grow.
• Support bike lanes along the Roosevelt RapidRide.
• Rep. Macri wants rent control.
• Salt Lake City’s new transit master plan.
• There’s an incipient apartment shortage in Spokane.
• The physical scars of the old Mercer Mess are starting to fade.
• How high should SR 99 tolls ($) go?
• Here’s how Metro Transit decides whether your bus is on time ($). David Gutman’s doing great work on the Metro beat.
• Washington’s I-405 express tolls should rise past $10 ($) to keep traffic moving. Yep.
• Hikers raved about King County’s new trailhead shuttle, but now it needs more users ($).
• Five transit agency execs (including Rogoff) rank funding shortfalls, Positive Train Control challenges among chief concerns.
• Seattle Bike Blog has concerns with the 65th St redesign.
• Erica discusses anecdata in the AirBNB debate.
• Under new leadership, Capitol Hill Community Council aims to build on its unusually progressive legacy.
• Head of Washington State Ferries has plans for hybrid-electric ferries.
• Adding lanes doesn’t reduce congestion. So what is TxDOT doing?
• Ellensburg proves no town is too small for top-notch bikeways.
• A deep dive into a value-added real-estate portfolio.
• World’s steepest funicular rail line to open in Switzerland, I’m jealous.
• Living cheek by gill in modern cities is possible — but it isn’t easy.
• Philly makes moves to reopen Franklin Square ghost station.
• Vera Katz, former Portland mayor, dies at 84, Jarrett has thoughts.
• Elon Musk has feelings on transit.
• Luas Cross City service expects 10m extra passenger trips a year.
• State of U.S. rental market: Rich get more options, poor suffer affordability crisis.
• Could wealthy neighbors kill Seattle’s plan to build affordable housing in Magnolia (again)? The quoted comments of Magnolia residents are disgusting, and the effectiveness of their obstructionism is at the root of our housing crisis, but I would be more enthused for this housing project if it weren’t in one of the hardest places in Seattle to serve effectively with transit.
• Where a “home for everyone” collides with “not in my neighborhood.” Oregonian Editorial Board goes into bat for more housing.
• Decade since recession: Thriving cities leave others behind.
• Sound Transit okays bus-on-shoulder on I-5 in Lynnwood.
• These bikes were made for Seattle, in which Knute Berger — surprising me, at least — comes out as an enthusiastic utility cycling advocate.
• Seattle’s bike-share pilot program ends this month, but the bikes are staying.
• Erica: The real surprise in Durkan’s staffing announcement was who wasn’t mentioned.
• Times Op-Ed for HALA: Neighborhood coalition threatens to make Seattle less affordable ($). A Times reader responds, denouncing Ballard as a “town-house ghetto“.
• Shenzhen goes all in on electric buses.
• Capitol Hill Seattle interviews outgoing Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce leader Sierra Hansen. Notably, she discusses why the North Broadway streetcar extension lost the support of the business community. Alas, it was for a bad reason (loss of parking and loading zones) rather than any good reasons (e.g. the mixed-traffic alignment has unimpressive ridership numbers and suffers most of the same problems as our buses.)

This is an open thread.

Over a year and a half after the new State Road 520 bridge opened to car traffic, pedestrians and cyclists will finally be able to cross Lake Washington using the floating bridge. The new 2.7-mile 520 bridge shared-use path, linking Seattle and the Eastside, is set to open at 3pm on December 20.  

Not only will this expand commute options, the new SR 520 path will also add to the 60-mile Lake Washington Loop Trail. Cascade Bicycle Club is planning several inaugural rides starting on both sides of the bridge to celebrate the grand opening.

On Cascade’s blog, Vicky Clarke, a policy manager for the group wrote that “For the region, the bridge trail represents a step toward our future: transportation infrastructure that’s accessible to all, and the ability to get more places by bike.”

An “out and back” version of the trail, which extended from Medina about 1.3 miles across the bridge leaving Seattle just out of reach, has teased bike commuters and pedestrians since it opened in summer 2016.

On the Seattle side, the complete trail set to open Wednesday starts at Montlake Park near the Arboretum and runs along the north side of the rebuilt bridge, ending in Medina.

Continue reading “SR520 Bicycle and Pedestrian Path Opens Today”

Although the human impacts are miniscule compared to those of the accident itself, there will be only minor changes to Amtrak Cascades service until further notice. According to Janet Matkin of WSDOT, the state has already taken possession of enough rolling stock to run all scheduled Cascades trips. Obviously, these trips will take the old route around Point Defiance until further notice, adding 10 minutes to all trips and increasing reliability incidents due to freight conflicts.

This means that trains will stop at the old station location on Puyallup Ave. in Tacoma. This morning’s train 502 from Portland was cancelled, but that should be it for cancellations.

The Eugene-Portland segment will have more changes, per Amtrak’s statement:

Beginning Dec. 20, Cascades Service from Eugene to Portland, OR will be operating with substitute equipment and limited amenities, including no food service, checked baggage service, business class or bikes. Pets will still be allowed on board. Additionally, Trains 505 and 508, which were scheduled to operate as thru service between Eugene and Seattle, will now operate only between Seattle and Portland. New Trains 515 and 510 will be introduced on the segment between Portland and Eugene and will be a cross platform connection at Portland for passengers traveling north of Portland.

Matkin said that inspection of infrastructure at the accident site is ongoing, so it is impossible to say when trains may use the new track segment again.

With the national attention that yesterday’s tragic derailment is getting, we felt it would be best to provide a bit of context about the accident’s site: the Point Defiance Bypass. While it is a “new” railroad, built primarily for passenger use, the corridor is over a century old and some pieces date back decades. The bridge over Interstate 5 in particular was built in 1936 over an older highway and was given new tracks as part of the project.

On May 1, 1891, the Tacoma, Olympia & Grays Harbor Railroad announced the completion of a 25-mile railway from Lacey to Lakeview (approximately where South Tacoma station is today), forming a new branch of the Northern Pacific Railway. The main line from Lakeview to Tacoma had been built in 1873 and continued south through what is now Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) towards Tenino. Although a parallel route was built along the coast and around Point Defiance in 1914, this inland route was sparsely used as a freight route by Northern Pacific, and later Burlington Northern to access the JBLM and South Tacoma areas.

By the 1990s, the railway was underused and caught the interest of WSDOT, who were planning what would become the Amtrak Cascades network. While Amtrak trains were using the route along the coast, the state’s 1997 Intercity Passenger Rail Plan envisioned a faster, inland route coupled with a new multimodal complex in Tacoma to link up with the Sounder and Link lines that Sound Transit planned for the city. The state legislature approved design and property acquisition funds in 2005, beginning a long series of back and forth meetings with cities, residents, the military, and other groups along the route. Sound Transit later acquired the whole corridor from BNSF in 2004.

President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package gave the bypass the boost it needed, providing much of the funding for the $181 million project and accelerating the completion date from 2019 to 2017 (a deadline mandated by the federal grant). By the following year, WSDOT was deep in environmental assessment and Sound Transit had already started moving dirt on the Lakewood to Tacoma segment. It received final approval from the Federal Railroad Administration in early 2013 and began construction in 2015, with work on the Nisqually junction completed later that year. The new station at Tacoma’s Freighthouse Square encountered a speed bump late into property acquisition negotiations, but was ultimately able to break ground in July 2016. Extensive testing on the whole corridor began in January of this year, with WSDOT and Sound Transit rolling out public service announcements about train safety. Passenger service began yesterday morning, and seemed to be going smoothly, until the train reached one of the final turns on the approach to Nisqually junction at 7:30 am. While the investigation has not determined the exact cause of the crash, early indications show that the train was traveling overspeed on a downhill section before the turn.

Amtrak Cascades #501 south from Seattle derailed this morning, while crossing over I-5 in the vicinity of Mounts Road, west of Dupont. There are at least three casualties, many injuries, and some carriages are a total loss. Our thoughts are with survivors, and the families of everyone on board. No root cause has been established, although there are no grade crossings on this section of the line.

I-5 will likely be closed for hours, so avoid freeway travel in this area and expect major disruptions.

Seattle Times is actively covering this disaster.

Update 10:28: “Per the Pierce County Sheriff, if you had a loved one on Amtrak Cascades 501, there is a family reunification center now at the Dupont City Hall. Please go there, NOT to the scene. The Amtrak number to call if you have family members on the train is 1-800-523-9101.”

Update 2:02 PM: Statement from WSDOT

Update 12/19 9:47 AM: New York Times: “The National Transportation Safety Board said at a Monday night briefing that the train had been traveling more than twice the speed limit before it derailed, or at 80 miles per hour instead of the allowable 30 m.p.h.”

Also, a detailed summary from Sandy Johnston at the Itinerant Urbanist discussing PTC, Amtrak, and much more.

Update 12/19 11:02 AM: Zack Willhoite, Pierce Transit employee and frequent STB contributor (MrZ) and Jim Hamre of All Aboard Washington, died in the accident.  Our thoughts are with their families and the communities they helped to build.

Yellow shirts filled Seattle City Council chambers, holding posters with hundreds of hand-signed petition along the walls. Members of the Transit Riders Union were out in force to voice their opinions to councilmembers, but the topic this time wasn’t potential bus cuts or a push for a low-income transit pass. Instead, the grassroots organization was advocating for an income tax on high earners.

The group’s inaugural 2011 campaign, Save Our Metro, began in response to King County Metro Transit’s plans to cut bus service after the recession caused a steep reduction in sales tax revenue. Now, six years later, the group’s mission has expanded to include this year’s push for a less regressive tax system.

“We were interested in not just forming a transit advocacy organization, but in building power by bringing large numbers of people together to fight for political gains in improving the transit system and other issues,” said Katie Wilson, the Transit Riders Union general secretary, describing the group’s origin.

For years, TRU fought for various transit measures that increased funding for bus service or expanded light rail. These raised sales and property taxes the group saw as regressive, which was frustrating.

To Wilson, one of the founding members of the group, the current suburbanization of poverty in the region led to a natural transition of issues for the Transit Riders Union.

Continue reading “How the Income Tax became an Issue for the Transit Riders Union”

This is an open thread.

10 years ago this month, to great fanfare, Seattle’s modern streetcar line opened, a 1.3-mile route between Westlake and South Lake Union.

Though it seems insignificant now, cast your mind back to 2007. The Seattle Monorail Project died just two years earlier, after costing the city $125M. A month before the streetcar opening, the Roads and Transit measure to expand light rail had just been defeated. Many people were openly questioning whether rail-based transit had a future in Seattle (Not coincidentally, 2007 is the year STB was founded). Thousands of people crowded into Westlake square to see our shiny new toy. I was working in the neighborhood at the time and recall the insane crowds on opening day.

The Seattle Streetcar system has had its ups and downs over the years. 10 years seems like a good time to look back at the system, and forward as the Center City Connector moves forward.

After ripping up the last of the city’s streetcars in the 1941, Seattle’s modern streetcar system kicked off with the South Lake Union line (setting aside the historic waterfront line). Half the funding was provided by local billionaire Paul Allen, who waned the line as an amenity to kickstart development in what was then the sleepy warehouse district known as South Lake Union.

Since then, mayors and Council members have had varying degrees of enthusiasm for streetcars. The streetcar system has taken on a totemic quality that made it about more than just a transit mode choice: if you were for it, it means you were for real estate development and “placemaking.” To be against it was to be for spending money on More Important Things. As with many things in this town, it became a question of What Do We Want to Be When We Grow Up?

Continue reading “Seattle’s Streetcar Turns 10”