While 2019 will be a quiet year for transit openings, there’s plenty of upcoming events for transport aficionados to look forward to, whether we’re ready or not.
January–February: The viaduct, the tunnel, and the apocalypse
It’s been covered to death locally, ourselves included, but in case you’ve been under a rock for the past year: the long-overdue closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is upon us. On Friday, January 11, the last drivers will pass over the structure and the three-week “Seattle Squeeze” will begin while the ramps to the new SR 99 Tunnel are readied for opening day.
On February 2, the viaduct and the new tunnel will be opened to pedestrians for an official inauguration event, with plenty of activities at both portals, all free of charge with an online ticket. A paid-entry bike ride is also happening the following day.
March: BRT and New Bus Networks in Everett
To coincide with the opening of Paine Field’s small (and hard-fought) passenger terminal, both of the local transit operators in Snohomish County are preparing to debut new routes.
On March 17, Everett Transit will revamp their bus network, reducing service for some areas and laying down the foundation of a less chaotic system. Route 8 will serve the Paine Field terminal, bringing with it a direct connection to Everett Station, while the circulator routes in South Everett are straightened out into normal neighborhood collectors.
The following weekend, on Sunday, March 24, Community Transit will snip the ribbon on its second bus rapid transit project: the Swift Green Line. Running from a new transit center near the Boeing plant in Everett to Paine Field, Mariner Park & Ride, Mill Creek, and Canyon Park in north Bothell, this route will create a new frequent service trunk for the county and patch a small gap in Everett Transit’s new network.
March 23: The last tunnel bus
Seattle’s older, less-problematic downtown tunnel will see a major change of its own on March 23: light rail trains will overtake buses as the sole users of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
One of the most unique experiments in North American transit, running buses and trains through the same tunnel and set of stations*, will come to a close after just under ten years of joint operations. The last remains of Convention Place Station and its temporary bus ramp will make way for a massive expansion of the convention center, while Sound Transit wishes to speed up trains that are slowed by the quirks of joint operations.
You’ll still be able to catch the 41, 550, and other beloved tunnel routes, just on the ever more crowded downtown streets. Expect a somber transit party for the very last trip, which should leave just after 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 23.
* Pittsburgh has its own train/bus tunnel, but it lacks stations.
Spring: Lynnwood Link Breaks Ground
With federal funding secured and demolition already underway, the stage is set for Lynnwood Link to break ground and begin construction. While visible construction won’t be as impressive this year, Sound Transit does offer a convenient viewing platform: a double-decker bus (of which there will be more delivered in 2020) barreling down I-5.
Construction is still ongoing on three other ST2 Link extensions, at various levels of progress: Northgate Link’s stations now reach above street level and work has shifted towards systems installation and trackwork. East Link has rails in place on Mercer Island, viaducts built in Bellevue, and a completed tunnel “bore”, but visible work on the Seattle section is only just starting. The Hilltop Link project in Tacoma broke ground recently and has kicked into full gear, with street closures for utility relocation.
Meanwhile, the status of two more ST2(ish) projects are still in limbo. Federal Way Link is the next target for FFGA lobbying while also awaiting the signing of a design-build contract. The Downtown Redmond Extension of East Link will also use a design-build contract and is expected to begin construction in 2020.
Spring: Amtrak returns to Point Defiance Bypass
Pending the completion of the NTSB’s investigation into the December 2017 derailment in DuPont, WSDOT and Amtrak hope to resume Cascades service on the Point Defiance Bypass this spring. PTC testing has been underway for several months along the route and have been deemed successful enough to wind down. The bypass will add reliability to the Cascades schedule and shave a few minutes off travel times, but the stated advantage of being able to add more trips has been offset by a shortage due to another derailment last month that requires extensive trainset repairs.
Spring: Viaduct demolition
If all goes as planned, the bulk of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be demolished between March and June by WSDOT contractors in a seven-step process with conventional equipment. The gradual transformation of the freeway into rubble (bound for filling the Battery Street Tunnel) will be a spectacle worth seeing a few times, though hearing protection is recommended.
Summer and Fall: First glimpses of new Link trains
Sound Transit’s ST2 order of 152 light rail vehicles from Siemens will bear fruit sometime this year, with the first car scheduled for testing and commissioning during the middle of the year (more details on that are forthcoming). As it will be in testing between and around normal light rail trips, the Siemens car may make unannounced visits to a station (or railyard) near you. While full relief isn’t expected until 2020, the two-car rush hour light train may soon become little more than a distant memory or an irregular annoyance.
September: North Eastside Restructure
Metro and Sound Transit plan to unveil a new bus network in September for the “North Eastside”, roughly covering Kirkland, Woodinville, Bothell, and Kenmore. Route 255 will be caught in yet another major change, as its riders will instead be dropped off at an improved UW Station in lieu of downtown or the shuttered Montlake Freeway Station. Other local routes will be shuffled and reorganized into a more coherent network with fewer I-405 crossings and consolidated schedules.
Miscellaneous events
A few other transit happenings are sprinkled throughout the year, so there will be more good fodder for the blog.
Sound Transit’s promised upgrades ($) to the escalator situation at Capitol Hill and UW stations will start this year with new access to emergency stairways and a replacement for a set of lower mezzanine escalators.
Several other downtown projects, including the Colman Dock renovation, KeyArena rebuild, and the construction of new office buildings at Rainier Square and Amazon HQ1, will also continue through the year, providing new surprises for passersby as traffic is interrupted for short periods of time.
Martin H. Duke also contributed to this post.
“Expect a somber transit party for the very last trip, which should leave just after 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 23.”
Which bus are you referring to? Looking at the schedules, I believe the last bus to use the downtown tunnel will be the southbound #41, arriving at International District station at 12:53 AM. (The northbound 1:12 departure is rerouted to the surface every night, as the tunnel is already closed).
The southbound 150 leaves at 1:23am. My roommate used to ride it when his Kent job shift started at 3am. (He had to wait 45 minutes for the shift to start.)
Based on scheduled Saturday service data from OneBusAway, the last buses in the tunnel will be:
Intl. Dist./Chinatown Station Northbound:
– Route 550 at 12:42am (last inbound bus)
– Route 41 at 12:06am (last outbound bus)
Westlake Station Northbound:
– Route 550 at 12:48am (last inbound bus)
– Route 41 at 12:11am (last outbound bus)
Westlake Station Southbound:
– Route 150 at 12:25am (last outbound bus, reference in the post)
– Route 41 at 12:28am (last inbound bus)
Intl. Dist/Chinatown Station Southbound:
– Route 150 at 12:31am (last outbound bus, referenced in the post)
– Route 41 at 12:34am (last inbound bus)
If you want to ride that last 150, you’re probably in no hurry, so you might as well start at the 9th and Pine stop and ride through all 5ish stations. If you don’t mind riding inbound to Seattle, then you can be on the last bus to ever use the tunnel, which will enter IDS at 12:42am, and finally leave the tunnel for good shortly after departing Westlake Station at 12:48am on Sunday, March 24th, 2019.
Oh, Saturday, I’m used to service changes being on Saturday and the last runs being the night before.
To be perfectly honest, there will be quite a few people who will be popping a Champaign cork or two when the buses leave the tunnel and will be anything but somber. You just don’t slave your highest capacity, most reliable mode to your least reliable mode.
The transition to a rail only DSTT is well past due, cant wait to see it finally happen. The speed and reliability improvements for Link will be much appreciated.
I think they can also get rid of tunnel security now. All the bus rider rift-raff will be gone!
More bubbly please. :)
Yep, I’ll be one of those people! Always annoying when my train is stuck in the tunnel due to “congestion” (which means bus traffic).
Yeah, nasty buses, carrying the overwhelming majority of riders and the ability to carry way more people — time to make room for trains that lack the stops to have that kind of demand, and the cars that could handle the load if they did.
This city does everything backwards. They should have build U-District to downtown first, then expanded (north to Northgate, south to Rainier Valley), bought the trains to actually handle those loads and then kicked out the buses.
Thousands of bus riders will spend way too much time stuck in traffic (or just give up, and drive) while this won’t help the trains much at all.
Because classism is SUCH a good look,
Build the wall and we wouldn’t need buses.
Les, how do clean middle class commuters from Bellevue, Kirkland, Ballard, Greenlake, Lake City, or Kent get to downtown without a bus, especially when it doesn’t coincide with the Sounder schedule? In some cities you can take a train from all but the most obscure locations. Seattle isn’t like that, especially until ST2 and ST3 Link is built, and even after that. When I had a friend visting for a weekend in 2000 he said at the end, “I’ve never ridden so many buses in all my life.” And the only places we went to were the airport, the U-District, 65th, and maybe Capitol Hill. This was before Link of course, but it’s still like that if you don’t live in the Rainier Valley to UW axis or go to places other than that.There’s a reason why RapidRide E will exist even after ST3, and even if Aurora is fully gentrified by then.
Laz isn’t the one bringing the ‘classism’ judgments and more importantly, he’s right. I do feel for the bus riders and we should have delayed the convention center construction but it is downright galling to sit and wait for a train that you can see right there while a bus waits for another bus to finish loading so it can scoot another 25′ up the platform and stop so the driver can slowly unfurl the ramp, take their seatbelt off, and go deal with securing a wheelchair while everyone else waits to resume boarding one at a time, change-fumbling and all. “Is this guy seriously paying in nickels?!?” “Now where’d I stick that durn transfer.” “How many pockets do you have?!?”
It is time for the buses to leave the tunnel so the train can function efficiently and we know the real issue is transit v. cars, not buses v. trains. There is no reason (other than the minor issues of lack of political will, strength of the car lobby) that the buses shouldn’t be able to run in and out of downtown on surface streets without getting caught in congestion. Paint is cheap, driver salaries are not.
Lazarus: the two agencies could have improved fare collection in the DSTT. The end to joint operations is premature and due to the sale of CPS. ST has only 62 LRV, so that will limit Link capacity and frequency.
Bruce: no one knows when the new LRV will be in revenue service.
ST2 projects: when will ST and Bothell provide commuter parking along NE 185th Street and allow the Seattle oriented routes to change?
3 things you missed
1) SLUT upgrades
2) Restart of CCC construction
3) State politicians announce 2 billion for freight rail bypasses and other preliminary work for a 30 minute interval Cascade Express service from Seattle to Tacoma and thus the initiation of WA HSR.
Oh, and #4 is: CRC plan is announced.
The very significant West Seattle – Ballard preferred alternative is due in March and April of 2019. It will shape the entire light rail system and Seattle for decades.
Less significant but still important Tacoma Done Link preferred alternative is due later in 2019.
For me it is the IH station component. I sure hope they do something to integrate those 3 stations better than what exist.
Pittsburgh gave us the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, concept and conception. Our whole project team was from Pittsburgh. Along the wall at Third Avenue end of Westlake’s northbound platform, there’s a bench engraved with a quilt, in memory of chief architect Ed Elliott.
Pittsburgh and Seattle, viewed with more annoyance than credit is what I consider the team’s signature achievement. Stations inserted into existing buildings like dental endodontics. Complicated and hard to navigate, but priceless use of space available.
There are always measures. If Fare Inspectors get Star Fleet uniforms- tell me you can’t set phasers to “Inspect!” – customer service can get some big floppy hats and wood staffs like Gandalf. Doubt we’d lack for volunteers. Huge number of Tolkien fans have had our beards turn grey years ago. Maybe we could
But as for just about the world’s every transit system besides the hill towns of Portugal, Pittsburgh inherited a winding Fort Knox of railroads, in their case from the coal mining days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6nMRdAiuxU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WThcgNhekOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wj_W6iIo3k
https://www.centuryelevators.com/mining-and-tunnels.html
(Not necessarily in Pittsburgh, but just a thought for us. Beats plywood and signs saying escalelevators don’t work.)
Pittsburgh’s definitely worth a field trip. For STB participation, really should be required. This time of year dress warm. PATCO’s snow-plows worth the trip to see. Trucks the size of a four story building.
Mark Dublin
I’ll be watching to see how many cars use 3RD Ave and if they’re going to do enforcement. To avoid taking up space while ticketing they could have a place set aside on one of the east-west streets. Cops directing traffic would also help.
Cops will be doing a lot of traffic direction downtown during Carpocalypse. I’m cautiously optimistic that it will be a net improvement for bus flow, and a net loss for car travel time dependability. It could turn out to actually make buses flow more slowly, averaged across all downtown paths. But we shall see.
Question. Am I the only one to notice that for all the analysis, mostly to pin blame in advance, nobody has mentioned a single name on the Seattle City Council?
In all decency, shouldn’t somebody tell Sam Zimbabwe about the charter footnote says that he and Jenny Durkan are actually the entire City Government?
https://www.seattle.gov/council Best I can do to help them feel Wanted. No, not the Post Office anymore! Really miss that those pics with the numbers. Those “Look What Fashion Models Have Been In Jail” websites should start using them.
But I do have to hand it to the Mayor for pure ice cold shrewd on this one. Rather than blame her for near-zero prep for transit priority, doubt it’ll take her an hour to know exactly what needs to be done, where, and by whom after she shoots their predecessor.
Sad, unfair, and the fault of typical Fake News from Hillary-lovers who hate me but Angle Lake and Tacoma are both overbooked.
However, knowing nothing at all about Sam, really have to say that in the weeks and months ahead, if Seattle’s transportation system needs a face it can stand to wake up and look at in the mirror every morning, it’s his.
LINK to Sea-Tac to ST 574 to Tacoma Dome to Intercity Transit 612 to Olympia Transit Center, Sam. We’ve got your asylum papers all processed.
Mark Dublin
Going to be a great year. Unless you use the 255 which gets screwed twice. Belltown to Juanita becomes a 3 seat ride. Still unclear where to catch the 255 once it is out of the tunnel. Why aren’t they using existing surface routing?Interested to see how metro screws up the new improved connection at UW station.
“Belltown to Juanita becomes a 3 seat ride.”
Practically speaking, it would be a two-seat ride. Link from Westlake Station to UW Station, then 255 from there to Juanita. Belltown is close enough to Westlake station that it would most likely make more sense to walk, rather than wait for an additional bus.
Speak for yourself. You must not be disabled. There is still enough service on third ave to make it more reasonable to catch a bus to Westlake. Hence the third seat. The great link God drives everything now
Last time I took the Amtrak thruway bus from points north to a transfer at King Street Station it took 45 minutes to get from the Ship Canal to the I-5 exit it uses. That’s the mess the 255 would be partly stuck in after the convention center takes out the tunnel entrance. Unfortunately there aren’t any good options.
Metro has shown a unusual (for them) degree of disregard for the disabled in both planning cycles for the North Eastside, but this second round is better. The original plan had all direct to downtown or UW buses with the exception of the 277 only going through Totem Lake freeway station where there was no parking at all for handicapped folks and no real drop off zone other than a regular bus stop. Folks would have had to walk 1000+ feet from Kingsgate PR or ride a bus to Kirkland Transit Center.
Is the Eastside restructure decided or does it still need final approval? Is it the same as the proposal in the article?
The Metro North Eastside restructure goes to King County Council for approval in April. The Sound Transit Board will approve its part, conditional on the Metro part having been approved, sometime thereafter.
Spinning off from this section of the post “Spring: Amtrak returns to Point Defiance Bypass”…..
All but 4 of the nation’s rail systems have failed to meet the Dec 31, 2018 deadline extension for fully implementing PTC. This is just unacceptable imo and I hope this is one of the issues that the Dems demand answers to in the 116th Congress. Hell, bring Sec. Chao herself up to the hill to testify.
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/01/01/politics/positive-train-control-deadline/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F
Does the rest of the world have PTC? When did they install it?
“The Department of Transportation, the railroad administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are largely closed due to the partial government shutdown.”
I guess these agencies don’t matter since there’s no hurry to open them.
“Does the rest of the world have PTC? When did they install it?”
That’s neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that we now have statutory language and the supporting regulations under Title 49 requiring these rail systems to have PTC implemented:
“(7)Implementation deadlines.
(i) Each railroad must complete full implementation of its PTC system by December 31, 2018.
(ii) A railroad is excepted from paragraph (b)(7)(i) of this section and must complete full implementation of its PTC system by December 31, 2020, or the date specified in its approved alternative schedule and sequence, whichever is earlier, only if the railroad:
(A) Installs all PTC hardware and acquires all spectrum necessary to implement its PTC system by December 31, 2018;
(B) Submits an alternative schedule and sequence providing for implementation of positive train control system as soon as practicable, but not later than December 31, 2020;
(C) Notifies the Associate Administrator in writing that it is prepared for review of its alternative schedule and sequence under 49 U.S.C. 20157(a)(3)(B); and
(D) Receives FRA approval of its alternative schedule and sequence.”
The full regs can be found here:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/236.1005
Forget which Train Robber Baron considered a freight train same as a mechanical milking nozzle for a little boy pig to play with. But if you pulled BN’s passenger “papers”, doubt shareholders would vote to sue for their return. My own urgent request to my every pertinent legislator is best I can do.
From close-range observation, old age is not my personal choice of death. Anybody ridden Greyhound lately? Memory of last trip lingers and likely forbids. Given Portland traffic, my car will end our love affair and leave me to walk home across the Willamette. So will sit in the bistro car with a brandy in one hand and a rescue axe in the other the whole trip down to see ride MAX, see the Art Museum, and do the Tramway at sunset.
And definitely that long elevator ride from the Washington Park platform to see the meerkats at the zoo. They are actually a kind of South African mongoose. You can watch them cautiously stand up and follow the trajectory of the jets down to the airport. Feathers or not, a hawk’s a hawk.
But for my readers this evening, I really hope more than one of you will apply to fill one of Metro’s present vacancies. And personally carry enough passengers to understand why I’ll never take anyone I care about aboard a train under Cascades’ present management.
My wife was a charter member of the railroad passengers’ association, whatever its title. Had she been alive and able to move, let alone drag me down the platform in December of 2017, the two of us would’ve been aboard that God damned train. And being no respecter of persons, all Death would’ve cared about was making his quota.
Tlsgwm and this posting’s whole readership , we’re not talking “implementation” here. The point is that whether it’s an intercity express train or a seven passenger van, it’s plain aggravated murder to put passengers’ lives at the mercy of anybody-including a whole political and economic System- whose primary vehicle control mechanism is not precision-programmed, severely adjusted, fully engaged, and securely mounted at the UPPER end of their own spine.
Mark Dublin
A bit more here:
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/abcs-of-railroading/2018/02/what-is-positive-train-control
Basically none of the off the shelf solutions satisfied what the freight railroads wanted.
Glenn, from your contacts, experience and perspective in Portland…..how could a major railroad put anybody at the throttle of a train who, on a line known problematical, did not know where his train was at any random railroad tie from the south end of the King Street platform
to the first baggage-wagon at journey’s end? Backwards in the dark.
And anybody just about to cite this as curable by automation: Whoever certified this driver’s fitness will also write the program for his digital replacement- without benefit of the skill, common sense and decency the poor man had programmed into him from, what is it now, a week before he was born? Doesn’t BN even have a department called “RISK?”
ISIS? Al Qaeda? All they’ve got to do is kick back watching soccer in their combat bunker in a penthouse in Vegas, check their e-mail time to time, and know that within fifteen minutes America will hand them something so perfect that it definitely would be a sin to not take credit for. Think bin Laden’s troops really did this.
But while they didn’t exactly die with their boots on- Gucci doesn’t do camo, or desert, do they?- at least, unlike the thousands of helpless people we stuff Angle Lake with before we send them same Point of Origin as our ICE’s forebears sent my Jewish relatives…..They died with all their documents in order.
But Back on Track for our trains and the buses they were supposed to share the DSTT with. Huge time, money, effort and equipment went into a control system designed specifically to handle joint rail and bus operations in the DSTT for the project’s whole life. My recollection is two months’ use, max. Same as Waterfall Fountain at CPS.
Anybody knows better, fill me in. But reallydoubt there was ever any order to turn it off and send it to sleep with the mops. Recall that original bus order was slashed. Bredas’ general performance, wide agreement that Low Bid is an International Crime Against Humanity. I also think that our trains arrived about ten years behind schedule.
But real truth? Have mentioned how many visitors from places with a hundred years’ transit, old and brand new, bus and multiweight rail told me same thing: “I wish (your choice of serious rail) Baltimore, New York City, Chicago, Boston and maybe some of Europe too…would do something like THIS!”
Wish we could’ve sneaked it into the guidebooks that in the reserved Nordic culture of Seattle, it’s embarrassing for public agencies and their personnel at all levels to be praised in public. It really is true that the Norse trickster god Loki is always just waiting for the third second of announced failure-proofing.
So path set in stone: When you are absolutely certain that you’ve got Ballard Station just exactly right….Shut Up! And also be glad you’re not the Deity who has to reach down the giant wolf’s throat and make him give back the sun he just swallowed and shake it off to make Spring’s first shower. And Loki’s also got a West Seattle address.
Mark
Unfortunately, these types of accidents have happened several times in the last 10 years or so, including one in Spain.
My own opinion is that the industry needs to study the impacts of concrete ties on eye strain. The flashing of the white can produce a really odd vertigo-like feeling that is quite disorienting. I’ve experienced it myself when I rode in a cab a few times.
A few thoughts on the above blog post:
a) Really appreciate Sound Transit kicking in a photo of one of their new trains under construction. But more photogenic nose aside, it’s like meet new train – same old Link train with new nose and wiring.
Psst, should get what TransLink is getting for their SkyTrain – Mk IIIs with sleek bodies and four-car trains with open gangways!
b) Sad that the Paine Field terminal will open on 11 Feb, a full month before transit connections kick in. That’s a major epic fail on multiple parts as much as not connecting the #1 reason to fly to Paine Field (Now 100% Boeing… I hear from a good source Future of Flight & Boeing Tour had over 300K visitors in 2018) – not just the two transit agencies involved. Mayors and transit boards also failed, and I would daresay the FAA. It’s no secret how I feel about more transit for Paine Field and fenceline community Mukilteo so I will stop there.
c) Bummed how low key the end of buses in the Seattle Transit Tunnel will be. 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 23? Come on, should be a bit of a celebration eh? The frequency of buses connecting the tunnel stations I did deeply appreciate :-).
Seems like no one (either Everett Transit or Community Transit) thinks it’s worth running an all-day, 7-day connection between Mukilteo and the shiny new Seaway Transit Center. A route that is the same as ET 70, except straight to STC instead of the Boeing loop could run every half hour with a single bus. They could make the cost less by running every hour off-peak and interlining it with the proposed 3, and pay for it by having Community Transit truncate the 113 at STC and split the cost of the all-day 70.
Of course probably not a lot of people ride the bus from Mukilteo, but a lot of suburbs have some sensible baseline bus service. And because CT is already going to be running a bus to the transit center next to Boeing every 20 minutes on weekends, they might as well run a 20 or 40 minute bus to Mukilteo with a timed transfer to make the BRT investment make some sense (the green line gets you so close!).
Of course, this is from an agency that is planning on running buses “connecting” to 20 minute swift (and each other, supposedly) at 40, 45, and 50 minute headways on weekends, so it’s not like they thought much of this through to begin with.
I think this type of shuttle run makes a ton of sense once Seaway Transit Center gets a Link station (replacing the meandering milk run Mukilteo gets today).
But, until then, I’m not so sure. There’s not enough demand in Mukilteo to justify sending more than one all-day route there, and it makes sense for that one route to connect with the regional transit system, which, for now, means it needs to go to Lynnwood.
In a better universe the agency running the ferry would have a timed shuttle bus to a regional transfer point; i.e., Lynnwood Transit Center or Everett Station) since it’s the ferry that’s located away from the regional transit network. It’s the same concept as an airport running its parking shuttle to the rail network if the station is a mile away, or companies and office buildings running shuttles to trunk transit. It used to be only Silicon Valley companies that did this to Caltrain stations. I’m glad to see Seattle companies have started doing this, at least the big ones. But I gather in Silicon Valley even groups of small companies or buildings containing small companies do it.
I wouldn’t say that Silicon Valley companies are doing it in altruism. First, there was a California law in the 1990’s that required major employers to reduce single-occupant mode share, which planted the seed for many of these ideas. Then, major site developments usually have to get through a state-mandated EIR, which can legally result in commitments to either provide these services or pay for hundreds of millions in highway construction. Many of the smaller Silicon Valley cities have voters who suffer through worker traffic jams every weekday — and are often speaking about what worker traffic is doing in council meetings and constituent meetings. Finally, most workers need housing and a non-work life and live 20 to 70 miles away — and it’s that last mile that’s the biggest hassle to get to work — so that the shuttles are a good recruiting incentive to offer prospective employees.
Not service openings, but visual progress nonetheless: both Roosevelt and Northgate stations will be done in 2019 (U District is Q1 2020). On East Link, substantial completion of the Mercer Island to South Bellevue section will happen in July, while Mercer Island to the west Mercer lid will be done in December. The Bel-Red section will be done in Q4, and the Overlake section in December.
https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/october_2018_link_progress_repor_for_website.pdf
Thanks for the hyperlink! Interesting….
Why is systems testing for Northgate taking longer than every other extension?
Why does ST ignore infill stations in the program?
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/atr.5670180206
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUsRg9kkPPc
Essen had joint operation in a tunnel for a decade.
There are also zoning requirements driving some of the Silicon Valley shuttles. Stanford University is allowed to expand, but it must ensure that there are no net new peak hour single occupant auto trips. Stanford is very incentivized to support transit and biking. Facebook has a cap on the number of parking spaces it can build and occupy, which it is likely to reach in the not too far distant future. There are other properties with parking caps. Of course, Stanford and Facebook are each massively well-funded, which helps.
Another thing forgotten that could really cripple transit funding all over Washington State is the submittal of Initiative 976 to the legislative. Proposed by “anti transit” Tim Eyman, this is being submitted today to the Secretary of State (yes, it would repeal any “voter approved” transit funding, such as ST 3 and Seattle Transportation Benefit district that funded extra transit service in Seattle.