Real-time arrival out for the winter?

Posted on by Martin H. Duke

Regular Link riders might notice that real-time arrival information did not, in fact, come back with the Northgate stations as promised in September. ST’s John Gallagher says that “While the system was accurate the majority of the time, when it was wrong, it was really wrong.” It would cost “a significant amount of money” to correct these problems.

On the other hand, I saw real time data on the signboards at Westlake on Sunday, so maybe they’re under-promising and engineers have hacked something together?

Regardless, the good news is that ST’s PIMS program is set to wrap up in Quarter 2 of 2022, so the next-generation system will be here soon enough that it’s not worth it to patch up the old one. The result of an RFP in 2018, in 2019 ST shared some early mockups (at right in the picture above) and projected it to be ready with East Link. It appears we’ll get these many months early.

Pierce Transit reduces bus service due to operator shortages

Posted on by Alex Kvenvolden
Pierce Transit 2002 New Flyer C40LF CNG 174
Pierce Transit bus in Tacoma (source: Shane Ramkissoon on Flickr)

Beginning Sunday, November 7th, Pierce Transit will reduce service on some routes, including some PT-operated ST Express routes, due to persistent shortage of bus operators. The hope is that with service reduced to match the level of service that current operators can reliably provide, trip cancellations will be much rarer, and you can be more reasonably sure that scheduled bus service will be delivered. Here are the changes by route:

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Podcast #101: My Betrayal of All That is Good

Posted on by Martin H. Duke

Bruce Nourish joins me to discuss a bunch of stuff.

  • (0:00) Hot takes on the election; we basically agree on all issues and then vote in opposite ways. Warning: we go way off-topic beyond transit and land use, to where we probably know less than you do. So skip ahead if this will just irritate you.
  • (32:15) On STB’s long hiatus this year
  • (35:10) Transit advocacy and journalism in 2021 (Katie Wilson’s fares op-ed)
  • (46:00) Martin and Bruce’s pet issues going forward (Martin’s misinterpreted legislative agenda piece)

Download link

Did you remember to vote?

Posted on by Brent White
You can drop off your ballot at a box on the north side of Schmitz Hall, a couple blocks south and one block east of U-District Station, among other places, by 8 pm today / map by King County Elections Dept

It may have snuck up on you, but today is election day. Ballots are due in drop boxes by 8 pm sharp.

There are a lot of drop boxes, including several very close to 1 Line stations. There are also a few Vote Centers where you can register to vote if you have not already, and vote privately on one of the accessible electronic voting machines.

STB did not do an endorsement process this time, but there are plenty of other groups that did, including:

… and many others. That’s probably more than you have time to read today. 8 pm sharp. Get your ballot in.

To reduce masklessness on trains, add more dispensers

Posted on by Brent White
Mask dispenser by door of Kinkysharyo light rail vehicle / photo by author

As I was boarding a bus a few days ago, I saw a young gentleman sitting close to the middle of the bus, maskless. I pulled a mask out of the dispenser at the front of the bus, walked back to the gentleman, and handed the mask to him. He thanked me and put it on.

Then, I caught the 1 Line. I sat in the fourth car, per usual, to be in the least-populated part of the train. A maskless gentleman claimed a standing position a few feet away from me. I got up and headed toward the raised seating section at the end of the car, where there is a 50/50 chance of being a mask dispenser. Unfortunately, this car’s dispenser was on the far side of the traincar, and the maskless guy was standing between me and the dispenser. So, I settled for keeping my distance from the guy.

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