Earlier this week, I asked Sound Transit if they had determined the cause of the extended Link disruption on September 17, and the cause of the disruption last Friday. I got this response from John Gallagher, Sound Transit Media Relations Manager:

The disruption on Sept. 17 was caused by a damaged pantograph on an LRV, which in turn damaged the OCS near UW station. We still do not know the cause of the pantograph damage. We were able to make repairs to the OCS to return the system to service, but we will need to have a weekend disruption to complete the repairs. We are looking for a weekend later this year when there won’t be any major events or activities so that we can minimize the number of passengers who will be impacted. This is likely to be a single-tracking event. For the time being, there is a 10 mph slow order from just before UW station to about 400 feet north of the station in the NB tunnel, which passengers likely notice as they travel through the area. This adds about two minutes overall to the trip.

“OCS” stands for Overhead Catenary System, which delivers power to Link trains through contact with the pantograph on top of the train cars. John Gallagher continued:

The outage last Friday occurred near the same location by coincidence but was not related to the OCS. There was a mechanical failure in the trailing car of the consist. Because of the location, we needed to check to make sure that it wasn’t OCS-related, but the LRV was eventually able to move to the station on its own power.

I also inquired about how Sound Transit is handling the crowding on the trains:

The volumes that we have been seeing since the Lynnwood extension opened are what we anticipated. We have surge trains on standby to provide additional capacity and relieve crowding should platforms become too crowded at peak, much as we have after sporting events, but we have not yet had the need to deploy those trains. We know the trains are really full during peak, and we appreciate riders’ patience as they adapt to the changes.

The crowding is expected to continue until the 2 Line opens across Lake Washington later next year, when trains will run every 3-4 minutes between Lynnwood and Downtown Seattle.

35 Replies to “Link Disruption”

  1. Speaking of access to the 2nd OMF being the limiting factor, has anyone seen anything direct from Sound Transit on how far ahead of the full 2 line opening they expect to be able to transfer trains back and forth to the East facility? Presumably at least during pre-revenue testing/training they should be OK for non-passenger maintenance movements. But could it go earlier once the tracks themselves are 100%? Or are there testing conflicts/FTA regulation issues that would be a problem even during the testing window?

    1. I expect two different “early” dates. That’s because it’s technically a new “extension” but the vehicles and systems would be already tested and running.

      The first is when out-of-service vehicles can regularly cross Lake Washington and reach the OMF in Bellevue. This date is when ST’s entire storage plan for Link vehicles would change — enabling all four-car trains and easier additional trains to ease any overcrowding. This is not the date when trains first cross the lake but instead the date when trains can easily cross the lake and ST takes advantage off it. It’s probably 3-5 months before the full opening.

      The second date is the beginning of simulation several weeks (6-10 weeks?) before Mercer Island and Judkins Park stations open. Then, the 2 Line service would appear to have to be fully open to riders between Lynnwood and CID and between South Bellevue and Downtown Redmond (opened earlier). I’m not sure if riders would be allowed between CID and South Bellevue (but the stations remaining closed). I don’t see ST running empty 2 Line trains from one end to the other because they already run service between these two segments in tested vehicles today.

      If ST PR is smart, they would portray each of these early dates as somewhat celebratory. Then the full opening would be the big celebration would go off with little risk of any embarrassing problems.

    2. This will be the first time with the testing segment in the middle of a line. I can’t imagine ST allowing passengers to stay on in the testing middle, since the point of the testing is to certify the segment is safe for passengers and won’t have breakdowns with a full train schedule running through it.

      1. I think that’s probably correct, Mike. However they’ll have to figure out how to clear the train while staying on the simulated schedule.

        The only recent similar situation I know of is the Regional Connector in LA. I can’t find out what they did for simulated service when I did a quick search.

        LA Metro will have a similar issue when the K Line opens near LAX next year — between Crenshaw and El Segundo segments.

      2. Al, I expect that they’ll run tell everyone to vacate the train at CID and continue on their way. Fare officers will board there and ticket and expel any rider they find at Judkins Park. Coming back the other way they’ll board at South Bellevue and ticket/expel riders either at Mercer Island or, if they can’t get to all cars, at Judkins Park.

        The ticket won’t be for a fare violation but rather trespass.

      3. @ Tom and Mike:

        Here is the LA Metro press release on the Regional Connector testing:

        https://thesource.metro.net/heads-up-regional-connector-train-testing-is-underway-and-you-may-see-hear-some-changes-to-a-e-and-l-line-trains/

        Assuming this is what’s expected here, you both are correct about riders getting kicked off the train before the opening date.

        Notably, that likely means that the 2 Line trains will run between CID and a Lynnwood several weeks before the I-90 segment opens.

      4. This will be the first time with the testing segment in the middle of a line.

        Yeah, but it is fundamentally no different than any of the extensions. You kick people out and then continue with the run. A lot of people heading to Lynnwood were confused (since the signs said “Lynnwood”) but they got off the train at Northgate.

      5. “fundamentally no different than any of the extensions. You kick people out and then continue with the run. ”

        That’s exactly right.

        The notable change will be however that 2 Line trains will be running between CID and Lynnwood a few months before the full Line 2 opens to passengers. Riders in North Seattle will start to see both 1 and 2 Line trains hopefully by the fall of 2025. That may create a little confusion.

  2. 1) Can Line 1 maintenance activities be done during the nightly closures so as to be less disruptive

    2) Are the Line 2 track defects across Lake WA so bad that trains based at OMF East can’t be brought over during a short AM and PM window?

    3) If the defects really are that bad, can the repair work be staged so as to bring one track into service more quickly so as to support such transfers?

    4) What are the limiting factors for repair time – work crews, in-place concrete curing time, … ?

    1. Neither track over the floating bridge is even close to ready for trains. I see them multiple times per week while riding the 550. The section in the middle of the bridge doesn’t look far away, but the bridge approaches at both ends still have active ongoing construction. It is actually discouraging how slowly those approaches are proceeding.

      The track between Bellevue and MI along with Judkins Park to the ID looks basically ready as far as I can tell though.

  3. “We are looking for a weekend later this year when there won’t be any major events or activities so that we can minimize the number of passengers who will be impacted.” Why wouldn’t ST already know which weekend it will be? The dates of events and activities, like Husky games, are known well in advance, so ST should already know which weekend it will be.

    1. You make it sound so simple, but how many different organizations do they need to contact in order to feel sure they’ve adequately populated their calendar, and what exactly counts as a “major event or activity” in the first place? Most likely this is not a trivial process of scrolling down the weekends looking for the first empty spot, but a judgement call involving various tradeoffs.

    2. The Sounders’ first-round play-off home match dates are set. Match 3 might not be necessary. The dates for potentially hosting a single-match conference semi-final, final, and possibly MLS Cup are known, but each of those are increasingly unlikely. Nevertheless, Lumen Field has to block out the time for each match and not book other events. ST is under pressure not to do a weekend single-tracking on any of these dates.

      The Seahawks could still have a home playoff game, or two, or three, and doubtful though that looks now, the season is still young.

      I was on the train yesterday. That slow order adding a couple minutes was quite tolerable.

    3. Mars, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect after a month of looking into the best weekend this year to make the repairs, factoring-in scheduled events, worker availability, etc., that they’d have a possible weekend identified. Example: “We are tentatively aiming for third weekend in December to make the repairs.”

      Btw, you say I’m making it sound so simple, but all I did was quote them. So if anyone is guilty of making it sound simple, it’s ST.

    1. As of 11:02a on Oct 17, the link has no information. No times or exactly what’s happening. I love how whoever issues alerts will tell us about sign installation but not pertinent info about an entire weekend’s worth of disruptions. It drives me nuts how nearly inept ST is at simple communication.

      2. I saw the station signs yesterday. The impact of the closure and bus bridge and frequency is well illustrated, but it says nothing about why. Still, I think ST said during the last East Link DSTT preparation closure that another one will be needed later this year, so this is probably it.

        I wish ST could address the UW Station issue at the same time. Extend the bus bridge to U-District if necessary. It’s better to have one big weekend closure than smaller a weekend closure plus a single-tracking period on different days. The latter potentially disrupts people’s trips on more days, so more of their trips. But the staff may be maxxed out on the one maintenance tasks and may not be available for UW station at the same time.

      3. What I don’t understand about the bus bridge is why the headways are worse than the Link headways. That just sounds like a poor experience with potentially lon waits and overcrowding. Operator shortage? Do they expect riders to prefer alternate routes over the bus bridge?

      4. “What I don’t understand about the bus bridge is why the headways are worse than the Link headways”

        It’s just what ST has chosen to do recently. In the past the bus bridge has sometimes run at 10 minutes. It’s also common for two articulated buses to run together in the bridge, so that a whole trainload of transferees can fit on them. ST has never mentioned the driver shortage as a reason for the bridge being 15 minutes. It just has an idea of a reasonable amount of time for passengers to wait during maintenance weekends, and 15 minutes is it. If Link were single-tracked (as it often is during other maintenance or breakdowns), the frequency would be 20 minutes so it would actually be worse.

      5. ST does encourage people to use other means during these periods rather than the bus bridge. The webpage links to a chart of parallel bus routes for different station pairs.

        I live inside the bus bridge area, so during these periods I stay home, take a bus route that avoids Link, or walk to the edge of the bridge and take Link from there. So I rarely have to transfer between Link and a bridge bus. This also works if you live in Link’s northern or southern part that is still running and are going to the middle, or to transfer to a bus in the middle. The people it doesn’t work for are those going between Link’s northern and southern parts; e.g., north Seattle to the airport. There you have little choice but to use the bus bridge and transfer twice, because any other bus routes to avoid the bridge would take significantly longer.

  5. I only take link once or twice a week but given how full the trains are I’m surprised sound transit haas not been using any of the planned surge capacity thus far. what level of chaos and inconvenience is needed to spur them to action?I’m not in a wheelchair but my mobility impairment is pretty significant and the current situation is barely tolerable.

    Vwvery Slightly related.: Are they going to fix it so all nb trains announce symphony? I’ve been on several still announcing university street on the train.

    1. I don’t believe it’s not using surge capacity. Link is nominally 8 minutes peak, 10 minutes off-peak, 15 minutes after 10pm. But several times recently I’ve seen peak and afternoon (12-3pm) trains coming every 5 or 6 minutes. So ST seems to be silently adding frequency to minimize crowding.

      Still, it’s normal peak hours to have to stand in the raised back or front sections. So if you need the level floor near the doors and more space than usual, or are less steady than usual getting in and out, you’ll have to kind of force people to give you that space.

      I find it a bit painful to go up and down the steps to the raised section, and I need a handhold (or preferably two) to avoid falling while standing, and to walk while the train is moving and there are people around. Sometimes I’ve been in a seat in the raised section and the aisles are full, and I get worried I won’t be able to get out at Capitol Hill because it will take too long to get to the door before it closes. So I start a station or two early, and gradually move to the lower floor so I’m near the door when it opens.

  7. “The crowding is expected to continue until the 2 Line opens across Lake Washington later next year, when trains will run every 3-4 minutes between Lynnwood and Downtown Seattle”.

    See passage above from the end of the post; is it from STB or ST?

    I have read ST to be planning eight-minute headway on lines 1 and 2, combining for four-minute headway between IDS and Lynnwood.

    Could ST operate two six-minute lines combining for three-minute headway between IDS and Lynnwood? Before Covid, six-minute headway was provided on what is now labeled the 1 line. Six-minute headway with three-car trains provides the same capacity as eight-minute headway with four-car trains. The shorter waits makes Link more attractive and integration easier. LRV per hour = (60/8)x4 = 30 = (60/6)x3.

    Is a limiting factor the number of minutes required to turn a train via the tail track north of Lynnwood station?

    Yes, we know the two sub-fleets cannot be intermingled.

    1. There’s old planning documents that mention the possibility of 6 and 7 minute headways on East Link (and 5 minute headways on Central Link), but I don’t know if Sound Transit still thinks either is possible.

      I feel like a 30 second difference in average wait time and 1 minute difference in max wait time isn’t enough that I would personally care much, but if crowding is still an issue after the 2 line fully opens, it’ll be great news that Link is so popular, but then Sound Transit should buy more vehicles, buy open-gangway vehicles, expand the OMFs, hire more drivers and mechanics, experiment with turning back some trains into the crowded segment, upgrade signalling systems to allow sub-2 minute headways, and do an engineering study to see if there’s a viable path to elevating the Rainier Valley segment.

    2. The East Link EIS is entirely based on 8 trains an hour for both 1 Line and 2 Line. That’s a train every 3 and 3/4 minutes.

      ST3 promised 10 trains an hour (6 minute service or 3 minutes combined) for every line. That was one of those promises that was thrown in without detailed study of the effect on operations. It just sounded good.

      I’m not aware of what ST has to do to get to 20 trains an hour. There’s the throughput at stations and the reversal process that has to be specifically analyzed. Signal systems have improved since 2015 so any study done before the ST3 vote appears to be dated. There are new automation aspects that go avoided by ST too.

      And ST has not studied whether they should install platform screen doors on Link as far as I know. They also haven’t assessed if the reversal tracks and sidings can handle a high frequency as far as I know.

      I’ve long predicted that any ST4 will include a big share for system upgrades to address safety and reliability issues that emerge. Not only are there few extensions that would be deemed important, but a yes vote seems more likely if operational problems are addressed. Of course they won’t be clear until 2027 if not later. .

  8. “ The crowding is expected to continue until the 2 Line opens across Lake Washington later next year,…”

    It looks to me that the relief date is when simulation begins for the full 2 Line (in service between Lynnwood and CID, and between South Bellevue and Downtown Redmond). That’s many weeks before the 2 Line opens across Lake Washington as the author wrote.

    LA Metro did a similar simulation operation when they opened the Regional Connector recently, and just announced a similar operation for the K Line testing around LAX.

    And ST could choose to have more train sets once they can get out-of-service across Lake Washington. That would even be earlier than the simulation period.

    2. As an aside, the ST website really doesn’t make it clear when there’s a major service disruption – I shouldn’t have to sift through a bunch of random notices like new arrival time signage installations in order to find out that Link is being single tracked or there’s a closure/bus bridge.

      They really should highlight major disruptions more obviously at the top / place a notice on the home page too.

    3. There is definitely a comical element to the number of alerts but mostly it’s embarrassing. Sound transit seem even mildly concerned

    4. Annnndddd down again after tonight’s Kraken game. Holy hell, ST… this is embarrassing for you.

      1. It is surprising this disruption is lasting as long as it has, having started around 2pm today.

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