Two weeks ago, Sound Transit announced the decision to expand overnight maintenance once a month to improve system reliability, and kicked off that work last weekend during which the agency closed all 1 Line stations south of Rainier Beach a few hours early each night to allow for additional maintenance.
Yesterday, Sound Transit issued a news release announcing seven more “strategic closures” intended to “support repairs, maintenance, and critical 2 Line integration work”. The agency says buses will replace trains during these service suspensions, the first of which is this Saturday. Details after the jump.
Upgrades, Repairs, and Maintenance:
- Upgrade: Sat., Nov. 8, until 2pm: Closed between U District and Westlake to upgrade ventilation equipment. The agency recently temporarily closed the Beacon Hill station to repair and upgrade the ventilation system there, after electromechanical failures forced the station to close unexpectedly in August. ST told Seattle Transit Blog these are the last two stations of a 15-station project to upgrade switches in the fire life safety system.
- Repair: Sun., Nov. 16, all day: Closed between Capitol Hill and Stadium to replace a cracked rail north of Westlake. This should resolve the “slow order” currently in effect on northbound trains out of Westlake.
- Extra Monthly Maintenance: Tues., Nov. 18, to Thurs., Nov. 20: Service between Capitol Hill and Stadium will end early (likely sometime between 10 and 11pm) as part of the expanded monthly maintenance program.
- Extra Monthly Maintenance: Tues., Dec. 2, to Thurs., Dec. 4: Service between Northgate and Capitol Hill will end early (likely sometime between 10 and 11pm) to allow for expanded overnight maintenance. Last trains will likely run shortly after 10pm.
Sound Transit was not able to share exactly what work is on the docket for the upcoming monthly maintenance windows, but said the previous extended maintenance window increased the productive work window from a slim 1.5 hours to 3.8 hours per night. The extended work windows allowed for more complicated work like replacing nearly 1,000 feet of rail, inspecting and adjusting larger batches of support structures at once, and troubleshooting malfunctioning equipment.
Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel Signal Upgrades:
In December, Sound Transit is finally implementing a critical upgrade in the DSTT: installation of Automatic Train Protection (ATP). Although the rest of the Link system already has this standard piece of safety equipment, the DSTT is still operating in its original street-running configuration as if busses were still trundling through the tunnels. Installation of ATP in the DSTT is “key” in enabling the double-frequency trains in the tunnel once the 2 Line opens across Lake Washington next year.
For this work, the tunnel between Capitol Hill and Stadium will have an extra long closure on these nights:
- 11pm Friday, Dec. 12, to 10am Sat., Dec. 13
- 11pm Saturday. Dec. 20, to 10am Sunday, Dec. 21
- 11pm Saturday. Dec. 27, to 10am Sunday, Dec. 28
Extremely excited about this news and greatly appreciate the reporting, Nathan!
I was curious what the improved signaling would entail given that they weren’t needed for previous few 4-minute headway tests, but ATP makes a lot of sense. Very surprised that it didn’t have it already but I guess that’s just the theme for DSTT.
For the repair of the cracked rail immediately north of Westlake, does anyone know if that rail is embedded into concrete? I would assume so given that they feel the need to shut down the tunnel for the repair, but I’d also expect it to take more than a day to complete the repair.
Either way, ST maintenance finally seems to be headed in the right direction and I’m excited to see how it’ll impact future reliability!
Anything north/ east of the original stub past Westlake would not be embedded in concrete.
It’s embedded up until the interlocking past where the buses turned off to get to convention place.
Yes, I’m very much hoping this’s a turn in the right direction! The expanded closures are disappointing, but they’re well worth it if they make Link reliable when it’s open.
Given the likelihood that trains will sometimes be slightly off schedule a few minutes (especially after short disruptions), ATP should make it possible to have trains arrive one right behind the other rather than operate at an even four-minute spacing.
Another spacing challenge will be giving drivers breaks as they reverse trains at Lynnwood, if trains get slightly off schedule or bunched from a disruption. I guess that challenge has been figured out?
They switch operators at lynnwood and Federal way (pre revenue service is underway). So the trains can leave as soon as one driver pulls the master key gets off and new driver gets on puts the master key in. Drivers get a break train does not. In lynnwood the relief drivers board the south end of the cab, current driver drives it past the station and switches tracks yanks the key while the relief heads to the southbound platform.
Yeah that’s probably the best way to handle reversals!
The part about the trains not getting breaks could change once they start crossing to and from the eastside.
Sending trains with the correct destination information from Lynnwood will get more complicated. Operating the switches south of ID/CS will get a lot more complicated.
Having trains switch tracks south of Lynnwood would be much more difficult to time, so hopefully they can build an extra switch just south of the station, before trains start crossing the lake all day.
Interesting. This makes sense to me, but I was told by someone from sound transit (I unfortunately can’t remember who now) that the plan is to have someone at Lynwood whose sole job is to reverse the trains there to more efficiently give drivers their brakes, and so that the reversing can be done more efficiently. Not sure if they are doing that yet or if that is the plan for 4 min headways.
It’s a reason why I think that ST should have separate branches to Paine Field and on I-5 to get to Everett. Each branch could then have a longer layover and time cushion.
Of course, all the Snohomish ST interests want one snake-like line just to put all the stations on one line. To many of them, light rail to Everett is still a concept but not an operation.
They already do this at Lynnwood. They’re called hostlers.
Why the weeknight mid Nov and early Dec? Rather than moving them to the weekend? I’m concerned about workers who get off between 10p-12a. What’s the ridership weeknights vs weekend nights?