History of high-speed rail in the US. (The B1M)
60 Minutes episode on the current status of high-speed rail in the US. (60 Minutes)
This is an open thread.
History of high-speed rail in the US. (The B1M)
60 Minutes episode on the current status of high-speed rail in the US. (60 Minutes)
This is an open thread.
It’s an interesting time for this report to come out. I feel like the whole conversation about HSR in the United States was at a fever pitch for a while and has declined rapidly. I hope this creates more conversation.
I recently read a wonderful report from a local Seattleite speculating on how HSR could affect urbanization in the US (and vice versa). It’s a worthy companion to discussions on HSR. https://ridingtherails.org/
The frustrating thing is how much better it could have been if different decisions had been made fifty and seventy years ago.
If Forward Thrust had passed in 1970:
1. That might have increased demand for density around stations so that more people could use the metro or live car-free.
2. It might have reduced support for sprawl, strip malls, isolated office parks, and cul-de-sacs.
3. Second and later phases in the 1980s might have been more extensive.
4. Growth might have been more contained between Lake City, Renton, Redmond, and Issaquah, rather than sprawling out so far to Kent, Federal Way, Lynnwood, Everett, and Tacoma, and focused on freeway exits rather than subway stations.
We could also have prevented interstates through downtowns or inner-city neighborhoods; exit to an arterial at the edge of the city.
“ 2 Line service is suspended from Judkins Park Station to Int’l District/Chinatown Station until further notice due to mechanical issue. · Trains are still running from Judkins Park Station to Downtown Redmond.
Sound Transit has ordered 2 Line Shuttle buses to replace 2 Line service from Judkins Park Station to Int’t District/Chinatown Staton. Updates will be provided once 2 Line Shuttle buses are available.
See travel options in the link below to assist you with your ride.”
Guess I am taking 550 back to Seattle today.
Tuned into the scanner to see what’s going on. It’s chaos out there. Northbound 1 Line trains turning back at Stadium. As well as a lot of other disruptions. It seems like this is all stemming from a broken down train in the tunnel from Cap Hill to UW.
On the platform at UW – northbound trains are approaching from the southbound track and taking the crossover south of the station.
I was in 2 Line departing at 4:33pm for a couple minutes, soon as I found out 2 Line had issue west of Judkins Park, I ran back to the TC and catch the 550 and arrived at Chinatown at 4:12pm. On the way there were about 40 people boarding at South Bellevue many of whom are going to Mariner game.
By the time I arrived Chinatown, that train I was supposed to ride was currently approaching Mercer Island.
And 1 Line trains are single-tracked between Capitol Hill nad UW due to “mechanical issues”. An hour ago it was single-tracked UW to Roosevelt, and ST reported train frequency of 15-20 minutes, then 35-40 minutes. That’s on top of whatever’s happening with the 2 Line.
I’m curious how the shuttle buses are reversing at Judkins Park. There’s no bus turnaround there.
If someone is making this transfer, can you observe and report what they’re doing?
The simplest route might be a circle route starting at JPS/Rainier Avenue NB to Dearborn, WB on Dearborn, NB on 5th to IDC Station, EB on Jackson to 23rd Avenue, SB on 23rd to JPS, WB on Massachusetts back to the Rainier Avenue stop. But who knows what Metro would do?
Last week I got stuck in a BART meltdown in the East Bay that required backtracking from Berkeley to Lake Merritt with trains reversing to get on the right track. The operator had to navigate from one control car to the other by pushing her way through 5 train cars packed with frustrated commuters.
If shuttle bus comes from I-90 EB off ramp, then it doesn’t need to turn around, it just need take the path of 554 back to ID/C.
That would make sense. I would think that the shuttle would turn left from Jackson onto 5th to reach the CID loading point. Then job to the on-ramp for Edgar Martinez Dt to get to I-90.
Is that what ST did?
Service disruptions are going to occur with rail systems. The important thing is how they’re handled and how they can be kept to a minimum.
The thing that is now different is that there is a common track for two lines, meaning that pausing operations impacts lines that carry 130K daily riders combined. With that kind of demand, any delay can quickly become significant.
Now that it is passed, what lessons can be learned? Operations? Information?
I hope ST reviews the incident and assesses what went well and what went poorly. It’s useful in responding to future events as they occur.
What an epic ST meltdown this evening. Goodness.
There were three stadium events Saturday as I commented at the time, and apparently Link served them without a hitch because nobody commented about any problems and ST didn’t issue any alerts. So it’s not all failures.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1sr7kbg/evacuation_pov/
Read Stormzero44’s comment about being on the train that broke down in the tunnel yesterday.
Appears to have a whole different vibe from the Apple Cup train stoppage.
One of the pictures looks as though it was in church. (Albeit with smartphone lighting rather than candles)
This time it seems it was a quite civilized response from tbe passengers. (In fact, some of reddit posters said they were jealous of those caught on the train (foamers, no doubt 😉 )).
I wonder what made the difference?
ST has been much, much better about insisting on communication from operators about what’s going on, plus it has a team communicating and coordinating when meltdowns happen now. It didn’t have that during the apple cup incident. That likely contributed to people knowing more what to do and how to go about evacuating the train.
BTW these are lessons learned from the post mortem of the apple cup incident.
Having the car to car communication working helped.
It still took an hour for things to get worked out.
Plus, without the crush-load of impatient inebriated football fans sweating up the windows it was easier on everyone.
FINALLY!
The LAX People Mover simulation has begun!
https://abc7.com/amp/post/los-angeles-travel-traffic-lax-automated-people-mover-start-running-passengers/18926407/
When this finally opens, it will finally be possible to reach an airport using frequent rail transit in Southern California.
Note that it’s automated. 😉
Of course it is automated. It is basically a airport people mover but on the land side.
Another day, another Link closure. This time it’s Mt Baker to Rainier Beach due to “police activity involving a possible gas leak”.