Brent White is a dispatcher at a private transportation provider in Seattle. He has never owned a car. His frequent routes are Link, 60, 124, 128, 132, 180, A Line, F Line, and the myriad of routes that travel between UW Station and the U-District. His birthday wish is to get to use his ORCA card to ride the monorail.
In a turn for the better, State Senator Bob Hasegawa (D – Renton) has chosen a new transportation cause: allowing commercial vehicles carrying wheelchairs to have access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes. The bill digest for Senate Bill 5018 states that the bill:
Authorizes the use of high occupancy vehicle lanes by private, for hire vehicles that have been specially manufactured, designed, or modified for the transportation of a person who is wheelchair-bound and has a physical or medical impairment.
The bill does not require that such vehicles be given access to HOV lanes. Rather, it authorizes the appropriate governing authorities to offer that access.
SB 5018 was pre-filed on December 30. The Senate Transportation Committee will have its first meeting of the 2017 regular session on January 11th. No bill hearings have been scheduled yet.
Committee Chair Curtis King (R – Yakima) was very supportive of Sen. Hasegawa’s unsuccessful bills to make Sound Transit pay the cost of parking permits for homeowners near light rail stations. Perhaps their friendship will put this simple little non-ideological bill on the fast track.
Link Light Rail had its busiest year by far in 2016, and saw its largest ridership growth ever, with ridership growth surpassing the original year’s ridership for similar periods of time, counting from the opening of University of Washington Station and Capitol Hill Station. It is still settling into its new routine after the opening of Angle Lake Station in late September.
Calls continue for running 3-car trains as much as possible, to deal with occasional but frequent crushloads. Having only three-car trains could probably be done, at the same scheduled headway, at great expense, and possibly messing up some plans for what happens after the buses get kicked out of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel in the next few years (as, once ST rolls out service, frequency, or capacity, it is loathe to undo it later).
Today, I’ll offer some suggestions to improve Link operations that can be done regardless of the 2- or 3-car train debate. The first four impact what will be in the printed schedule that comes out in March.
1. Remove the minute of padding in the schedule at SeaTac Airport Station. It does not take four minutes to get there from Angle Lake Station or from Tukwila International Boulevard Station. We have the video evidence that ALS to SAS can be done in 2:45. Nor does it always take at least a minute for passengers with luggage to board or deboard. Thanks to the schedule padding at SAS, operators often have to wait half a minute or more after everyone boards before the scheduled departure time allows them to proceed. Some operators keep the doors open, and some keep the doors shut, while waiting for the departure time. If drivers could save half a minute each way at SAS, that would be another minute of break they could get. Continue reading “Micro-Fixes for Link Ops”
Impact Recovery Systems’ Sentinel™ barriers,
as deployed on an LA Metro platformThis afternoon, the Sound Transit Board’s Operations & Administration Committee will take up a contract proposal with Impact Recovery Systems, Inc. to install between-car barriers on the platforms of Link Light Rail stations. Impact Recovery Systems has a long resume of transit agency customers that have paid them to install various between-car barriers, including chains and other materials attached between cars, and the tightly-spaced series of poles that have become the cutting-edge technology in the field.
There have been several high-profile cases of blind riders walking off light rail and subway platforms between train cars, and then getting run over. Most recently was one in DC, resulting in DC Metro installing chains between cars. LA Metro, St. Louis MetroLink, and the “T” in Pittsburgh use the between-car platform barriers.
The barriers will be installed first in the twelve stations outside the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, as there are no operational issues in the way. That installation is expected to be complete by the end of March.
The contract includes purchase of enough barriers for the DSTT stations, but installation might not happen until the buses leave the DSTT permanently, per Kimberly Reason, Sound Transit spokesperson. A stakeholders group is working to find a way to install barriers in the DSTT without negatively impacting bus operations.
Currently, it is the job of DSTT security staff to assist vision-challenged riders. King County Metro also provides free travel training for various categories of riders with disabilities.
Sky Train platform floor arrowsWhile the stakeholders deliberate, platform floor arrows are planned for installation in Westlake Station, and then possibly the other 3 DSTT stations, showing where the train doors will be. The floor arrows would then be removed once joint operations ends.
I asked Reason whether shifting all the southbound buses to Bay C, the forward-most bay on the southbound platforms, could enable the barriers to work in the DSTT. Per Reason, that would risk restricting the flow of buses as well as trains in/through the DSTT.
As is the case with many features used to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are positive spin-off effects for the general population. Riders would be able to see where the break is between the second and third car, and cluster there where they are in position to board whichever car is rear-most. This would help to spread out passengers, make better use of capacity, and speed up boarding.
The ST Operations & Administration Committee meets at 1 pm in the Ruth Fisher Boardroom at Union Station.
Route 107 now serves the bus stop in front of the Red Apple across from Beacon Hill Station.
I got an early Christmas present last Thursday, when I saw new route 107 pull up to the bus stop across from Beacon Hill Station, in front of the Red Apple on Beacon Ave S. Most of the waiting passengers boarded it, happy to have two routes (the other being route 60) to take them to their homes along 15th Ave S. Until recently, route 107 had been stopping and laying over a block south of Beacon Hill Station, where nobody was boarding it to head south. Now route 107 lays over on S Lander St, just north of the Red Apple. Per Metro Service Planner Doug Johnson, SDOT had to do a traffic study of the impacts of the terminal on S Lander Street and the vicinity before the layover stop could be installed there.
Newly reworked route 107 was rolled out as part of the southeast Seattle route restructure with the September service change. The route starts with the old route 107 path between Renton Transit Center and Rainier Beach Station, then takes over the portion of old route 106 from Rainier Beach Station to Georgetown, and then heads back up to Beacon Hill and up 15th Ave S to Beacon Hill Station.
Christmas and New Years Day fall on Sunday this year, so both are celebrated on Monday by various transit agencies.
Washington State Ferries adds and subtracts some runs on Christmas and New Years Day, so check your route’s schedule and alerts, and be sure to make a reservation if the route allows it.
Some services extend later on New Year’s Eve. Link Light Rail and Tacoma Link will have extended hours that night. The monorail runs until 11:15 New Years Eve, shuts down for an hour by order of the Fire Marshall, and then reopens 12:20-1:00 am.
For all three days of each coming long weekend, Link Light Rail will be running as 3-car trains all day. Board the rear car, as that will continue to be the most spacious one.
Other altered service patterns on surrounding days include:
Intercity Transit shuts down early on Christmas Eve.
The monorail shuts down at 6 pm on Christmas Eve.
King County Metro runs a reduced UW schedule the week of December 19-23.
King County Metro runs a reduced weekday / reduced UW schedule December 27-30.
UW Night Ride shuts down between quarters, but the South Lake Union and Harborview shuttles continue to operate on weekdays except holidays.
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For all agencies running weekday service the day after Christmas and New Years Day, I verified it with the agency if it wasn’t spelled out clearly on their website. The list of agencies around the region, and their service levels, is below the fold. Continue reading “De-confusing Holiday Schedules”
The Sound Transit Board of Directors met Thursday afternoon to conduct monthly business, and approve four annual documents.
The Board adopted the 2017 Service Implementation Plan, and authorized the CEO to implement recommended service changes in 2017. Zach detailed the service additions last month. Board Member Rob Johnson pointed out public comments calling for late night Link service or similar bus service. CEO Peter Rogoff responded that that is something that could be looked into for the future.
The final budget includes:
$396 million for operations and maintenance
$394 million for East Link construction
$294 million for Northgate Link construction
$116 million for Lynnwood Link final design work
$100 million for a design-build contract for the East Link base
$59 million for more light rail vehicles
$38 million to complete the new Tacoma Trestle
$24 million to complete the I-90 2-way transit & HOV project
$20 million to finish the second track to Lakewood Station and add cars for the final 2 round trips
$14 million for preliminary engineering for downtown Redmond Link
$14 million for five new compressed natural gas buses and four new double-talls
$10 million for final design of the Tacoma Link extension
$6 million to complete the environmental review process for Federal Way Link
$1 million for conceptual design work for Auburn and Kent Station access improvements Continue reading “ST Board Approves 2017 Budget, Lege Program, SIP, TIP, and Northgate Station Land Deal”
Sound Wave, Sounders FC’s marching band, video by padge6108
In what is becoming a fun but disruptive tradition, Seattle will be holding a victory parade for another sportsball champion, the Seattle Sounders, who will take over a swath of north downtown mid-day Tuesday.
Link Light Rail will be running 3-car trains all day, and a mix of 2- and 3-car trains during AM and PM peak, so spread out along the platform and help keep the trains moving briskly.
We’ve heard that the march/parade route will begin at Westlake Park at 11 a.m. and proceed up 4th Avenue for a rally at Seattle Center. Transit re-route details will be linked here as plans are published.
