All posts by Brian Bundridge

Brian Bundridge focuses on heavy rail and the technical aspects of rail operations, and volunteers on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad in his spare time as a conductor or engineer.  Brian originally ran his own Washington State Transportation blog, which merged with STB.

Central Link Update – Nov 15th, 2007

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

These observations are from the Sound Transit Lunch Bus and members of construction crews that I have talked with the past few days. I rode the Sound Transit Lunch Bus on November 15th, 2007. It was a very pleasant trip and throughly enjoyed the MCI D4500 coach we had for the trip. Just needed a coffee, newspaper, and a place for laptop and I’d be set!

Rail is complete from Pine Street Tunnel located in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to Beacon Hill East Portal/Airport Way.

Rail is complete from Beacon Hill West Portland/MLK Way aka Mt. Baker to Tukwila International Blvd Station.

Rail is staged for Tukwila to Airport segment at Sea-Tac Airport. Guideway will be finished from Tukwila Intl. Blvd to the Airport by the end of the year. OCS poles have also been staged near

Foundation for Airport Station is finished and build up is in progress.

Central Link 101-110 is on the properly at the Operations and Maintenance Facility (unless it ST 108 was the last one.. thought I saw 109/110 sitting outside as well)

According to ST Public Relations, rail halfway completed in Southbound tunnel. The Emerald Mole/Tunnel Boring Machine is scheduled to come out of the Northbound Tunnel in mid-December. The TBM has been chewing 35-55 feet per day with good soil content.

Wire is strung from Tukwila Intl. Blvd Station to I-5/Southcenter and Martin Luther King Jr Way near Alaska St to Boeing Access Road, leaving I-5 to Boeing Access Road and Alaska Street to West Portal and through the tunnels remaining for wire.

Testing is scheduled to begin Spring/Summer 2008 from the O&M and Tukwila Intl. Blvd Station.

For more images of Central Link, including the Lunch Bus photos, check out my flickr…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_macster

Seattle Streetcar in Testing

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Coming to the City of Seattle in less a month, the Seattle Streetcar running from Westlake Center to Fred Hutchison Research Center in South Lake Union.

Here are some images of the Seattle Streetcar in testing on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 after the Sound Transit Lunch Bus

Time to Expand Sounder?

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

With talks of the Lakewood line coming online in late 2011, there has been some surface talks among the public of – what’s next? The final three mainline stations will be Lakewood, South Tacoma for the South corridor and Mukilteo for the North corridor but should Sound Transit look further? With Roads and Transit behind us and King County being tax happy, would the public even want additional train service or improves?

With the North corridor ridership less than 53,000 a year it’s time to look at ways to improve this service to make it more viable and attractive to those coming from Everett and Marysville. Could a train leave Stanwood, a future Amtrak station set to open in November 2008? Could we gather additional funding for parking garages at Everett, Mukilteo, and a permanent station and garage improve the overall ridership?

I can only think of two locations that could support having a commuter rail station for the North corridor; Galar Street/Interbay also known as lower Magnolia area and Alaskan Way/Broad Street as a walk-on/off only station. The Galar Street option would have Amgen, Seattle-PI and Louis Dreyfus employees not to mention employees of Pier 90/91. The Streetcar if extended to the future cruise ship terminal at Pier 90/91 it too could use this station. The Broad Street would not have any parking available. It has been too densely developed to allow a parking garage but it does have easy access to many Belltown businesses and quick access to the Seattle Center.

For the South Corridor, a station at Lakeland Hills/South Auburn would be an excellent medium. There is a good amount of users between the Auburn/Sumner corridor that would use a medium station. Many folks use Auburn from Sumner because there is no additional parking available. The Lakeland Hills station would be located at Lake Tapps Pkwy & East Valley Hwy E and could have a parking facility for at least 500 cars easing the load at Auburn while reducing the need of having an additional garage which may end up being needed in the future anyways. I’m not sure of BNSF’s exact plan for triple tracking between Tukwila and Sumner or if that will even happen at all but I can tell that it will be double track from Sumner to Tacoma as Sumner and Puyallup stations does not have provisions to accommodate a third mainline.

It’s all just an idea, but I could foresee the additional stations and parking garages much welcomed to commuters and those that wish to try out Sounder without having to worry about parking on the street or a business’ parking lot that doesn’t allow Sounder use. How would we fund it is really the question?

Sound Transit vs City of Tacoma….Sounder to nowhere?

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Sound Transit’s crown jewel is making a lot of business owners in Tacoma red in the face this week. The future extension that will run from Freighthouse Square to Lakewood using the old Tacoma Eastern tracks towards Fort Lewis. The problem? The 1.2 mile missing link that needs to be built from Freighthouse Square/D Street to M Street would eliminate 7 business along the planned route, all located on Pacific Avenue. Businesses want more time on selecting a route hoping it would save their company and hope a petition will delay the project another 2-3 years in hopes for a new, less disruptive design that wouldn’t ‘separate” the district from Downtown Tacoma. Sound Transit isn’t having any of that with a decision to come next month (Meeting with the latest design is November 15 at Freighthouse Square) which the project already 6 years behind schedule.

Read more on the Tacoma News Tribune – Stop or go for Dome District

Bill Virgin = Comic Relief

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

After reading this P-I Columnist thoughts on Prop 1, I think I honestly needed my ribs to be replaced from laughing so hard. First of all, I do admire him for some suggestions, such as replacing the 520 and Alaskan Way Viaduct but then he goes on to say to Disband Sound Transit and letting the regional transit agencies take over…. Sure, that’ll be fine in dandy to replace 500+ Sound Transit buses, give Sounder over to Amtrak and/or BNSF or another private venture and give Link over to King County.

If it wasn’t for Sound Transit, there would not be this additional transportation infrastructure that we now have thanks to Sound Transit because King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish Counties couldn’t get off their asses to develop an extensive transportation plan.

We now have an agency that while not near the size of King County Metro Transit but is already at 35+ million passengers in it’s short life span. I don’t see Sound Transit going anywhere anytime soon and with their recent credit approvals. We need to stop looking at Sound Transit who said one thing in 1996 and changed it in 2001 because of increased costs because every other country happens to be developing at a faster rate that the United States is….It is not Sound Transit’s fault for raising fuel costs, concrete costs, steel costs.

If anything, all of our networks need to be under ONE name instead of 4 different agencies (Community, King, Pierce, ST) I would personally would not mind the new Puget Pass/Orca Pass to include the Washington State Ferry System (foot and passenger) on top of all of our other systems. I also wouldn’t mind the Monorail under King County Metro but that would never happen.

So yes, we have a lot of ideas, plans, thoughts, how we would love to get rid of Sound Transit but without ST, we wouldn’t be where we are at today without them and for that, can not thank this agency enough. Central Link Light-Rail is coming to Seattle in 2009, South Lake Union Streetcar in December, Community Transit’s Swift BRT in 2009 and King County Metro’s RapidRide BRT in 2010 and the 2003 Legislative Transportation Funding Package, Nickel fund, and the 2005 Transportation Partnership Funding Package are well under way all over our State to get our roads improved and in a State of Good Repair.

Give it time for everything to come together and you’ll see that our tax money is going to something good but you all need to realize that it takes time to build up the funds to get our roads repaved, repaired, to get our transportation in a condition that meets our needs, and most importantly, keeps our strong employers in our region. Without a effective transportation system, Seattle and the Puget Sound region will fail to be a world leader in trade and our economy.

Gregorie tells Microsoft that replacing 520 still a priority

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

In the seemingly endless debate of the 520 bridge and highway improvements, it seems the State is going to branch off from RTID and move forward with the project set to start construction in 2012.

A question I’m sure some will raise is where is the money going to come from?? That is what I would like to know. I’m actually quite glad this is going to happen though. This might free up some funds to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/339358_bridge13.html

“Last week … the voters said no to Proposition 1, and when they did, I don’t believe that they said no to us having a responsibility to replace the 520 bridge,” Gregoire said. “The replacement of the 520 bridge is essential for Microsoft for it to be able to get its employees, for it to be able to do its business in an efficiently, effectively, safe way …I intend to provide for Microsoft what it needs to continue to grow and be literally the largest corporate campus in the world.”

I do understand the Governors distress about the 520 bridge. Thousands of Microsoft employees cross over both directions each weekday, for meetings, lunch, etc. Not all Microsoft employees have the ability to tele-communicate. For our region to risk loosing Microsoft because we couldn’t get our act together is out of the question and we need to provide a solution to not only 520 but also I-405, SR-167, and the Issaquah-Hobart Road, a popular alternative that is heavily congested now.

King County City Council backs tax and bus fare increase for 2008

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

There are some good things about this and then there are some bad. I won’t get into totally but I don’t want my tax to be increased to pay for somebody who will keep going back to rehab (Read: Lindsay Lohan) when there are more important things our tax dollars can go toward, like fixing First Avenue South between Royal Brougham and Spokane Street or all of Spokane Street from Airport Way to the lower West Seattle Bridge.

Secondly, it’s about time the Council agrees to increase Metro Transit fares by 25 cents. The last increase was in 2001 and even with this increase, we are still one of the lowest fare transit agency in the Country. This additional funding will cover increase fuel and operating costs. Personally I hoped it would have been 50 cents. The way fuel is going, the extra buffer would be welcomed.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/338897_county09.html

On May 16th, 2007, New Flyer of America procurement for up to a total of 715 60-foot articulated buses from King County Metro (KCM) in Seattle, WA. This order includes a firm order for 22 hybrids with options for up to 493 diesel or hybrid buses for KCM and 200 assignable options for a total value of up to US $514 million, which was included in the order backlog reported in New Flyer’s 2007 First Quarter Financial Report.

This order does not include the New Flyer DE60LF-BRT buses that Metro Transit will be ordering for RapidRide. Community Transit has ordered 15 of these buses with an option for 34 more.

In 2003, Metro and Sound Transit ordered 213 New Flyer DE60LF 60-foot Articulated Hybrid buses powered by CAT Diesel and Allison Hybrid Drive.

Senator Murray keeps light-rail moving

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Another update on getting Link to the University of Washington this evening as State Senator Patty Murray continues her efforts to secure FY 2008 light rail funding.

http://www.soundtransit.org/x6641.xml

Sound Transit today lauded Washington Sen. Patty Murray for her efforts to secure $94 million in FY 2008 light rail funding, including $24 million for the University Link light rail extension and $70 million toward completing light rail from downtown Seattle to the airport. The funding is part of a key Congressional funding bill now headed for the White House

This is great news as it ensures that Link continues it’s progress on the 3.15 mile long extension to the University of Washington. It’s just a shame tunnel boring is so bloody slow. Construction will start next year with a completion around 2015 and testing will have the line open for service in 2016. Sound Transit is opting to only use one tunnel boring machine, the Emerald Mole, that is currently boring the second 4,000 foot long Beacon Hill tunnel which is scheduled to come out of the tunnel next month. If a second one was purchased for University Link, the system could open in 2011 but that would double the cost of the operation.

King County propose Vashon/Lake Washington foot ferry

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

I can see additional Vashon, Bainbridge, Edmonds, Mukilteo passenger only ferry routes but Lake Washington? Seriously?!There is no ‘fast’ route from the Kenmore, Kirkland, Renton, or Bellevue waterfront to Downtown Seattle. You would have to transfer to a bus at either Madrona, Madison, or Leshi. Metro Transit 2 (Madrona), 11 (Madison Park), 27 (Leshi) are the only routes that serve those areas and equally take about 30 minutes to Downtown Seattle.

We shall see….

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/338924_ferry09.html