All posts by GuyOnBeaconHill

Here’s a whirlwind trip I took this morning using an $8.00 Day Pass.

6:45am Purchase $8 Day Pass at Columbia City Station, ride Link Light Rail to downtown Seattle
7:40am Board King County Water Taxi at Pier 52 to Vashon Island
8:02am Water Taxi arrives at Vashon Ferry Terminal, catch Metro Route 118 at Vashon Ferry Terminal
8:07am Route 118 departs
8:35am Route 118 arrives at Tahlequah Ferry Terminal, wait for Tahlequah-Point Defiance ferry
8:50am Scheduled departure time of ferry but due to road construction at the terminal we are delayed about 10 minutes
9:14am Arrive at Pt. Defiance Ferry Terminal
9:21am Pierce Transit Route 11 departs Pt. Defiance ferry terminal for downtown Tacoma
9:57am Arrive downtown Tacoma
9:58am Board Tacoma Link to Freighthouse Square
10:08am Arrive Freighthouse Square
10:30am Board Sounder train to Seattle
11:38am Arrive King Street Station, catch First Hill Streetcar to Broadway for lunch
~1:30pm Walk to Jackson Street and catch Metro Route 36 home

Vehicles used on the trip: Light Rail, Water Taxi, Diesel Bus, Washington State Ferry, Diesel Bus, Tacoma Streetcar, Heavy Rail, Seattle Streetcar, Electric Trolley

For a more relaxing itinerary would suggest a stop on Vashon for breakfast, a stroll along the waterfront at Pt. Defiance and some time in downtown to explore the wonders of Tacoma. There are additional northbound Sounder trips at 4:06pm, 4:30pm and 5:15pm and plenty of trips from Tacoma to Seattle on Sound Transit Route 594.

The Rogue Valley region of southwest Oregon is a very challenging place to visit without a car. Medford is the largest city (pop. 80,000) and the only place with commercial air service. Klamath Falls (pop. 21,500), located about 75 miles east of Medford, has once-daily passenger rail service in each direction via the Coast Starlight. Ashland (pop.21,600) is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Southern Oregon University but Ashland has no airport or rail service. Nevertheless, despite the distances that separate the population centers and the low overall population density, there is a basic public transportation system that stitches together the communities of the Rogue Valley. Just be sure to carefully plan your trip if you hope to use the public transit system.

The local transit system is operated by the Rogue Valley Transportation District. The RVTD provides bus service on 8 routes, all running through the Front Street Transit station in downtown Medford. The service pattern is based on half-hourly pulses and most routes start at 5am and run until about 9pm. Three of the routes have 60 minute headways, 4 routes run every 30 minutes and the route that connects Medford with Ashland and Southern Oregon University runs every 20 minutes on weekdays. On Saturday, all routes operate hourly and there is no Sunday service. Service to the Medford airport runs every 60 minutes.

Unfortunately, land use patterns in Medford are pretty typical of many mid-sized American cities. On the list of US metropolitan cities, Medford ranks #206, which is very similar to Bellingham (#201). Medford’s downtown core is one-way main aterials mostly lined with bars, antique malls, pawn shops and empty storefronts. There is no visible urban revitalization movement in central Medford and the only new businesses that are locating near downtown Medford are the cannabis retailers. Shopping malls with big box national retailers are still under construction on the edges of town as Medford sprawls into the adjacent farmlands. Meanwhile the local transit system is centered on the disused downtown transit center.

The picture in Ashland is more hopeful. Shakespeare attracts over 400,000 visitors a year to the centrally located theaters and the adjacent downtown streets and parks are active and full of pedestrians. Yes, the local economy is based largely on tourism, but Ashland seems to elevate the experience above the level of “tourist trap”. Hotels, restaurants and shopping are all located within walking distance of the OSF theaters. The RVTD route that serves Ashland, SOU and Medford is the only route that offers somewhat frequent service.

From downtown Medford there is a once-a-day bus line to Klamath Falls, Southwest POINT. The route is managed by the Oregon DOT. Arrival and departure times in Klamath Falls are convenient for Coast Starlight passenger connecting to/from California. Riding to/from the north will require overnight stays in Klamath Falls.

Medford and Grants Pass are connected 5 times on weekdays by the Rogue Valley Commuter Line. Greyhound also offers 4 daily trips to Eugene (220am, 505am, 905am, 405pm) with a scheduled trip time of 3:30 to 3:45.

Car-free travel to the Rogue Valley is possible, but it requires some careful planning ahead of time. You can fly into Medford but I would recommend staying in Ashland where there are more car-free options. Using Amtrak round trip from Seattle would require 2 overnight stays in Klamath Falls or long bus rides to/from Eugene.

I recently made a side trip from San Francisco to Marin and Sonoma counties to catch a ride on a new Nippon Sharyo DMU SMART train connecting the San Rafael Transit Center with Santa Rosa. The SMART trains run on a shared freight and passenger corridor so the passenger vehicles have to meet the most stringent FRA crashworthiness standards. If this operation is a success, it could lead to more short line commuter passenger trains or even some longer routes operated by Amtrak. Locally, the Nippon Sharyo rail cars might make a Seattle to Pasco via Stampede Pass operation more feasible. The SMART trainsets consist of 2 coupled DMUs in a push-pull arrangement. Each car has 79 seats and one car has a restroom while the other car offers a staffed snack bar. The cars were quite comfortable, acceleration was smooth and there didn’t seem to be any problems with the mechanical features of the cars. There are plenty of tables available in each car for working commuters, although at one point the onboard WiFi had to be reset.

Santa Rosa to San Rafael is just the first phase of the SMART project. Construction has recently begun on a 2.2 mile southern extension to the Larkspur Ferry Dock which will allow direct train-to-boat connections to the Ferry Terminal Building on the San Francisco waterfront. Having that connection should boost ridership tremendously. Until the Larkspur extension is completed any trip to SF will require a bus transfer at the San Rafael Transit Center. For anyone interested in making a day trip to see SMART from SF, Golden Gate Transit connects the Transbay Terminal to San Rafael via Van Ness, Lombard and the Golden Gate Bridge (Route 101 is fastest, Routes 30 and 70 are more local and slower). If you are already familiar with GGT’s old, dilapidated and uncomfortable buses and would prefer another option there currently is a local bus connection between the Larkspur Ferry dock and the San Rafael TC (route 228) that is well-timed for a northbound trip to San Rafael but not so good for a southbound trip.

There is one detail about SMART that is important to note for anyone planning to connect to the train from the Sonoma County Airport. The current SMART timetable and map lists “Sonoma County Airport” as the northern terminal for the train but that SMART station is over 1 mile from the Sonoma County Airport terminal. You will need to use a taxi or rideshare to make the connection if you have heavy or bulky luggage because parts of the walking path lack sidewalks and there are no wayfinding signs from the airport to the station. If you arrive with light luggage and feel like stretching your legs after the flight, just exit the terminal, turn right at the main road and walk until you see the SMART O & M facility. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk through a transitioning farmlands to office parks landscape. On my trip I saw a wild turkey strutting across a freshly paved parking lot.

A Bus Connection to Point Lobos!

If you’re visiting the south side of the Bay Area, I also discovered a transit connection between Monterey and Pt. Lobos State Reserve. The Point Lobos State Marine Reserve is one of my favorite places to relax and enjoy nature when I’m in the Bay Area and there is a weekend-only bus from Monterey to Pt. Lobos. Monterey-Salinas Transit Route 22 would allow about 5 hours of relaxation in the park. During the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day the Route 22 schedule expands to offer 3 daily connections to Pt. Lobos. Unfortunately there isn’t an easy connection between Monterey and San Francisco that would allow for day trips via public transit. There is a bus from San Jose/Diridon Station but that bus leaves too late to connect to the Pt. Lobos bus.

Every vehicle operated by the Utah Transit Authority proudly carries a sticker proclaiming UTA as the “Outstanding Public Transportation System of 2014” as voted by the American Public Transportation Association. After spending 2 days riding UTA in Salt Lake City, I found there’s much to like about UTA. The system is easy to use, the fares structure is simple and there’s plenty of legible information available at the stations. My trip to Salt Lake City (sometimes abbreviated as SL,UT by the local non-conformist types) began with a very turbulent landing at the airport and ended about 40 hours later on the westbound California Zephyr. All my local transportation in SL,UT was provided by UTA and my sturdy pair of Ecco shoes.

UTA operates 4 different types of transit vehicles: heavy rail (Frontrunner), light rail (Trax), rubber tired buses and a streetcar (S-Line). Thankfully, all 4 modes are managed by just one agency, the UTA, so there aren’t any artificial barriers between the various services and simplicity seems to be the guiding philosophy of UTA. There are 3 light rail lines that radiate from the downtown business district and provide service to the airport, the University of Utah, the basketball arena, the soccer stadium, Amtrak and, of course, Temple Square–headquarters of the Mormon church. All light rail lines operate every 15 minutes from about 6am until about midnight. The light rail lines are designed to create a strong north-south service spine while the buses mostly run east-west and connect to the spine. The single streetcar line connects to all 3 light rail lines and its right-of-way appears to be an old abandoned railroad spur which allows for a mostly grade separated trip. Currently the streetcar runs every 20 minutes but there are plans and funding for a double tracking project that will allow 15 minute headways. The Frontrunner trains look a lot like our Sounder trains but with a different paint job and a broader span of service. Frontrunners operate every 30 minutes at peak hours and every hour middays and evenings. Fans of the Utah Jazz or the Utah Symphony who live in Ogden or Provo can take Frontrunner home after a game or concert.

UTA is easy to use for a visitor. An all day pass costs $6.25–equivalent to 2.5 times the standard fare of $2.50. There aren’t any zones to worry about and the pass allows transfers between light rail, the streetcar and the buses. Frontrunner costs more but a Frontrunner ticket does allow transfers to the other modes. The Trax Green Line connects the airport to downtown, the Red Line serves the University of Utah and the Blue Line stops just outside the Amtrak “station”. (SL,UT has 2 old and beautiful railroad stations that have been repurposed to retail/museum uses. Amtrak is served by a small but efficient wooden shack.) The bus routes run on 15 minute or 30 minute headways during the day and are mostly designed to be connectors to the light rail spine. Very few buses are routed into the central business district and the light rail trains do not usually share their right-of-way with buses. Unfortunately many of the bus routes drop to 60 minute headways after the evening commute hours and there is very little bus service after 9pm. The light rail lines maintain their 15 minute headways until the end of the service day.

If you are planning a trip to Salt Lake City you can skip the rental car and buy an all day pass that will get you easily to most of the local business or tourist destinations.

If you’ve spent enough time walking in Columbia City, you may have noticed the faint traces of a former Metro bus stop on the east side curb of 37th Ave South between Hudson and Ferdinand Streets, just one block west of Rainier Avenue. In the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1980s, this ghost stop was once the mid-day and evening terminal of the 39 SEWARD PARK (which later became the 31 BEACON HILL/SEWARD PARK). During the peak hours, the 39 offered express service between Seward Park and downtown Seattle; but mid-day and evenings, this stop on 37th Ave. S. was the terminal of the 39 (or 31) route.

Columbia City hasn’t always been the thriving business and residential area that we see today. In the mid 1970s, Columbia City was considered a very dangerous neighborhood and most of the commercial spaces were boarded up and empty. But in 1978, Charles Royer became mayor of Seattle and he was determined to revitalize the Columbia City neighborhood. As part of the plan, route 39’s northern terminal was moved from Mt. Baker (where it connected to the 10 Mt. Baker) to Columbia City. The service to Columbia City apparently didn’t generate much ridership because by 1983 the terminal had been moved back to Rainier and Genesee. However, Metro’s curb paint has long outlasted the transit service.

Once Upon a Time

In 1946, Seattle Transit route 14 Summit, which is almost identical to today’s 47 Summit route, operated with 5 coaches during midday periods and 7 coaches during the afternoon peak period. Today, the 47 Summit uses 1 coach during the midday off-peak hours and 2 coaches in the peak hours. In 1946, With 5 coaches operating during off-peak periods, service headways could easily have been as frequent as every 10-12 minutes and PM peak service might have been as frequent as every 7.5 minutes. In 1946, the 14 Summit route path was slightly different than it is today because most downtown streets were still bi-directional: the 14 Summit used Pine Street both directions and then operated southbound on 3rd Avenue to Columbia Street, then northbound on 2nd Avenue and outbound again on Pine Street back to the Summit terminal. The current 47 Summit takes about 28 minutes to run a full loop off-peak and about 35 minutes during peak hours. I don’t have a paper timetable from 1946 but I would estimate that a 1946 roundtrip took, at most, about 35 minutes off-peak and 40 minutes peak to complete the entire route.

For the Summit neighborhood, the drop in transit service is very dramatic and it’s hard to pinpoint what has changed in the neighborhood to cause service levels to drop so significantly. Buses that might have come every 10 minutes in 1946 are now runnig on 35 minutes intervals. Most of the existing housing inventory seems to have been built during the 1920s or the 1960s, so if anything, the Summit neighborhood is denser in 2016 than it was 70 years ago. Perhaps, however, transit riders are more inclined to walk a few blocks for a bus ride than they were in 1946. In 1946 there wasn’t any transit service on Olive Way other than the 14. The 8 didn’t exist until the early 1990s and the 10 (or its predecessor, the 43) didn’t compete for riders on Olive Way in 1946. But still, it’s amazing to see how much transit service Summit/Bellevue has lost in 70 years.

Is there a case for rebuilding transit service on the Summit line or should the neighborhood continue to receive the sparse service that is currently offered? Maybe the region is better served by running the 8 and 10 frequently on Olive Way and just providing limited coverage service into the heart of the Summit neighborhood. Or, are there changes could be made to revitalize the Summit neighborhood enough to justify re-establishing frequent/very frequent transit service?

The Summit Neighborhood

First, I’ll define the Summit neighborhood as the walkshed of the 47 Summit route, the area between I-5 and Broadway, bordered by Olive Way on the south side and Roy/Belmont on the north side. It’s a neighborhood that has many apartment buildings and a few single family houses. Most of the apartments appear to have been built during the 1920s or during the 1950s/60s post war boom and the architecture definitely creates the feeling of a traditional, higher density neighborhood similar to the residential area on lower Queen Anne. Because of the neighborhood’s convenient location near downtown, Lake Union and First Hill, the housing has traditionally been in high demand despite the deterioration in transit service. Unfortunately, one consequence of having so much older housing stock is that there are very few ADA compliant buildings in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood’s commercial inventory is limited and consists mostly of small cafes and a few professional services. Chain retailers have mostly chosen to locate on Broadway and left the Summit neighborhood for smaller, more independent businesses. Parking is also limited in the Summit neighborhood. A few of the newer units feature off-street parking but for most residents and businesses, on-street parking is all that is available. Combining the poor transit service with the limited parking availability, Summit residents must be, by necessity, avid walkers.

A Summit Plan

One of the problems with the existing efforts to build denser neighborhoods that are transit and pedestrian friendly is that–too often–when new residents move into these newly built, denser neighborhoods, too many of these new residents bring their cars with them. The inevitable result of adding more people and their cars into a neighborhood is greater traffic congestion which leads the existing residents to resist further efforts to densify neighborhoods. And, unfortunately for density advocates, creating more traffic congestion also leads to slower and less effective transit service which drives potential transit riders back to their cars. The slower moving buses are also more expensive to operate which makes providing the necessary frequent transit service more costly and less productive.

The Summit neighborhood, however, was born in an era when cars weren’t the default form of transportation and, for the most part, Summit has avoided re-forming itself into a auto-dependent locale. Reviving frequent transit service in the neighborhood wouldn’t be terribly expensive thanks to its close proximity to downtown. Metro currently schedules an off-peak round trip from Summit to downtown and back again at about 28 minutes. That means that 3 buses could easily provide 12 or 15 minute off-peak headways. During peak hours, 4 buses would likely be needed to maintain frequent service standards (peak hour round trips take about 35 minutes). So, reinstating frequent transit service wouldn’t be an extremely expensive undertaking.

With frequent bus service reinstated, the Summit area would be a perfect location for more micro-housing units. There already are some micro units and I’m not aware of any negative neighborhood reaction to what has already been built. If parking is the biggest fear that residents usually have about micro housing, then micros should be welcome in a neighborhood that offers frequent transit service and doesn’t offer much parking inventory to begin with.

Summit seems to be lacking housing for multi-generational families. Studios and one bedroom apartments are the most commonly advertised available living units. Currently, kids are noticeably absent from the Summit neighborhood, but there isn’t any obvious reason that kids wouldn’t be welcome in the neighborhood–other than the lack of 2+ bedroom housing. There are plenty of nearby parks, a library and several K-8 public schools–Lowell Elementary and the Seattle World School (the old TT Minor building) are within a reasonable distance. The nearest public high schools are either Garfield or the Center School, both currently a one-seat ride via route 8.

The high cost of new construction and the expensive rents that living in new construction entail could possibly be averted by rehabilitating the sturdy existing buildings when possible and infilling with smaller scale commercial-plus-residential new construction to provide affordable multi-generational and accessible housing. The Summit neighborhood is not a location for out-of-scale 20 story residential skyscrapers, but more density and more commercial property is needed in the neighborhood if the goal is to re-establish frequent transit service.

The Summit neighborhood is different

The bright lights and spectacle of Broadway and Capitol Hill attract thousands of visitors every day. Those attractions fuel a vibrant and evolving society that is creative and an important part of the Seattle fabric. But too often, Summit seems to serve as the on-street parking lot for Broadway’s attractions. Instead, Summit could be focusing on creating (and re-creating) its own separate and unique identity as an inclusive and complete neighborhood that is close to popular attractions but still scaled to foot traffic and away from the automobile. Should a frequent service bus line be included as one of the Summit neighborhoods assets?

Metro is making another attempt at restructuring the trolley service on Queen Anne Hill. Metro hasn’t released enough details about the proposals for me to yet decide if the proposal is an improvement over the existing service pattern. Moving service from the historic streetcar tails on routes 3 and 4 on Queen Anne Hill looks like a smart and productive gain. But I want to see how much productivity could be gained system-wide with changes to the entire Queen Anne-based trolley network. There are plenty of inefficiencies in Metro’s current Queen Anne to First Hill/Madrona/Judkins Park/Mt. Baker trolley network. How much better can the network become if the existing resources were deployed more efficiently?

To begin this project, I gathered some paper timetables and consulted the online schedules at OneBusAway to try and figure out the service patterns for the existing Queen Anne, First Hill and Mt. Baker routes (1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14). As best I could figure, this is the current midday operating plan for the routes I looked at:

Routes 1/14 are operated with 8 buses on 20 minute headways

Routes 3/4 are operated with 16 buses at 7.5 minute headways on the common routing, 30 minute headways on the tails

Routes 2/13 are operated with 9 buses at 15 headways (Madrona to Seattle Center) and 30 minute headways (north of the Counterbalance)

Total = 33 buses

The challenge is to create an operating plan that would be cost neutral (33 total buses during the midday) but provide the most coverage possible. Because the peak hour services of the existing Queen Anne based trolley routes are currently some of Metro’s most productive routes, I won’t offer any changes to the peak hour routes. These changes will only affect midday services.

The Queen Anne Plan
(Step 1) Create 2 strong spine routes that anchor the entire system. These routes would replicate the route paths of the current 3S and the 4S from First Hill/Madrona/Judkins Park to Belltown. These routes would offer very frequent service (every 7.5 minutes) for the many landmark neighborhoods and institutions along the path (Central District, Garfield High School, Swedish and Harborview Hospitals, Seattle University, Downtown, Seattle Center, Queen Anne Hill and Seattle Pacific University). This spine would look very much like a combined 3S/4S/3N/13 route, (although I will later propose a modification of the 4S that I think would be a major productivity gain). The 3S and 4S would both begin at their existing Madrona/34th Avenue and Judkins Park terminals, but both routes would run every 15 minutes from the terminals and provide 7.5 minute headways on their common corridor from First Hill through downtown Seattle and Belltown. This spine route would then split in Belltown with one route serving the west side of Seattle Center (continuing to SPU on the 13 route path), the other route would continue to SPU via the 3N path to Queen Anne/Boston Street where it would then continue to the SPU terminal. Using the route timings in Metro’s current timetables, this spine route would require a minimum of 18 buses to operate during the midday, but it might be wise to add 1 or 2 extra coaches to guarantee on-time operations.

(Step 2) Modify the 2/13 timetable to replace the 13 SPU service with the 1 Kinnear route. This would maintain 15 minute headways between Madrona Park and lower Queen Anne and the paths to Kinnear Park and West Queen Anne would each receive 30 minute service.

(Step 3) Route 14 would then be a Mt. Baker to downtown-only route and would require 5 coaches to offer 20 minute headways unless modified (see below).

Total buses needed for this plan:

The 3/4S/13 Spine Route: 18-20 buses

1 Kinnear/2 WQA-Madrona Park Route : 9 buses

14 (Mt. Baker): 5 buses for 20 minute headways

Total: 32-34 buses

In order to create a cost-neutral plan, at most I need to eliminate 1 bus from my plan. An easy way to reduce the number of buses needed would be to reduce service to the Judkins Park and Madrona/34th terminals on the spine route from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes. This change would maintain the existing service levels on those corridors, but I think Metro riders would greatly benefit from a revised 4S route path south of Jackson Street.

A Modified Route 4 to Judkins Park/Mt. Baker Transit Center
The existing 4S wanders through the Judkins Park neighborhood and inefficiently duplicates service offered by existing Routes 8 and 48. To improve service on the 4S I propose the following changes for the route paths of the 4S and Route 8.

Route 4S: starting at 23rd Avenue & Jackson Street, the outbound route path would (1) turn left onto Jackson Street (2) then turn right onto MLK and stay on MLK until it terminates at the Mt. Baker TC. With the 4S operating on MLK south of Jackson Street, the 8 could then be revised to terminate near Garfield High School at the existing 3 First Hill terminal. This change wouldn’t reduce the number of buses needed on the 4S, but it would free up 2 buses from route 8. Because this plan would involve new trolley wire it could be decades before Metro would be able to act, but the benefits of connecting MBTC with First Hill via a fairly straight path are enormous.

Some might object that the running the 4S directly to MBTC would eliminate front door service to the Lighthouse for the Blind. A possible solution to that problem would be a van that connects Lighthouse to MBTC and then continues to the legacy Hanford Street terminal of Route 14 (replacing the trolley bus). Eliminating the crazy split-tail routing of the 14 would save one bus from the 14 schedule which would pay for the van.

Is This a Better Plan?
This plan would offer more frequent service on most of the existing Queen Anne based trolley routes. SPU and the Boston Street commercial area would receive much better service. The Madrona/34th and Judkins Park areas would also get 15 minute headways. The only service reduction (other than the legacy tails on 3N/4N) would be on the 1 Kinnear route path north of Uptown (20 minute headways would become 30 minute headways).

I was in Juneau for a few days in mid-April and during some spare time I checked out the local transit system, Capital Transit. The City and Borough of Juneau is larger than the state of Delaware but it’s home to only about 32,000 people. In Juneau, car ownership and road building is constrained by the fact that there are no roads that connect Juneau to the rest of the world. A 4-lane highway connects central Juneau with the airport and the Big Box stores located near the airport, but that highway doesn’t connect to the outside world. The only way to reach Juneau is by sea or by air. The Subaru Outback station wagon seems to be the most popular vehicle in Juneau and for those who don’t own a car, the local transit system connects just about all the important locations with dependable bus service.

Capital Transit operates 4 basic routes in Juneau:

the Mendenhall Valley local routes that start in central Juneau near the cruise ship docks and operate clockwise or counter clockwise loops through the Mendenhall Valley and the Big Box shopping area before returning to central Juneau. These routes run 7 days a week with departures every 30 minutes (daytime) or 60 minutes (evenings) from downtown between 705am – 1035pm (shorter span on Sunday). For an inexpensive sightseeing trip to see the rapidly melting Mendenhall Glacier, use these routes.

An unnumbered route that serves Douglas, across the channel from Juneau with 30 minute headways until 6pm/60 minute headways until 1105pm.

The Express route to the Airport that runs hourly on weekdays between 7am and 6pm.

With those routes, Capital Transit is able to provide service to the most important local destinations with an excellent span of service. The 30/60 minute headways mean a long wait penalty for someone who just misses a bus, but considering the size of the local population base, 30/60 is pretty impressive.

The cruise ship passengers are what support most of the businesses in Juneau. The city’s sidewalks are built wide enough to hold the hordes of Uncle Abners and Aunt Karens that come from all over the world to spend a few hours in town during the summer cruise ship season. Juneau is definitely a tourist trap, but there are some shops that sell very nice locally produced arts and crafts. I was in town just before the cruise ship season began and the stores were fully stocked; I found some really nice works to bring back. The geography of Juneau is very steep but it’s easy to walk anywhere in central Juneau if one is ready for some serious hill climbing. The City has built many metal staircases for pedestrians on the steepest hills that make walking safer on icy days.

If you do arrive in Juneau by air virtually every hotel offers free transfers to and from the airport, but the Express bus would also be an option if you arrive while it is running (M-F 7am-6pm). There also appears to be a van transfer service between the airport and the Big Box area that might connect you with the local bus routes, but the hotel transfer buses are the best option.

Today, 3/26/2016, begins a new era in Seattle transit service as the route 48 that we’ve known for the last 6 years is split into 2 routes: the 45 travelling from Loyal Heights to the light rail station at Husky Stadium and the 48 which will run between the University District and Mt. Baker Station. In 1980, route 48 followed the familiar core path from Loyal Heights to Franklin High School, where the current Mt. Baker Station exists. But southbound from S. Hanford St. and Empire Way S. (today known as Martin Luther King Jr. Way South) the 48 followed a different route on its way to its terminal at South Seattle Community College. Southbound from Franklin High School the 48 stayed on Rainier Avenue until Alaska Street where it turned west and climbed up to Beacon Hill, passing the VA–but not detouring into the parking lot–on a routing similar to current route 50. From Beacon Hill, it apparently used Spokane Street and the low level route to cross the Duwamish and then headed to its terminal at SSCC (kind of a combined 50 and 125).

Midday headways were at about 33 minutes and peak service could be as frequent as every 6 minutes. Evening service was every 30 minutes on the UW to Franklin HS core with buses scheduled every 60 minutes on the extensions north and south. There also were a variety of intermediate turnbacks and short-runs scheduled in the timetable. Weekday trips began at the endpoints and at Beacon & Columbian (near the VA Hospital), Rainier & Hanford (Franklin HS), Montlake Station, 45th and 15th in the University District and at Greenwood and 85th.

In the future we may see the 48 evolve again if money can be found to electrify the gaps along 23rd Avenue E. Some STB posters have suggested combining an electrified 48 with the 7 and creating new 1-seat rides between Rainier Valley and the Central District. Since its creation in the mid-1960s as a shuttle between Mt. Baker, the Central District and the University of Washington, the 48 has changed from short shuttle route into one of the longest in-city routes and back to a shorter route providing high frequency service. Has any other route been as drastically modified during the last 36 years as the 48?