Zach wrote for STB from 2010-2017, and was our inaugural Staff Reporter from 2015-2017. Zach has also worked for Pierce Transit, Commute Seattle, and owned a bike rental business. As of June 2017 he works at Sound Transit. Zach is a Beacon Hill resident and can often be found biking, riding Link, or driving his Seattle-cliche Subaru.
And now for something completely different. If you’re free tomorrow night from 5:30-7:30pm (or later for an afterparty), Hollow Earth Radio is sponsoring “Light Rail Dark Rail”, a series of live musical performances onboard Link. Performances start at IDS at 5:30, with “concertgoers” catching a southbound train at 6:00. Once at SeaTac, you’ll have a choice of northbound trains, “Light Rail” or “Dark Rail”, but you won’t know which you’ve chosen until it departs. Expect eclectic local music, nervous security guards, and surely dumbfounded passengers wondering what hit them.
The 2004 Comprehensive Plan designated South Lake Union as an urban center, and it laid out ambitious growth targets. Since then we’ve seen solid growth in the neighborhood through the Hutchinson Cancer Center, Amazon’s relocation, and of course the Seattle Streetcar. But the real potential for densification lies in incentivized upzones, and to that end the City of Seattle has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement, South Lake Union: Height and Density Alternatives. It studies the environmental impacts of three zoning alternatives that would create space for 23,000-31,500 jobs and 15,000-21,000 residences.
(We generally try to avoid overly self-referential posts here on STB, but I hope you’ll indulge me on this occasion.)
I have impeccable urban elitist credentials. I haven’t owned a car for 6 years, and I’ve been unduly proud of it. Despite myself, I’ve slowly been becoming the “smug cyclist” that provides such lazy framing material for our city’s overblown culture wars. Quite frankly, I have had to fight not to be annoying. But these days I’m quieter, more circumspect, more patient. Why the change? My daily commute to the suburbs has relieved me of my arrogance.
Fresh off of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s abrupt rejection of federal funds for the Orlando-Tampa HSR line, Rep. John Mica (R-Winter Park, FL) will be visiting Vancouver WA this Monday to moderate a town hall on federal transportation priorities. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Listening Session will be held in Vancouver because it is home to freshman Representative and Transportation Committee member Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Vancouver). The meeting is from 9-11am at the Clark County PUD.
Rep. Mica is one of the more interesting House Republicans on rail issues. A vocal but narrow supporter of HSR projects, with a strong skepticism for most projects outside of the Northeast Corridor, Mica expressed anger over Rick Scott’s seemingly unilateral cancellation of the project. Since the second hour of the Vancouver forum is reserved for public comment, it would be a great chance to tout the virtues of our rail work in the Pacific Northwest to perhaps the most receptive Republican ear in the House.
Due to the early start you’ll either have to drive down, take Cascades the night before, or suffer through a midnight Greyhound. But if you care about rail in the Northwest and can articulate yourself well, it would be worth your time and effort to attend.
Despite our present trend toward quantifying everything, I still frequently prefer to make more qualitative, intuitive judgments about the livability of neighborhoods. The single best shorthand I know is an affirmative answer to the question, “If I lived here, would I walk to the grocery store?” Consider Capitol Hill, where in just over a square mile there are 7 major grocery stores, sewn together by dozens of small markets and convenience stores. Or walk around Lower Queen Anne; Metropolitan Market is quite the neighborhood anchor, isn’t it?
So it’s a great loss for First Hill that its only full-service grocery, M Street, shut its doors last week. King 5 quotes a customer named Tony Lucas, “It’s like a desert out here. The closest one is on Broadway and University. I’m not going to walk that far.” There is still easy transit access to groceries – including Metro #2 and #12 (to Kress, Pike Place Market, Madison Market, Trader Joes, or the Broadway/Union QFC) – but losing easy walking access considerably diminishes urban quality of life. Walk Score gives the intersection of Boren/Madison a score of 97, a “Walker’s Paradise”, while giving Broadway/John an 89, merely “Very Walkable.” Could anyone possibly walk around those two areas and argue that those scores are merited?
If you live car-free or car-lite, give thanks for your neighborhood grocery stores, patronize them liberally, and show them the value that comes from having a dense pedestrian customer base. Walkable neighborhoods can’t afford not to have them.
The Future Capitol Hill Station – Partly Funded by an $813M New Starts Grant – Photo by the Author
The Republican Study Committee recently released details for $2.5 Trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. Drawn up in order to flesh out their campaign pledge to cut $100B by the end of this fiscal year, the proposed cuts would hit non-highway transportation spending particularly hard. The cuts would:
Rescind all remaining stimulus funds: $45 Billion
Eliminate all Amtrak funding: $1.56 Billion Annually
Eliminate the New Starts program: $2.5 Billion Annually
Eliminate federal subsidies for the DC Metro: $150 Million Annually
This proposal is undoubtedly just the GOP’s opening bid. Tomorrow’s State of the Union address will likely represent the President’s opening bid, after which the haggling begins. I do not intend this to be a partisan post, for neither political party has forwarded a serious proposal to manage our long-term fiscal crisis. But Republicans are acutely aware that the symbolism of many of these proposed cuts (Amtrak, HSR etc..) far exceeds their budgetary impact, and that the sum of all transportation funding (including highways) amounts to crumbs at the budgetary table. With luck our political parties will someday choose substance over symbolism.
Amtrak Cascades set another ridership record in 2010, boarding 838,251 passengers. This represents an 8% increase over the previous record set in 2008 (774, 531). Economic recovery, the 2nd daily train to Vancouver BC, and the Vancouver Olympics all drove the increased ridership. It was also an active year on the policy front. Washington won a battle with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) regarding customs fees for the 2nd train, and the federal government increased Washington’s HSR stimulus funds by 32%, from $590M to $782M.
Directly gauging the impact of the 2nd Vancouver BC train is difficult. WSDOT only began publishing station on-off data in February 2010, so year-on-year comparisons will be possible beginning next year. Rather, increased ridership must be inferred from ridership growth on Trains 513 and 516. The first graph below shows a clear spike in ridership when the 2nd train began on August 19 2009, and that this year-on-year growth sustained itself through August 2010. The 2nd graph shows Vancouver BC now assuming its expected place as the 3rd most popular station, overtaking Tacoma.
As a frequent Cascades rider and supporter, I should be elated by these ridership figures. Yet my enthusiasm is muted by the fact that service levels remain too infrequent, on-time performance remains poor, and reliability in the winter is awful (service north of Seattle has been cancelled 14 of the last 39 days due to mudslides). While I appreciate that living in a lush, rain-fed region comes with the risk of mudslides, it is disappointing that WSDOT’s Amtrak Cascades Long-Range Plan makes almost no mention of mudslide-related reliability issues. Though I welcome our push for higher-speed rail, I propose a simple rule-of-thumb for project prioritization: fix the bad before improving the good.
Still, long term, be bullish on Cascades. When the stimulus funds have done their work, when King Street has been fully restored, when the Point Defiance Bypass has traded scenery for needed reliability, and when we start to see those extra frequencies, we will at last have some of the best rail services in the country.
Though I mostly enjoy my car-free life, I do wish I skied more. When I lived in Idaho I thought nothing of 100-mile drives to support my season pass at Schweitzer, and when I lived in Colorado there was always the Ski Train to Winter Park. Our wilderness legacy in Washington has kept our spectacular mountains fairly well-preserved, with the caveat that the relatively few access points that do exist must be accessed by car. Here we have resorts surrounded by emptiness (whether wilderness or clearcuts), whereas places like Colorado have ski towns, many of them served by comprehensive (and free!) transit service. Though Washington has an impressive amount of rural transit, very little of this serves our resorts. Our decision to under-develop our mountains comes with environmental benefits that I genuinely appreciate, but this particular tradeoff – lack of transit access – frustrates my attempts to enjoy winter sports and still live car-free.
Though Zipcar, traditional car rental, and Craigslist rideshare are good options in a pinch, I thought I’d write a post laying out our options for getting to our ski resorts car-free.
Two separate mudslides have canceled all Amtrak service between Portland and Vancouver BC. Conforming with BNSF’s 48-hour moratorium following such events, service is expected to resume on Tuesday morning.
Buses will completely replace trains 501, 506, 508, 510, 513, 516, and 517 .
Trains 11 and 14 (Coast Starlight), 500, 507, and 509 will run as trains between Eugene and Portland and as buses between Portland and Seattle.
Train 504 (Portland to Eugene only) is unaffected.
Due both to our mudslides and heavy snow in Minnesota/North Dakota, please check with Amtrak regarding the status of the Empire Builder. Over the next two days trains will be severely delayed and will originate either at Everett or Spokane (depending upon tardiness) and passengers will be bused to/from Seattle.
North Sounder will not run on Monday. South Sounder is currently unaffected.
Real-time train information is always available here. Given the likely extent of flooding in Western Washington through Tuesday, bus replacement may soon experience its own delays or cancellations. Stay tuned.
Light Rail Flyover Ramps at the I-25/I-225 Interchange – newraleigh.com
Pending the results of a required Alternatives Analysis, over the next couple of years Sound Transit will select a technology and an alignment for High Capacity Transit from Northgate to Lynnwood. ST recently released its Early Scoping Information Report, and Adam wrote a nice piece discussing the relative merits of the 3 corridors under consideration (Aurora, I-5 and 15th Ave NE). The most likely alignment remains I-5, which is the cheapest, quickest, and shortest. Having lived in Denver for 2 years (2007-2008), I am well-acquainted with interstate light rail alignments, and I think there is much we can learn from Denver’s alignment choices.
