Last month, Sound Transit broke ground on a long-awaited permanent Sounder station at Tukwila. Currently, the temporary station makes for a pitiful stop for Amtrak riders and the thousand or so commuters who make connections to nearby worksites. The project will construct permanent platforms, rebuild the park-and-ride, and create a new bus loop. Coupled with …
Continue reading “What’s in Store For Tukwila Station & RapidRide F”
These photos are actually legally taken this time:It was a pretty nice event. Governor Christine Gregoire spoke, as did Senator Patty Murray, Pierce County Executive and Sound Transit Chair (and cowboy boot enthusiast) John Ladenburg, Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara, and State Representative Dave Upthegrove. The station looked great and it was actually raining during the …
We are approaching July 2009 (I know we have a while yet), for me personally it couldn’t come fast enough. Certainly you don’t want to wish your life away, but I am really excited for Link. The Seattle Times had a nice article today describing the design of the Tukwila light rail station, which I …
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
You know, when I first saw the plans for the Tukwila Station, I thought it was a little overblown. After all, it’s only going to be the end of the line for about 6 months until the Airport Link opens. After that, what’s the purpose of having such an extensive station?
But, of course, there is a purpose. It’s the only station in the line that’s designed as a park-and-ride:
This is the line’s only planned park-and-ride station, with 600 spaces, plus lanes for buses, shuttle vans, and “kiss-and-ride” users dropped off there. Unlike most other stations, which are designed to encourage walk-up use, the Tukwila Station could lure motorists off the highways.
To be sure, the 2,600 daily boardings dwarfs the 14,000 daily boardings projected for Capitol Hill. It seems like it would be better for a park-and-ride station to be right off of I-5 instead of International Blvd. But I guess that’s where it’s got to be.
Someone (who wants to remain nameless because of possible trespassing charges) sent me these photos of Tukwila Light Rail’s Station. I promise I did not take these photos. I did, however, get really excited when I saw them! Click on them for larger versions.
Just a week after concluding realignment on a largely positive note, Sound Transit today is again tempted to water down station access for relatively little cost savings. At today’s System Expansion Committee meeting, they revealed that they are considering two changes to Stride stations (one at Tukwila Intl. Blvd. Station, and one at the Brickyard …
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Sound Transit has another online open house up, now with more details on station locations and elevation. We’ve covered the alignment alternatives in previous posts, so let’s focus on the stations. Two notes to start with: first, if you like mezzanines, you are in for a treat! Second, opening dates are pushed out past 2035 due …
Continue reading “New details on Ballard-West Seattle link stations”
A year ago, we reported on future ridership maps that showed a 2040 ST3 system with ridership concentrated in and near Seattle. We subsequently got a closer look at the station (and segment) level detail behind those maps. The tables below are the high-end estimates for boardings 2040, organized by rail segment. These estimates are …
Continue reading “Sound Transit’s station ridership in 2040”
Earlier this month the Kent Reporter had a story about disagreements between the Kent City Council and Sound Transit on restroom facilities at its two Kent stations (Kent/Des Moines and Star Lake/272nd). For the more dramatic account, see KOMO. Back when Kent was adopting its (impressive) rezone for the Kent “Midway” area in advance of light rail, the …
Sound Transit broke ground last Friday on Northgate Station, bringing the opening for Northgate Link one day closer (though still four years away). As we’ve reported before on the blog, the station will be elevated above NE 103rd Street on the east side of 1st Avenue NE, just west of the current transit center and …
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We are just one week from the opening of Angle Lake Station, completing a heady year of progress for Sound Transit. I hope to see y’all there! With the disappearance of waiting trains laying over at SeaTac Airport Station, since they are continuing on to Angle Lake Station out of service for pre-revenue testing, the …
In the discussions of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) at Shoreline’s future 145th Street Station, Charles Bond at The Urbanist broke the news that Sound Transit, Metro, and WSDOT have agreed to move the station north by roughly 400′, to the vicinity of NE 148th Street. As we discussed last week, the station already has much going against …
In addition to Metro’s recent release of preliminary bus restructure numbers, Sound Transit has also released a chart giving us a clearer picture of ULink’s station-level ridership through Q2. See above to draw your own conclusions, but here are a few noteworthy points: UW Station: At 9,200 boardings per day, UW Station has the 2nd most …
Peak hour queue to exit Capitol Hill Station — photo by SounderBruce — Flickr Those of you who have spent any time at UW Station, Capitol Hill Station, Mt Baker Station, Tukwila International Boulevard Station, or SeaTac Airport Station may have noticed something obvious about the station escalators. They usually involve long queues in only …
Continue reading “The Utility of Reversing Some Station Escalators”
Sound Transit – Angle Lake Testing 30 second from Sound Transit Video on Vimeo. Wednesday afternoon Sound Transit (ST) gave media a short preview of Angle Lake Station. The 1.6 mile extension south of SeaTac Airport will open some time in late September (exact date to be announced soon), and the project is also running …
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In addition to the vast new stretches of track Sound Transit will consider for a November 2016 ST3 ballot measure, there are a number of infill stations on existing track segments that ST is considering for inclusion. In December, they presented cost and ridership estimates for these infill stations. All figures are in 2014 dollars, …
Since its launch back in 2000, Sounder Commuter Rail has had a split personality, with its South Line widely heralded as a smashing success and its North Line as, at best, a series of disappointments. Except for Tacoma and Lakewood, both lines are considerably faster than their bus counterparts in peak-of-peak, and they scale incredibly …
King Street Station’s much needed $55m restoration did much to heal the decades of architectural and functional neglect that had turned the 1906 landmark into a 60s-era eyesore. The expansive waiting room is now beautiful and grandiose in an austere sort of way, the white and beige palette imposing a coldness nicely balanced by the warmth of …
Continue reading “Top 6 Ways to Improve King Street Station”
The deferred Boeing Access Road Station got a new sign of life when Tukwila Mayor Jim Haggerton told the Kent Reporter: Haggerton wants the Sound Transit to “undefer” its plans for a light-rail station in Tukwila at the Boeing Access Road. He argues the station is needed to serve the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field …
Tukwila’s transformation into a full-fledged urban center is charging full steam ahead. The major components of the effort roughly divvy up into the construction of Tukwila Village, and transformation of Tukwila International Boulevard (TIB) into a true transportation corridor with improved safety, sidewalks, and transit access. Specifically: increased access to the new light rail station; …
Continue reading “Tukwila International Boulevard Transformation”