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The cancellations of Avalon and SLU are practically certain.

I don't think I've ever met a BMW owner except in Germany. If I did it was years ago. I've met one Tesla owner, or at least until they got divorced and the wife got the car. And one Mercedes owner who was a friend of my dad's.

The Eastside isn't all rich people with Beamers and Teslas and whatever that other car is (Escalades -- haven't heard of it). 20% of Bellevue is low income. So the issue of whether BMW and Tesla owners will use transit, who cares, that's only a small minority of residents and visitors. There are tens of thousands of other people leading ordinary lives, and some of them are already riding buses, and some are maids at those Tesla McMansions. And somebody is on the 2 Line, whoever they are.

What do other cities have?

"I’m just really disappointed that SLU is not going to be built." "Ditching Avalon Station is a forever mistake." There's no decision yet. The three scenarios were a starting point for the board to debate what to do. The decisions will be in May if the process remains on schedule.

It’s pretty much a waste in Bellevue downtown itself. We should have a fast bus grid instead. With that I heartily agree. Exactly so.

"upside of $10K on their Beemers..."

SKR, oh, I know a very famous place that tried to mix "commuter rail" and "subway" and to this day they have been plagued with under-patronage outside of the very urban core from Berkeley Central to Daly City. I don't think I need to name the example. Too bad, so sad, you believe in the myth that 'Burbanistas who are paying the upside of their three-year old Beemers, Escalades and Oh So Virtuous Teslas are going to leave them in the garage depreciating their $100 K selves for anything other than the Manosphere Games by the Big Ship Cranes. Hint:...

Sam, the the experience looking out the window between Intl Dist and South Bellevue on Link is about the same as on the 550. The same going through the industrial district, and the same across the bridge. On Mercer Island the train doesn't have to stop at stoplights or turn to get to the stop; it just sails in and out. The ancestors of the 550, the 226 and 235 then, were slower. They went on Dearborn/Rainier to the Rainier freeway entrance. The brick building right after the exit northbound was Black Manufacturing, which sold down jackets and sleeping bags....

I should explain my P-Line suggestion a bit by referencing that Sound Transit already owns the Point Defiance Bypasd tracks between Tacoma Dome and Lakewood. BNSF has some easements granted with the track and the Cascades use it. So converting that segment to an EMU line looks potentially low-cost. https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/news-events/news-releases/sound-transit-takes-ownership-tacoma-to-lakewood-rail-line With the savings of not building all the Link electrification to Tacoma Dome from South Federal Way, and pursuing at-grade stations along the way, a frequent Pierce County EMU trunk service looks viable to me. Surely the tracks around Tacoma Dome would need to attach to new tracks between there...

There was an audio announcement four times that the line would be closed east of BelRed and replaced with shuttle buses, but I could never hear when. I was hoping it wasn't tonight. Here it is on the alerts page: "From April 14 -17, from 10 p.m. to the end of service, shuttle buses will replace trains between Downtown Redmond Station and Bel-Red Station." Ooh, they spelled Bel-Red instead of BelRed. It should have been that in the first place.

Note the sign at the west end of the platform telling operators to call control. I presume operators need clearance to continue. You can listen to calls here: https://openmhz.com/system/psern025?filter-type=group&filter-code=68fae25208f6c9683b353f59

There are some train symbol signs above the big green signs for freeway exits that lead to Link stations, at least on I-5 north. See e.g. https://www.google.com/maps/@47.8322798,-122.2626408,0a,27.7y,219.57h,120.6t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1saVB5HpCFbIUuwgf57KBEag!2e0?source=apiv3

Third phase, 7pm, Downtown Redmond-Capitol Hill. Ridership was moderate this time. At Pioneer Square it became standing room only. Travel times from Downtown Redmond to: Bellevue Downtown 18 South Bellevue 24 Mercer Island 29 Judkins Park 35 Westlake 45 Capitol Hill 47 Several people got off at Judkins Park, one with a bicycle. I didn't see anybody getting on. I think at least some of them were 2-car trains but I'm not sure. I couldn't tell how many people were going to ordinary destinations or sightseeing. I suspect a lot of them today may have been people who couldn't ride...

Please make your concerns heard. Sound Transit is performing an outreach https://soundtransit.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d7jkaU59BHOdblY?source=other

One problem with garage counters is spaces can fill up between when you see the sign and when you actually get there. Or, there might be some spaces left, but they're all handicapped.

I don't mind TDLE (aside from the terminus), so not disastrous if it proceeds more-or-less as-is. But if ST is going to truncate The EIS isn't a waste; 1) South FW station + OMF-S should still move forward promptly as the next Link extension, and 2) switching the mode should require only a refresh of some of the EIS, not a complete redo. To Al's counterpoints 1. Then replace the rolling stock. The original streetcars are somewhat old (and this proposed extension would be decade+ away from opening), so just refresh the rolling stock with something that has a higher...

the proposed elevated station at Tacoma Dome is dumb because it will make it very expensive to extend west over/through 705. A rail extension to Tacoma Mall is also better as a streetcar, which can run through valley using ROW already owned by ST and can then turn south to run at-grade down to & through the mall. The proposed elevated station at T Dome is dumb... full stop, end of sentence. And they want to tear down Freighthouse Square to do it. Dumb and dumber. Do it cheap at grade and if at all possible make the tracks compatible...

I've been posting that Tacoma (Pierce Co.) should be looking at extending T Link north if ST fails to follow through on what was promised in a timely manor (like before I'm dead). T-Link vehicles have maximum speeds of 43 mph Ouch, that really sucks for what is essentially commuter rail. I posit that Link south of RV is commuter rail. There's just not much there there and the ridership comes from commuters and/or the airport. Freeway running has proven to be quick to build, relatively inexpensive (cough, choke gag saying inexpensive when referring to ST) and gets you "there"...

Is there value adding signs directing freeway drivers to Link stations with garages? In the past two years, 19 Link stations have opened (20 counting Pinehurst). Among those, 13 are close to freeway off-ramps. 10 have parking for Link. Yet I’ve not seen any sign on the freeway advising drivers to get off the freeway. A fixed sign would be a good first step. A blue sign that says “Light Rail Station” with a Link symbol on it seems easy and perhaps useful. Some sort of garage counter system would even be better. I hear complains from people who drive...

handful got on/off at every station from Spring District to Redmond Tech, like Rainier Valley but twice as many people. Mike, were they running 2 car or 3 car trains? It's good to hear East Link seems to be having great ridership. But like Sam I wonder how many are just checking it out for the novelty and if ridership will drop when the newness wears off. I've seen a large number in the afternoons weekdays that seem to be just joy riding. But, if they find things they like they might come back. Don't know of anything going...

A good BRT is frequent full time and busy full time. It is more like a busway, rather than BRT. The biggest weakness of the 520 shared corridor is the stations themselves, not the frequency. At Evergreen Point you have the 255, 270, 542 and 545. I think that is 14 buses an hour (midday) which seems like is enough that I would call it a spine. So if you are trying to get from one freeway station to the other, you have very little wait. The problem is, very few people are trying to do that. So from a...

A mix of commuter rail and subway hasn’t been seen in many other systems … It is pretty common in America. Bart, Dart, Denver RTD and now Link. It isn't a very successful pattern. Freeway stations themselves tend to do poorly (https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/economics-of-urban-light-rail-CH.pdf). But it is also quite common for agencies to shortchange the urban core as they trying to make this unsuccessful hybrid. That is what happened in all these cases. Maybe it would have happened anyway, but if you are focused on running a train from Dallas to Fort Worth -- and you don't want to spend a...

I know it's difficult to tell the difference, but did you get a sense that a lot of Link riders were just checking it out? Not necessarily riding it to go somewhere, but rather to experience the longer 2 Line?

Looking forward to your reaction to riding Link across the lake for the first time. You've probably made that trip, albeit on a bus, longer than anyone here.