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On Thursday, the Senate Transportation Committee held a ‘work session’ in order to receive public comments on their proposed transportation package. I took the trip down, along with several other STB readers. So first, thanks very much to Jon, Alex, Allison, and Mark for joining me!

There isn’t much actual news. Elected officials from all over the state came on Thursday to ask for highway expansion, and while some of them asked for transit authority, I didn’t hear any of them ask the Senate to start funding transit directly, nor did I hear any testimony at all for passenger rail. There were individuals and organizations saying the package was a non-starter, but they were far too few.

There’s no way to know right now what’s going to happen, but with King County preparing to go to ballot with a Vehicle License Fee or sales tax package to save Metro, they’re no longer reliant on the legislature passing a package. If the package does pass the Senate, it’ll do so with enough Republican support that it may pass the House, so my hope is that the package is killed before it leaves the Senate.

For most people, context completely disappears when an issue drags on this long, so this also seems like a good time for a recap:

Continue reading “Possibilities in Olympia”

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The New York Times has a really cool interactive documentary up called “A Short History of the Highrise” starting with Roman insula and ending with futuristic skyscrapers. Here’s an excerpt of the introduction from the feature’s creator, Katerina Cizek:

When I set out to tell this story for Op-Docs, I came to realize that the history of the high-rise building is in many ways the history of humanity. I was faced with a daunting challenge: how to tell a 2,500-year global history in a short film? The solution was to expand the project into an ambitious four-part interactive series. I was inspired by the ways storybooks have been reinvented for digital tablets like the iPad. We used rhymes to zip through history, and animation and interactivity to playfully revisit a stunning photographic collection and reinterpret great feats of engineering.

I really enjoyed it; let me know what you think.

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If Boeing’s needs are a truly a major consideration in crafting the next state transportation package, then lawmakers may give serious consideration to what Community Transit is provisionally calling “Swift II:”

The proposed Swift II line under study would serve Boeing-Everett at the north end, wind east across Airport Road/128th to 132nd, then turn south at the Bothell-Everett Highway. There are two options of a southern terminus: just south of Mill Creek Town Center or Canyon Park.

According to spokesman Martin Munguia, CT is in the middle of a feasability study that could enable Federal Small Starts funding. Half of the $200,000 cost of this study was provided by the legislature in 2012.

There no capital cost estimates yet, although Munguia expects that, being shorter, it will come in under the $30m cost of the first Swift line. The House’s last attempt at putting together a transportation bill last spring included $10m over 12 years for this project, before Boeing became a priority, but no one knows what will happen next session.

Of course, there is also the issue of operating funds. Community Transit has already made the painful cuts King County Metro is trying to avoid, including the elimination of all Sunday service besides Sound Transit Express. Even with the capital money, it’s inconceivable that CT could operate this line without new authorization from the state, a (substantially new) CT board, and the voters.

Swift is generally agreed to the be the best example of BRT in the region, with full off-board payment, direct routing, partial right-of-way, and uniformly high-quality stops. CT should be commended for continuing to seek improvement in terrible fiscal headwinds.

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We first reported back in September that Sound Transit was evaluating strategies to expedite the opening of University Link. At today’s ULink Project Update at the ST Board Meeting, Sound Transit Executive Director of Design, Engineering, and Construction Management  Ahmad Fazel expanded on Sound Transit’s hopes for an earlier date, with very exciting news.

The current opening date of September 24, 2016 has been calculated based upon the finishing of major construction (September 2015), 180 days of systems testing (September 2015-March 2016), plus 169 days of schedule float (September 24, 2016). Mr. Fazel presented 3 scenarios for an earlier opening:

• Q2 2016: Adhering to the current schedule but using the scheduled float.
• Q1 2016: Adhering to the current construction schedule but compressing systems testing and using the scheduled float.
  
• Q4 2015: Compressing the remaining construction schedule, compressing systems testing, and using the float.

The earliest option, a Q4 2015 opening, would incur additional costs of $10-12m, while the other two options incur no additional costs. Accordingly, staff recommended the middle option to the board: that the construction schedule be left intact, that systems testing be shortened from 180 to 90 days, and that the 169 days of float be used.  Doing the back-of-the-napkin math, ULink could open as early as January 8, 2016.

Sound Transit isn’t ready to actually pull the trigger and change the official opening date at this time, but staff will come back with a recommendation to the board within 12-14 months to set a firm opening date that falls within Q1 2016.

Beyond up to 9 months of better mobility for thousands of residents across the region, the timing will be fortuitous for many other reasons:

• A January opening would allow Metro’s February 2016 service change to take full advantage of the new service
• ULink would be online in time for the full summer tourist season
• ULink would be open for the winter and spring quarters of the ’15-’16 academic year
• Nearly a year of rider impressions would be made ahead of a possible ST3 vote in November 2016

Congratulations to Sound Transit and their contractors on a very successful construction project thus far. Let’s all hope that ST can keep to this expedited schedule.

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CORRECTION 11/29: The Sound Transit board can select any alignment and station studied in the DEIS not just those studied in the FEIS as originally reported. Additionally, Sound Transit clarified that the NE 130th St and 220th St Stations were not advanced to the 30% design level as other alignments and stations included in the FEIS. However, their design and environmental impacts will be brought up to the same level as the rest of the DEIS analysis.

This afternoon the Sound Transit Board will vote on which Lynnwood Link alignments and station locations to include in the Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS). This step is critical because the Preferred Alternative, which will advance to construction, can only use alignments and stations studied in the FEIS DEIS. Additionally, as explained on Councilmember Conlin’s blog, Sound Transit is only allowed to deviate or modify alignments and station locations if it can stay within the voter approved budget. Conlin goes on to explain how Sound Transit has been able to modify the alignment to accommodate both stations in the future and what it would take to fully fund the stations:

The Preferred Alternative that the Board used as a starting point is the least expensive, no-frills alignment, costed out at $1.267 billion compared to the $1.322 billion budgeted for the route from Northgate to Lynnwood. We had several options to consider as possible additions, including possible rebuilds of bridges at 117^th and 185^th Street ($26 million), adding a 130^th Street Station ($24 million), and adding a 220^th Street Station ($42 million). Providing for the 220^th Street Station would also require alignment modifications costing $36 million, while adding either of the two stations would require additional train sets at a cost of $40 million. Thus, to do everything we all wanted would bust the budget, taking it up to $1.440 billion.

Continue reading “CORRECTION: NE 130th St and 220th St SW Station Likely in Lynnwood Link FEIS”

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by MATT LOAR

Earlier this month Metro released their 2013 Service Guidelines Report [PDF]. This report, which replaced the Route Performance Report in 2011, was released in the spring in 2011 and 2012, but Metro has decided to release it in the fall from now on to better align with the King County Budget process. STB covered the last report back in April. Notably, this is the first report since the launch of RapidRide C & D and the large restructure that went with it.

Some highlights after the jump.

Continue reading “Metro’s 2013 Service Guidelines Report”

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• Commute Seattle hiring a parking outreach manager.
• Seattle legislative delegation is developing a backbone ($) on transportation.
• Tom Rasmussen threatens to move Northgate pedestrian bridge funding back for a project in his district, draws fire, restores the funding.
• Sound Transit capital committee supports designing Lynnwood Link to allow infill stations at N 130th St. and 220th St. SW.
• The cycletrack may require some driver education.
• Report from the Tacoma Sound Transit Long Range Plan open house.
• People want to fix the roads, legislature doesn’t care.
• Update on Tacoma Link extension.
• Pierce Transit may add route to connect Fife, Edgewood, and Milton with Sounder.
• Business owners horrified by projects with no parking.
• A summary on how Metro fare enforcement works.
• Sounder train kills pedestrian.

This is an open thread.

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Sound Transit plans to add five double deck buses to its fleet in 2015, according to its fleet plan in the 2014 Draft SIP. Community Transit’s seventeen new Double Talls are also expected to enter service in 2015. It could be a coincidence or CT’s decision had an influence on ST’s future fleet plans since ST might be able to piggyback on CT’s bus contract.

While the SIP does not specify which routes those double deckers will run on, Sound Transit on its Twitter feed announced that the buses would run on all day routes in Snohomish County, where CT’s Double Talls are already a familiar sight to I-5 commuters. Community Transit is the only operator with the experience and capability to run and maintain double deck buses.

As a fan of double deck buses, I am excited to see more operators join the club. I wrote about the advantages of double deck buses compared to over-the-road commuter coaches but so far operators have been using them to replace articulated buses. Which leaves me wondering… how long until we start seeing double deck buses on urban routes?

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If you’ve got a few hours free Friday morning (Nov 22nd), jump on Link and head to Columbia City Station where EarthCorps and Green Seattle Partnership are hosting an urban forest restoration project at the nearby Cheasty Greenspace.  If you don’t want to walk up the hill you can also get off at Beacon Hill Station and take the 36.

Details and Sign Up here.

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