Pundits claim West Seattle had been added to the ST3 plan by politicians envious that Ballard gets a light rail connection. It seemed easy to draw another line on the map, but now that Sound Transit published the final Environmental Impact Statement for the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE) it has become evident that it is far more complex than anticipated. While the ST3 measure promised to bring 37,000 riders for $1.5 billion ($2.4B in 2024 dollars) by 2030, now the price tag has tripled to $7.1 billion (in 2024 dollars), and completion is delayed to 2032, and the ridership forecast for 2042 (after WSLE is connected to the current downtown tunnel) is only 27,000 new riders systemwide.

The delays and cost explosions are directly related to the apparently-unexpected complexity of building the extension as drawn in 2016. The route needs to roller-coaster up over the Duwamish and Pigeon Point, down into the Delridge Valley, and then back up to the Alaska Junction. To ensure southward expansion in the distant future, the station at Alaska Junction was rotated to be north-south, requiring more property takings. To avoid disturbing the Duwamish superfund site, the new bridge needs to stay away from the river shore. The SODO soil is prone to liquefaction in an earthquake, so the elevated guideway pilings have to be extra deeper than normal. The Pigeon Point slope is unstable and requires large retaining walls. The initial setup for tunneling is expensive, even if the tunnel is relatively short.

Sound Transit staff told the Board the more expensive Preferred Alternative would require third party funding, but now they’re assuming Seattle, King County, and Sound Transit will somehow find the funding, which is implausible given the large shortfall. If the Board decides to proceed with the current plan, they may choose the same approach as they did during the pandemic finance crunch (“realignment”): delay delivery until they collect enough cash from tax payers to avoid breaking the debt ceiling. 

Continue reading “Implications of the West Seattle Link Cost” | 113 comments

Ballard Bridge will be closed tonight (9/27, 7 pm) to Monday (9/30, 5 am). SDOT has advice on how to get around.

Transit News:

• My Ballard: Temporary lane restrictions and sidewalk repairs continue for Route 40 upgrades
• Capitol Hill Seattle: With G humming on Madison, SDOT completes work on Route 48 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project, the 23rd Ave RapidRide route that never was
• Cascade PBS: Proposal for WA ferry engineers, oilers falls short of pay parity
• King Count Metro Matters: Double the excellence: King County Metro celebrates Operators of the Year
• Community Transit: Coming from Whidbey Island to the mainland? We’ve got something new, just for you
• Washington State Standard: Conversion of Washington ferry to hybrid-electric power is delayed
• Mass Transit: King County Metro to begin next phase of multi-year infrastructure improvement program
• Posting later today: King County Metro Weekend Update.

Continue reading “Weekend Roundup: Ballard Bridge Closure” | 22 comments

Transit Updates:

• Sound Transit: Sept. 23-29 is “See Track? Think Train!” Week. Previously called “Rail Safety Week”; organized by Operation Lifesaver. Sound Transit has also launched a new website highlighting safety and security around at-grade crossings.
• The Urbanist: Seattle’s Trolleybus Fleet To Get New Supercharged Batteries
• Seattle Bike Blog: Testing the in-bus bike racks on the new RapidRide G
• KUOW: Off the Charts: More people are returning to the office. Is Seattle traffic about to get worse?
• The Seattle Times ($): What we know about [last] week’s light rail train stalls in Seattle

Continue reading “News Roundup: See Track? Think Train!” | 137 comments

SDOT recently announced RapidRide J Line construction will start in October, with service planned to launch in 2027. RapidRide J will travel from downtown Seattle to University District via Eastlake Avenue replacing Route 70.

According to SDOT, the two years of construction will build the following:

• 15,130 feet of repaired sidewalks
• 2 miles of repaved roadway
• 3.7 lane-miles of protected bike facilities
• 2 miles of bus priority lanes
• 177 improved crosswalks
• 33 intersections with traffic signal improvements, including 253 new traffic signal devices
• 190 newly planted trees

The project heading to construction has evolved somewhat since planning for a high-capacity transit corridor on Eastlake started in 2011, which eventually became RapidRide J in 2019.

Continue reading “RapidRide J Line – Final Design and Recap” | 69 comments

CityBeautiful explores San Francisco’s new transit center for MUNI and regional buses, and in the future Caltrain and high-speed rail. It’s located south of Market and has a rooftop park reminiscent of New York’s High Line.

This is an open thread.

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It’s the seventh day of the restructure, and Link had power outages this week. How are things today?

Mini news roundup:

What happened to RapidRide G this week and how is Metro fixing it? (Ryan Packer, The Urbanist)

How to deal with cost overruns in light rail extensions? (Stephen Fesler, The Urbanist)

Sound Transit executive commitee grapples with West Seattle Link and its costs

Open threads, the Friday edition, commentary that tells the agencies and governments where to go.

This is an open thread. (The tagline in the middle paragraph is a spoof on the As It Happens intro.)

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Transit Updates:

• The Urbanist: Metro Launches RapidRide G, Seattle’s Most Ambitious Bus Rapid Transit Project. See our reader check-in posts for first-hand accounts: First Week and First Week, Part 2
• The Urbanist: West Seattle Link Cost Estimates Jump As Much As $1.6 Billion. STB article to come tomorrow.
• Kitsap Transit News: Kitsap Transit receives $13.5 million grant to buy new fast ferry for Kingston-Seattle route.
• Puget Sound Regional Council: PSRC Seeking Public Comment on $9.6 Billion Regional Transportation Improvement Program.

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup – Open Thread 66” | 84 comments

The big restructure continues in its fourth day. We still want to hear how Link ridership is doing in the morning and afternoon peaks, how much crowding there is. How are the dozens of restructured bus routes in Snohomish and King Counties doing? How is Lynnwood City Center station holding up re crowding? Is Northgate station emptier? And any updates on RapidRide G.

Don’t miss the highway 520 article just before this one.

This is an open thread.

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WSDOT opened the SR 520 direct-access ramps to Montlake on Monday, allowing buses between UW and the Eastside to jump the queue at the Montlake Blvd exit.

I dropped by to watch them work in the afternoon and, though traffic was relatively light on a Monday, buses and HOV 3+ vehicles were staying on the HOV all the way to Montlake Blvd.

The bus stops on the lid itself are currently not in use, but Metro says they’ll start using them “at a later date.” There’s still quite a bit of fencing on the lid so it may be some time before it’s fully open.

Before lid construction began, the popular Montlake flyer stop allowed riders to catch an Eastside bus directly from 520 by walking down a flight of stairs. The ADA-inaccessible stop was closed in 2019 for lid construction. Now that connection is restored and improved.

Transit access in Montlake has come a long way from some of the early renders we were seeing in 2009. Prior to Monday, buses were often spending a good 10-15 minutes idling on the exit ramp. It often took longer to exit the ramp than the entire ride from Bellevue to Montlake. The reliability improvements should save service hours and improve ridership.

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