In this video Reece Martin (RMTransit) talks about the rail network in Germany’s northwestern megaopolis along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, which is similar in size and population to the Los Angeles region. The region is split into two comprehensive transit districts, and this video focuses on the northern one. A later video will look at the southern district.
The northern transit district, Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, contains the cities of Düsseldorf (pop. 644K), Essen (588K), Duisburg (495K), Bochum (386K), Wuppertal (351K), and other cities. The larger ones are the size Seattle was in the 2000s and 2010s. The southern transit district, Rhein-Sieg Verkehrsgesellschaft, contains Cologne (1 million) and Bonn (336K) among others. (Population sizes source.)
There’s a lot of heavy industry (especially in the northern part), some rural areas, and a very active and diverse music and sports scene. It even applied to host the 2032 Olympics. (It lost to Brisbane.) It’s served by regional rail and local high- and low-floor light rail systems and trams. Several of the light rail systems use a single tunnel in city centers. Reece doesn’t mention any of the many bus feeder lines and rural express buses, but he does mention other transit modes such as several hanging monorail systems (including the famous Wuppertal Schwebebahn).
While the Puget Sound region is smaller with only four major cities (Seattle, Bellevue-Redmond-Kirland, Tacoma, Everett), we have similar modes of transportation: regional rail (Sounder), light rail (Link), streetcars (Tacoma, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill) and the monorail which was supplied and built in that region, close to Cologne. The Rhine-Ruhr region decided to focus on regional rail connections between its urban centers, while we focus on light rail connections. We plan to double up our downtown tunnel, while the cities in the Rhine-Ruhr region tend to use a single tunnel or one per direction (east/west, north/south).
What other things do you see in the Rhine-Ruhr network? Or how it compares to Pugetopolis transit?
Time-lapse view from Lynnwood Link’s eastern window going northbound on opening day. Video by Trip Clips.
Thanks to Sam for referring this video to us.
The STB staff are collecting their thoughts on the opening, working on other articles, dealing with illness, and preparing for the bus restructures September 14th. So there may not be another article for a couple days.
Lynnwood Link Extension Real-Time Arrival Signs. Photo by Sherwin Lee.
Tomorrow, Sound Transit will officially open the Lynnwood Link Extension, the latest northward expansion of the Link 1 Line. Approved by voters in 2008 in the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure, the expansion opens four new stations along 8.7 miles of (mostly) elevated track between Northgate and Lynnwood. From extending north from Northgate, the new stations are named “Shoreline South/148th”, “Shoreline North/185th”, “Mountlake Terrace”, and “Lynnwood City Center”.
Yesterday, Sherwin rode along with the press preview of the extension. Members of the general public only have to wait until tomorrow’s ceremony before being able to ride the brand-new rails – but if you’re wondering what festivities await this opening, look no further!
Northbound train arriving at Shoreline North/185th
On Wednesday, Sound Transit invited members of the media for a preview ride of the Lynnwood Link extension. The extension officially opens on Friday, when Lynnwood will officially inherit the mantle of Link’s northern terminus from Northgate. The completion of Lynnwood Link represents a major milestone in ST2 expansion. The other points of ST2 expansion, namely Federal Way and the 2 Line connection across I-90, will have to wait until next year or potentially 2026 to open.
A full album of the preview ride can be viewed here.
In lieu of a historical photo, here’s the first in a series of videos produced by the Lynnwood Alderwood Manor Heritage Association last year about the Seattle-Everett Interurban Streetcar. With Lynnwood Link opening on Friday, light rail transit is several miles closer to recreating this historic connection.
Commenter Lazarus pointed out that Sound Transit has released 2 Line (East Link Starter Line) ridership figures on its dashboard. Although there is no direct filter for a drill-down to just the 2 Line, one can multi-select the East Link stations by holding CTRL (on a PC) or ⌘ (on a Mac).
Four incomplete months worth of data is insufficient to draw out meaningful observations but it is evident that the early novelty of rapid transit on the Eastside slowly wore off through late Spring into Summer. However, it is interesting to note that those declines were largely limited to weekend ridership, which supports the narrative that recreational rides are the ones that have waned the most in number.
When it comes to average weekday ridership, there is a more stable picture. Both May and July featured around 5,800 daily boardings, sandwiching a modest spike in June. Sound Transit’s earliest forecast for the starter line was 6,000 average daily boardings, which was later adjusted down to a range of 4,000 to 5,700. All in all, early performance is within the realm of what was forecasted.
One lingering curiosity of mine has been the cannibalization of other services, namely the 550 and the B Line, given the overlapping service area. Although there is not yet July data for ST Express, 550 ridership has not declined whatsoever since the beginning of the year. This suggests that Link has poached a negligible number of riders, if any, within the short South Bellevue-Downtown Bellevue commuter market.
A 5-minute drone (sUAS) flyover of the Federal Way Link Extension construction progress in May, southward from Angle Lake to Federal Way. Some observations with timestamps:
0:02: The path of the SR-509 Completion Project, one of two highway expansion projects in the region, is visible as something that could be mistaken for a riverbed.
1:05: Kent-Des Moines Station
1:30: Midway Landfill, a former potential site for OMF-S that would have cost an extra ~$1B to build but would have had zero business or residential impacts. The current preferred location of OMF-S is the Christian Faith Center, south of Federal Way Downtown.
4:00: Federal Way Downtown Station, with a fun fly-around afterwards.
As Metro is struggling to meet their plans to build out their battery bus fleet and charging infrastructure, Reece Martin looks at the tradeoff between decarbonization efforts and transit expansion.
Metro 181 bus at Federal Way by Amaryah Johnson 1996, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
King County Corridor 1052, a potential rapidride conversion of Route 181 currently travels from Federal Way via Auburn Station to Green River College. With the introduction of Federal Way Link extension as well as I-5 freeway access additions, Route 181 speed improvements as a RapidRide will connect Auburn and Green River College closer to Seattle and the rest of the region. In this post we’ll review the corridor, Metro’s planned improvements, expected ridership and estimated project costs.
King County Metro Corridor 1056, a potential RapidRide conversion of Route 165 — traveling between Kent Des Moines Station, Downtown Kent, and Green River College — was set as Tier 3 priority corridor for future RapidRide expansion. In this post we’ll review the proposed route alignment, planned improvements, and expected ridership.
