Our Feet Are Tired

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman

I’m sitting here after a lot of rides, letting my feet rest and thinking about all we’ve seen.

A few comments on the trips taken today: Tukwila had serious crowds. Sure, not three or four hour waits, but there was a steady wait of 20-30 minutes (some 3-400 people) through most of the day. I really like the station – the bus bays under the platform will allow for easy transfers, and I think several adjacent properties look like they could become transit oriented development.

Othello had a great little festival – there were breakdancers and live music, some local artists selling their creations, the Undriver’s License folks and Transportation Choices Coalition were there. The Station at Othello Park also had a presence – essentially the first TOD for Central Link, a six story project with about 20,000 square feet of retail and some 350 apartments will break ground shortly on the southeast corner of the intersection. The developer also wants to build something similar in the space to the northeast of the station.

Columbia City has some fantastic public space on the corners just to the east of the platform – it does feel like Sound Transit helped the city out a lot, creating plaza space that we’re going to be very thankful for in the next few decades.

Mount Baker is cool space, but definitely needs a coffee stand and a newsstand. I hope the neighborhood uses the station for gatherings, but there’s a dearth of seating. There’s also a huge TOD opportunity around this station.

I was worried that Beacon Hill would take up too much space, wasting land that could be used for density later, but I think they’ve done a good job here too. It looks like the space just to the south of the main station could be a cafe or restaurant with seating spilling over onto the station plaza. All we need is to get rid of the parking lot across the street…

I’ve taken a lot of photos, and I’ll be doing a photo post or two later on tonight when I get them off the camera.

One last note: the spoilsports trying to downplay ridership are not to be believed. Every single train I’ve been on in the last eight hours has been standing room only. If anything, I suspect Sound Transit is undercounting, given how overwhelmed the people with the counters have looked.

53 comments

Early Media Roundup

Posted on by Martin H. Duke

All our multimedia people are still out on the trains, but here’s what’s out there right now:

My impression: a well-run event.  It was almost the perfect sweet spot for someone looking to ride: packed trains, but modest waits.  ST’s hiring of performers to entertain lined-up riders was a nice touch.

9 comments

Riding the Rails All Day

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman

Eric, Bejan, Martin and I are riding Link all day! I started at Westlake, then met Bejan and Eric at Beacon Hill to check out the amazing public art. The deep sea creatures in the stations are beautiful, and be sure to have a look at the bubbles in the wall across from the elevator! You can’t miss them. Surface level at Beacon Hill is also nice, the station plaza has wonderful bamboo and some seating.

We had lunch at the Columbia City Ale House (remember the meetups we’ve had there?) and we’re heading back out to zoom down to Tukwila and see some of the other stations.

We also tried out the ticket vending machines. While Link is free this weekend, I was still able to add money easily to my ORCA, and you can buy them at TVMs as well!

Be sure to come out today! The lines aren’t bad, everyone seems to be loving the train, and you’ll probably run into someone you know! We’ll post more later.

25 comments

The First Train

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman

There are two of these, actually. About half an hour ago, Mayor Nickels’ train started at Westlake, and Mayor Jim Haggerton of Tukwila’s train started there. The two trains met at Mount Baker station for the opening ceremonies. We’ve got a short clip of Haggerton’s train headed across the Duwamish:

Update: Here’s Dave Ross introducing the mayors at Mount Baker Station. “Seattle has a working light rail system!”

Edit: Apparently, it may be a few minutes before these videos are “processed”.

10 comments

Just Under 3 Hours

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman

Good morning everybody!

Apparently, there’s some kind of train thing happening today.

Last night I went on the very last preview ride with Oran. Some of Seattle’s original transit supporters were present – Jim Ellis and Aubrey Davis both rode to Tukwila. This was also the first time I’ve seen state legislators on board – Representative Scott White (46th LD) was pretty pumped, although it’ll be some ten years before stations open in his district. Also from the 46th, Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez-Kenney seemed to enjoy the ride.

I have to say, the bike rack issues reported by the Stranger don’t seem so bad. The bicycle in question was that of City Council candidate and Sierra Clubber Mike O’Brien – a tall guy with a big bike. Most bikes aren’t going to stick out into the aisle nearly as much as his did, and cyclists will learn to hold onto their bikes when they’re on the hangers. There is a difference between these hangers and those on the MAX in Portland – their racks allow bikes to hang parallel to the direction of the train’s movement, so they do swing less. Perhaps when we get more trains, we can design this differently.

We’ll see you all on the train today!

20 comments

3 Hours

Posted on by Martin H. Duke
Jim Ellis and protege
Jim Ellis and protege

If you haven’t checked recently, our Twitter feed has been relaunched, so that it’s no longer just an announcement of each post on the blog.  Today, especially, it’ll be hopping.

********

Today is for Jim Ellis, who’s been fighting for this day longer than anyone else.

It’s for all the tourists who have shown up at the airport and wondered where the train was.

It’s for baseball fans who found the bus schedule useless in post-game congestion.

It’s for anyone who’s sat on the 7, 36, or 42, slogging up the Rainier Valley.

It’s for ST CEO Joni Earl, who saved this train from oblivion.

It’s for Patty Murray, Greg Nickels, Ron Sims, and all the other politicians that made it happen.

It’s for anyone with a stroller or wheelchair that had to struggle with the bus lift.

It’s for revelers who’ve had to leave something early because that’s when the last bus left.

It’s for millions of Puget Sound voters who finally did the right thing.

It’s for my son and Andrew’s daughter, who will always have a fast, safe, and reliable way to get around.

Commenter Lloyd has a few others who deserve recognition:

Former Capitol Hill pharmacist and City Council Member George Benson would have loved being with us – I’ll never for get his ear-to ear grin the day the Waterfront Streetcar opened lo these decades ago.
Less well known, but equally important would be former postman, historian and photographer Warren Wing who, in about a half dozen books published in the 1980s and 1990s, reminded us in text and photographs of the trains, streetcars and rights of way we lost from the 1930s through the 1970s. I last saw him at the opening of the Kent Sounder station in 2001 – he looked as proud as could be that local passenger trains were again serving the route of his beloved Seattle to Tacoma Interurban, albeit on a slightly different route and reduced timetable.
Enjoy the ride, George and Warren!

and Kaleci:

Another person to note would be Walter Shannon, the last surviving motorman on the Everett-Seattle Interurban. It was a shame that he recently passed and couldn’t be here. I remember meeting him at Sounder’s first day on the North Line.

I think he would have been one of the happiest people on earth this weekend.

RIP, guys.

Add your dedications in the comments.

10 comments

12 Hours

Posted on by Martin H. Duke
Link + Bike, by Atomic Taco
"Link + Bike", by Atomic Taco

Two nice pieces of reporting from the Stranger today:

The Link bike rack doesn’t appear to work so well in practice:

They really did seem like the first bikes that had ever been hung there: Whoever had designed them had evidently never tried putting a bike in it. The handlebars jutted so far into the aisle it was difficult getting around them, and as soon as the train started moving they swung dangerously at standing passengers. Several of the guys who had designed the visual displays in all the stations were standing nearby talking, and one of them was preoccupied by the poorly designed bike rack and kept talking about how he would reconfigure it. “I think you have to lose one of those seats,” he said, pointing to a pair of seats across the aisle from the rack.

Dominic Holden reports Metro is not collecting as many 5 million fares a year (out of 400 million rides), but he isn’t all that concerned about it.  The figure is highly questionable, as many commenters on Slog have pointed out.

27 comments