- Water taxi fares may go up next season. I didn’t realize there was an ORCA discount.
- 8 recommendations for the Capitol Hill station area.
- Starting Feb. 6th, no more restrictions on loading bikes in the ride-free area.
- In news that will surprise no one, the Bellevue City Council “will consider” changing their preferred Link alignment.
- I-5 undercrossing work for U-Link is a month behind schedule ($ link). This won’t affect U-Link’s overall schedule, as there’s a huge time gap between this work and when the tunnel boring machine reaches I-5.
- Area bus ridership continues to drop. Trimet’s ridership on all modes down 15% since July.
- Man falls asleep on Sounder, wakes up five hours later locked in the rail yard.
- Upzoning in SLU.
- Seattle Likes Bikes has goals for 2010, a vision for 2020. The vision is ambitious, to say the least.
- Microbreweries via Amtrak. (H/T: Mike Skehan)
- A good Amtrak ad; ST CEO Joni Earl defers her pay raise; street corners vs. cul-de-sacs; Joe Biden still likes trains; First Hill Streetcar needs an artist; more food carts please; the conservative case for walking and biking; Reno may convert BRT to streetcar.
Rail News Roundup!
Its that time of the month for another rail roundup;
Passenger News
Amtrak is planning, yet again, to purchase new locomotives and passenger cars to replace the aging fleet. The NEC still will not be a true HSR route, even with the planned “Acela II” with a maximum speed of 180mph, now the low end standard of HSR.
Due for replacement are 412 Amfleet I, 122 Amfleet II, 122 Superliner I, 184 Superliner II, 50 Viewliner, 92 Horizon cars, as well as Heritage baggage and dining cars. Among the locomotives are 20 AEM7 d.c. electric locomotives (the remaining 29 have been rebuilt with a.c. propulsion), and the railroad’s F59PH, P42, P40, and P32DM fleets. Currently, an RFP is out for 125 single-level coaches/baggage-dorm cars/diners and 20 electric locomotives.
Plenty more after the jump!
News Roundup: Distracted Driving Edition
- New legislation that combats distracted driving
- Try to text and drive
- Ray Lahood on distracted driving
- What some think of Peter Hahn
- Grace Crunican exit interview
- 96.4% of Washington drivers buckle up
- Tougher disabled parking regulations in Seattle
- Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) in Kittitas County
- Metro settles collision lawsuit for 7 million
- OneBusAway fixes interlined route issues and updates iPhone app
- Delays will cost us money on AWV, yes but who will pay?
- Greenlake streetcar accident
- Pay-as-you-drive insurance is come to Seattle
- Do bikes boxes work?
- City of Tacoma wants a new Link station
- Some in South Seattle don’t want density
- Abandoned subway tunnels in Boston are fascinating
- Transit projects create more jobs than highway projects
- A RapidRide bid comes in under budget
- Yes, pedestrians can still cross at any intersection
Holiday News Roundup
- Confusion among last-minute ORCA buyers. What the post misses is that for the most part anyone using anything other than a standard adult fare ORCA has to buy it the hard way. Also, the Times.
- Bomb threat on a bus.
- Wrong way pickup on I-90 strikes a packed 550. Only the bus driver is at all injured.
- West Seattle Water Taxi to move to Pier 50.
- A group of photo enthusiasts is organizing a Link “photostroll” on January 16th.
- An update on Capitol Hill station work.
- More about bike sharrows than you ever wanted to know.
- The Waterfront Streetcar is still lamented.
- Amtrak train (not in service) kills Puyallup pedestrian.
- SDOT director Grace Crunican quits.
- SDOT still wants your First Hill Streetcar feedback.
- Someone actually wrote a dissertation on the viaduct debate.
- Car-dependent suburbs not so hot when one can no longer drive.
- Canada Line already more or less breaking even on operating costs.
- Study suggests TOD in the suburbs boosts surrounding property values.
News Roundup
- Metro gets some new vans for routes 200, 201, 203, 204, 213, 219, 249, 251, 921, and 929. Pictures here. (H/T: Atomic Taco)
- The Port of Seattle’s acquisition of the BNSF Eastside corridor is now, no fooling, finally final. A Snohomish-Woodinville tourist train may surface within six months.
- Lindblom unloads on SDOT and SLUT cost overruns.
- SkyTrain to field “fare gates“, or turnstiles, by 2013. (via Beyond Robson)
- Derailment train operator likely to go back to buses.
- The SunBreak on the Westlake Transit Hub.
- Chris Karnes argues that Timed Transfer Centers in Tacoma are a failed experiment.
- KUOW asks how reliable Link is and doesn’t really get an answer.
- Some funding to operate and maintain Olympia’s Amtrak station was about to be cut, but apparently has been restored.
News Roundup: Around the Sound
- Publicola on Kevin Wallace, the Bellevue City Council, and East Link. More here. ECB also hints at Wallace’s potential conflicts of interest.
- Biking in Seattle is up.
- $1.23m bid for Intelligent Transportation Systems on RapidRide A is 46% below budget. ($)
- The Bellingham Herald reports that Whatcom County has a trip planner that aims to cover the whole North Sound.
- Jefferson Transit going for stimulus money to build a new transit facility.
- Various tribal transit agencies in Washington get $1.2m in federal stimulus funds. (H/T: Andrew Villeneuve)
- Vashon Island water taxi strikes debris, out of commission Friday. Service was restored Monday. (H/T: Mike Fisher)
- Transit Agency Marketing: an LA case study.
- Infrastructurist has a list of the four biggest highway boondoggles, and Washington has #1 and #4.
- A portal for transit apps nationwide, including OneBusAway.
- Drivers in Phoenix still not used to light rail.
- Why you see fewer trolleybuses on weekends. Reported three months ago here.
- Electric Trolley Boats (H/T: Gordon Werner)
News Roundup: Rail Grinding
Video by Eric Jensen.
- Marysville’s new Cedar Grove Park & Ride is now open. The “celebration” will be Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 10am.
- Amtrak studies reviving the North Coast Hiawatha. (wikipedia entry) Numbers: 360,000 annual riders, 58% fare recovery, $1 billion in capital costs. (H/T: Frank)
- Transit tunnel security guards thinking about unionizing. They are contractors, not public employees. (H/T: Mickymse)
- A 522 catches fire.
- Prankster putting fake “warning” signs on Metro buses. (H/T: Mickymse)
- Beacon Hill Station gets a festival street. There are also photos of the event and (old) drawings of the improvements.
- King County Ferry District has a good audit.
- UW station presentation now online, via NorthwestHub. The Daily has a really nice piece on the pedestrian issues. Our take here and here.
- The proposal for federal regulation of local rail, which I editorialized against, has now become a bill.
- Vancouver BC’s Olympic streetcars arrive in Tacoma. WSDOT has photos too.
- Interesting subway station architecture from around the world.
- New rights for rail passengers – in Europe.
News Roundup
- The legislative outlook for bicyclists.
- Magnolia wants to turn Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes into HOV lanes.
- Early reaction to Swift. The Herald also takes a look at BRT ridership nationwide.
- Sen. Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup) reiterates that Seattle is on the hook for deep-bore tunnel overruns.
- Larry Phillips takes a victory lap for his audit, which saved Metro service for another two years.
- USDOT offers up $280m for streetcar and bus projects. Get on it, Seattle. (H/T: Alex Jonlin)
- Tacoma anti-berm forces not giving up yet.
- Issaquah will apparently not enter a “Transit Now” partnership to extend Route 200.
- The Central District News would like to get something — anything — in terms of rail.
- Help for bicyclists in Issaquah?
- According to spokesman Lane Keough, Seattle’s Best Coffee is offering “a 10% discount for Orca card holders at our company-owned cafes in Seattle, which includes locations inside the Seaboard Building (4th and Pike), Pacific Plaza (4th and Spring)), Broderick Building (2nd and James) and Post Alley.”
- Kitsap Transit bus kills pedestrian.
- Salt Lake City’s light rail story reminds me of ours.
- Women and bicycling.
- Half of Puget Sound Business Journal respondees expect to use Link to the airport. Considering the Eastside representation, that’s pretty good.
News Roundup: Keep Grace Crunican
- Grace Crunican, the director Seattle’s transportation department, is looking for a job in Oregon since she might be forced out by the McGinn over last winter’s snowstorm. Many smart people argue the Mayor-elect should keep her on. We agree: McGinn should consider keeping her.
- The First Hill Streetcar will break ground in 2011 and open by 2013. The City has three public meetings this month about it to discuss the possible alignments. And a minimalist web page.
- The feds announce some more funding for streetcars and trolley buses.
- SDOT begins work this week on Aurora bus platforms. RapidRide buses will eventually run along the corridor.
- Seattle Metro area transit usage up 13.4% between 2006 and 2008, well behind several sun belt cities — and Detroit. Traffic congestion down, mostly due to the economy.
- King County Council backs SR520 A+ option. That pits them against Richard Conlin, Frank Chopp, and others, but with the legislative working group.
- The Stranger art critic looks at the public art piece — above — temporarily occupying the future home of Link’s Capitol Hill stop.
More after the jump…
Westlake Streetcar Placemaking
We put out a blurb on the Westlake Hub Strategy about a month back in a news roundup, but I wanted to share some additional information I got from SDOT as well as bit of analysis.
The strategy is designed to help improve multi-modal transfers around Westlake plaza and help create a more attractive and lively pedestrian environment. It includes a new pedestrian plaza in what is now Westlake Ave. This project takes big cues from NYC’s pedestrianization of Times Square. The expanded plaza will be created by closing the block between Stewart and Olive to all traffic except the streetcar, more than doubling the size of the existing McGraw Square and creating a public space that is actually functional and enjoyable.
More after the jump.
Long News Roundup (II)
The constant rainstorms seem to have really slowed down the accumulation of great pictures in the Flickr Pool:
- Metro offices closed on Wednesday for another furlough day; Sunday schedule on Thanksgiving Day and a “reduced” schedule on the day after.
- Tacoma is including streetcar tracks in the reconstruction of Stadium Way in Tacoma. That would seem to indicate future Tacoma Link routing. (H/T: Alex Jonlin)
- Bike restrictions at downtown bus stops.
- Sound Transit and RCI Herzog go to arbitration over Rainier Valley Segment overruns. Take note that even with arbitration, Central Link still comes in underbudget overall.
- Portland’s Fareless Square to become the “Free Rail Zone.” I suppose our ride free area should become the “Free Bus Zone.”
- 25% off Amtrak to Vancouver.
- Toddlers on transit, locally and in San Francisco.
- Water Taxi has 21% ridership jump.
- Kitsap Transit may have bottomed out.
- A harrowing experience, but perhaps the advice in the title is a bit extreme.
- The Seattle Sketcher rides a Swift Bus. I think Community Transit left someone off the media invite list. (UPDATE: this is not meant in the churlish tone in which it came off.)
Long News Roundup (I)
Stories we didn’t have time to get to or didn’t have anything to say about are below. There are so many that another installment is coming soon:
- SDOT is planning to “act quickly” on Ballard Light Rail plans, not sure 2 years is enough time; Larry Phillips says a Ballard Sounder station is “is not justified by the projected ridership at this point.” (H/T: Gary Manca).
- State Attorney General Rob McKenna is noncommittal as to whether Seattle will really have to pay deep-bore tunnel overruns.
- Yet another Bellevue alignment. We’ve mentioned this in passing before. (H/T: Alex Jonlin)
- King County bridges “not fully functional”, buses late.
- Larry Phillips supports the 12th Ave/Broadway streetcar couplet.
- 5,000 American pedestrians a year killed by cars.
- How Dow Constantine made the Water Taxi year-round, starting next fall.
- Sound Transit plans for Green River flooding.
- Grays Harbor Transit raises fares.
- Footage of September’s Federal Way Transit Center shooting.
- Pierce Transit’s “Not on Our Bus” claiming its first victories, getting its first complaints.
- How the HSR stimulus money will be allocated. (H/T: Lloyd Adalist)
- Ft. Lewis and McChord AFB to get Fuel Cell buses. (pdf, H/T: Mike Fisher)
News Roundup: Votes, Polls, and Surveys
If you missed our post and poll about Infill Stations last week thanks to our service outage, it’s never too late to go there and vote. I’m somewhat surprised that Graham St. is running away with it so decisively.
- King County slashes ferry district property tax, axing new demonstration routes but keeping Vashon and West Seattle service. This sets the stage to raise the tax right back again to fund Metro RapidRide, as I explained three months ago.
- Seattle ranks fifth in pedestrian safety out of 52 U.S. metro areas. Full report here. (H/T: Matt).
- New bus shelters in Ballard.
- A photo tour of the missing link.
- Tacoma business wins an extra $2.5m in compensation from Sound Transit.
- WSDOT asks everyone how they’re doing.
- Whatcom County looking at cutting all Sunday service. Also, Transportation Choices Coalition’s legislative priorities for 2010.
- Walk Score now incorporates transit. I guess that makes it “car and bike free score.”
- What the BNSF Eastside corridor purchase means for the Snohomish Excursion Train.
- The Infrastructurist invites you to meet Talgo.
- Canadian public supports high-speed rail (click “polls”); someone should tell Ottawa.
- Seattle family of four does fine with one car. I’m in the same situation and do fine — and I don’t even use a bike.
- The Philadelphia transit strike is over.
News Roundup: Election Day
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"SeaTac/Airport Station Almost Complete", by Atomic Taco Financial engineering comes back to bite transit agencies; Congress likely to step in to avoid the pain (H/T: Mike Fisher). Sound Transit would be on the hook for $15m ($, via mickymse) were Congress to fail.
- Warren Buffett’s investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, is buying BNSF.
- More backyard cottages.
- New pedestrian signage by Beacon Hill Station.
- Catching flu on the bus?
- Improvements to the Westlake hub.
- Philadelphia paralyzed by a transit strike. Some service is still operating.
- Everett’s own missing link now fixed.
- The New Republic on the viaduct.
- Great Britain jailing people for driving-while-texting.
- New York’s 1 train subway is now (sort of) elevated (H/T: Leif Espelund).
News Roundup: New Station Edition
- Big-think on how to make transit-oriented development work in Seattle.
- A slideshow on the Point Defiance Bypass.
- Soil testing for East Link begins.
- Heightened security at Federal Way Transit Center.
- A sketchy bus stop in Rainier Beach.
- Parking at Capitol Hill station. Talk of a farmer’s market there, too. Also, groovy video of the art installation that’s there temporarily.
- The Seattle Times reviews Amtrak service to Leavenworth. H/T: mickeymse.
- Water taxi done for the year.
- It should surprise no one that Burien Prop. 1’s lack of a firm time limit doesn’t change our support for it.
- Jesse! gets ST to fix a Tukwila man’s backyard.
- Joseph B. White goes carless in The Wall Street Journal.
News Roundup: Rail Moves Forward
- ST Board grants final approval on the contract to build the Link segment between Westlake and Capitol Hill, 12% below budget estimates. In the same article: ST’s legislative priorities (pdf) for 2010.
- Tacoma City Council unanimously votes to proceed with the Sounder D-to-M segment, berm and all; ST releases new sketches of the Sounder Pacific Avenue bridge, trying to meet community demands.
- Now Lakewood is grumbling about running trains through town.
- The City of Seattle makes the case (pdf) for service cuts targeted at low-productivity routes.
- 550 broken down at Westlake, suspends tunnel service for 40 minutes.
- I’m not sure that “support of an on-budget streetcar line” on First Hill is really a change in Mallahan’s position.
- Portland’s big new streetcar plan. (H/T: mickeymse)
- Kirkland Transit Center breaks ground.
- The last few “PT Tomorrow” workshops happening over the next few weeks.
- More Transit Oriented Development at Othello.
- Redmond bribing people to drive less.
- A dissenting view on the East Link Open Houses. Our coverage here.
- A fashion shoot on Link.
News Roundup: The Action’s in Bellevue
- Bellevue City Council mulls Link alignments. We just published our endorsements for who should continue this work. We also reported on the newer, cheaper tunnel option recently.
- Details on the Swift opening.
- Legal background on the viaduct lawsuit.
- Last item from NorthwestHub: a report on our joint meetup.
- Kitsap Transit suffers $700,000 in service cuts. It might have been $900,000, so I guess that’s a victory.
- MEHVA is offering foliage tours on a vintage bus.
- The point of view that time on a ferry is not time wasted also applies to transit. It’s one reason I take the bus even though in my case it’s much slower than driving.
- Weather guru Cliff Mass complains about our bicycle infrastructure.
- ORCA makes it harder to commit U-PASS fraud.
- The first streetcar on Capitol Hill.
Weekend News Roundup
- Metro considers raising fee it charges to school districts for special routes and student passes; Bellevue threatens to contract out instead.
- Elevated fan sues to block the deep-bore tunnel.
- Hugeasscity asks ex-monorail supremo Joel Horn about getting rail to West Seattle.
- Jessie Israel positive about streetcars, Nick Licata waffles.
- Mallahan not so hot to finish the Burke-Gilman trail.
- The best commuter bike ever?
- Video of the County transit town hall is now online.
- The berm/post-and-beam controversy rumbles on.
- Dan Savage trying to find an obscene nickname for the First Hill Streetcar (mildly NSFW). CHS wades into the routing question.
- Hugeasscity (who was there, and provided the space) writes up our STB/NorthwestHub meetup.
- Sumner woman killed by Amtrak train. (H/T: mickymse)
- Should you take the bus or just walk there? It really depends on whether you have a pass and you need the exercise (H/T: Mark Kerrigan)
News Roundup: Sharrows
A whole bunch of stories we didn’t get to over the past week:
- Sharrows are supposed to make the road safer for cyclists, but if SDOT has to explain what they mean perhaps they’re not doing the job.
- Bellevue plans 80 miles of bike lanes. No money is attached.
- Everybody except Richard Conlin thinks the SLUT was a mistake. Go Richard!
- Incongruously, Seattle City Council approves First Hill Streetcar agreement.
- The TNT has an excellent primer on the Tacoma berm controversy. Ben offered his opinion here.
- Sherwin Lee has the definitive rebuttal of Kemper Freeman’s anti-rail arguments.
- U-Pass alledgedly no longer a good deal for most UW students, but that’s if you don’t take the bus very much. At $33/month it’s still considerably cheaper than even a $1.75 bus pass ($63).
- Four new Community Transit board members.
- Post-mortems on the Southeast Seattle transit forum. I previewed this meeting here.
- Intercity Transit opened the Martin Way Park and Ride on September 30.
- Burien Transit Center to get 503-stall parking garage by end of next year to replace the 334 currently there.
- Lance Dickie is excited about Swift. I agree, but it is not a “train on rubber tires.”
- Man hit by bus in Everett, sues Sound Transit. More proof that buses should only be allowed to operate in grade-separated roadways.
- Ferry fares going up to $6.90/$11.85.
- Vancouver, BC looking at at-grade light rail for the Evergreen Line.
- Des Moines and Seatac fighting over their preferred Link alignments.
Weekend News Roundup
- Dan Bertolet at HugeAssCity offers an articulate defense of embattled Seattle DOT head Grace Crunican.
- The SunBreak interviews Metro GM Kevin Desmond about ORCA, Twitter, and unions.
- A bunch of local newspapers worked together to create a very extensive “Navigate King County” transportation special report. We’ll try to digest it and discuss further later.
- SOV market share down in DT Bellevue and Factoria, slightly up at Crossroads and Bel-Red.
- Kemper Freeman-backed Bellevue City Council Candidate Kevin Wallace has commissioned the engineering study to get Link pushed out to I-405 through Bellevue.
- Two more Central Link vs. car collisions, the usual illegal left turn.
- Not to be outdone, Tacoma Link takes out a BMW. The TNT has a great photo.
- Link noise declared a public health emergency, apparently a technical move to allow expedited procurement to solve the problem. Stupidest quote in the Times article: “We can’t have the light rail be more of a pollutant — with the noise, you’ve canceled out the carbon reduction.”
- Dave Ross loves his Orca (skip to 31:30).
- Jesse! helps out a homeowner waiting for Sound Transit to fix his yard.
- City of Snohomish looks at a tourist train.