Bicycles, South Lake Union, plus others

Posted on by Andrew Smith

A lot of noise has been made about how the Streetcar tracks in South Lake Union are bad for bikes. So I went down there yesterday on my bike and I have to say, I didn’t have that problem. I guess if you are riding along the same area where the streetcar is, it could be dangerous to be in the tracks, but why not go one block down? I only crossed the tracks at a 90-degree angle.

Oddly, there are a ton of other, old tracks in the street down there, and they don’t have this problem, I wonder why only the Streetcar tracks get the complaints.

On a completely unrelated note, I went to a Thunderbirds hockey game yesterday and learned that the team is moving to Kent and will play in a venue across the street from Kent Station. They play at Key Arena now, but it seems that next year you’ll be able to take sounder down to Kent for T-Birds games. Oddly, the T-Birds play in a division that has Everett in it, and Everett and Kent are both about the same distance from Seattle, so if the T-Birds move down to Kent, they ought to be called the Kent Thunderbirds, not the Seattle Thunderbirds. At least that’s my opinion.

City of Tacoma backs Elevated Sounder routing

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/story/227321.html

The City of Tacoma has voted 8-0 on their support on the elevated railway crossing over Pacific Avenue in Downtown Tacoma. This will allow Amtrak and Sounder serve to use the Sound Transit corridor between Freighthouse Square and Nisqually (Lakewood for Sounder)

This link was supposed to open in 2001 but political and businesses have delayed the design along with seeking additional funding for the bridge.

Funding brings up a good question considering Sound Transit does not have the additional money for the rail link and over pass at least according to the Open House at Freighthouse Square.

The City of Tacoma also wants “air rights” by which would allow the City to build a “lid” similar to the Convention Center over I-5.

Check out the article for more information.

Edmonds Station holiday open house:

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman

On Saturday, Edmonds Amtrak Station has their annual holiday open house. If you’re interested in chatting with Sounder staff and learning about next year’s service improvements, or learning about the history of the Great Northern railroad that originally turned Seattle into a boom town, I recommend it! It’ll run from 9am-3pm.

The old freight half of the station was converted some years ago into a railroad club’s model train layout, complete with little towns and such. I don’t know if someone will be there, but during open houses they usually run model trains and talk about the history of the state.

Looking for 2 co-bloggers

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Hey everyone.

I’m on a new computer and needless to say lost those that were interested in being a co-blogger.

The requirements for those wanting to be a co-blogger need to live in Washington State and cover transportation items within Washington State.

The topics that Washington State Transportation will cover is the following.

Rail transportation such as Short Line Railroads like Meeker Southern Railroad, Class 1 Railroads, like BNSF and Union Pacific railroads, Passenger Rail operations, Amtrak and Sounder Commuter Rail. Light Rail and Streetcar information and construction updates and news like LINK light-rail and Seattle Streetcar.

Air transportation that affects Washington, updates on Sea-Tac Airports 3rd Runway and construction in and around Sea-Tac airport. This also includes security, significant flight delays, etc.

Ferry news, like the construction of new ferries, updates on the Steel Electrics, etc.

Bus transportation all in Washington regions including Bus Rapid Transit.

Road news and construction updates like 520, the Alaskan Way Viaduct and other thoughts, etc.

You can respond to this via my e-mail – b.bundridge@gmail.com

A decision will be made by the end of the week.

Thank you!

Brian

Time to Expand Sounder?

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

With talks of the Lakewood line coming online in late 2011, there has been some surface talks among the public of – what’s next? The final three mainline stations will be Lakewood, South Tacoma for the South corridor and Mukilteo for the North corridor but should Sound Transit look further? With Roads and Transit behind us and King County being tax happy, would the public even want additional train service or improves?

With the North corridor ridership less than 53,000 a year it’s time to look at ways to improve this service to make it more viable and attractive to those coming from Everett and Marysville. Could a train leave Stanwood, a future Amtrak station set to open in November 2008? Could we gather additional funding for parking garages at Everett, Mukilteo, and a permanent station and garage improve the overall ridership?

I can only think of two locations that could support having a commuter rail station for the North corridor; Galar Street/Interbay also known as lower Magnolia area and Alaskan Way/Broad Street as a walk-on/off only station. The Galar Street option would have Amgen, Seattle-PI and Louis Dreyfus employees not to mention employees of Pier 90/91. The Streetcar if extended to the future cruise ship terminal at Pier 90/91 it too could use this station. The Broad Street would not have any parking available. It has been too densely developed to allow a parking garage but it does have easy access to many Belltown businesses and quick access to the Seattle Center.

For the South Corridor, a station at Lakeland Hills/South Auburn would be an excellent medium. There is a good amount of users between the Auburn/Sumner corridor that would use a medium station. Many folks use Auburn from Sumner because there is no additional parking available. The Lakeland Hills station would be located at Lake Tapps Pkwy & East Valley Hwy E and could have a parking facility for at least 500 cars easing the load at Auburn while reducing the need of having an additional garage which may end up being needed in the future anyways. I’m not sure of BNSF’s exact plan for triple tracking between Tukwila and Sumner or if that will even happen at all but I can tell that it will be double track from Sumner to Tacoma as Sumner and Puyallup stations does not have provisions to accommodate a third mainline.

It’s all just an idea, but I could foresee the additional stations and parking garages much welcomed to commuters and those that wish to try out Sounder without having to worry about parking on the street or a business’ parking lot that doesn’t allow Sounder use. How would we fund it is really the question?

Sound Transit vs City of Tacoma….Sounder to nowhere?

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Sound Transit’s crown jewel is making a lot of business owners in Tacoma red in the face this week. The future extension that will run from Freighthouse Square to Lakewood using the old Tacoma Eastern tracks towards Fort Lewis. The problem? The 1.2 mile missing link that needs to be built from Freighthouse Square/D Street to M Street would eliminate 7 business along the planned route, all located on Pacific Avenue. Businesses want more time on selecting a route hoping it would save their company and hope a petition will delay the project another 2-3 years in hopes for a new, less disruptive design that wouldn’t ‘separate” the district from Downtown Tacoma. Sound Transit isn’t having any of that with a decision to come next month (Meeting with the latest design is November 15 at Freighthouse Square) which the project already 6 years behind schedule.

Read more on the Tacoma News Tribune – Stop or go for Dome District

You’ve got to give us a why, Bill!

Posted on by Andrew Smith

He wants to disband Sound Transit, and he’s not the only person who wants that.

Disband Sound Transit. One less duplicative bureaucracy to fund and maintain. Finish King County’s light rail — since so much money has been sunk into it already we might as well go ahead and finish the thing, then operate it as a laboratory and concrete example of what not to do next time, should the region ever venture into rail again. Then turn it over to Metro. Give the Tacoma light rail segment to Pierce Transit.

Turn the Sounder commuter trains — which always made far more sense than light rail since the rights of way already exist and they move people between towns, a major source of congestion — over to Amtrak and/or the Washington State Department of Transportation (Amtrak already provides contract commuter service in California, Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut, contracts with the state of Washington for support of the Cascades service and provides maintenance services for Sounder). And turn express-bus service over to Metro, Pierce Transit and Community Transit, which should have been running it anyway.

It’s a list of action items without any reason. Why does he want to disband Sound Transit? Because it’s duplicative? What is agency is it duplicating exactly? Because “Metro, Pierce Transit and Community Transit” should have been running it anyway?

He ends with ‘Ban from regional transportation planning anyone who has uttered, or even thought, the phrase, “We’ve got to get people out of their cars.”‘ Yikes.

There’s nothing of substance here, but it’s worth noting that Virgin is not alone in his thinking, and we need to be vigilent against those trying to destroy our transit agencies.

Bill Virgin = Comic Relief

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

After reading this P-I Columnist thoughts on Prop 1, I think I honestly needed my ribs to be replaced from laughing so hard. First of all, I do admire him for some suggestions, such as replacing the 520 and Alaskan Way Viaduct but then he goes on to say to Disband Sound Transit and letting the regional transit agencies take over…. Sure, that’ll be fine in dandy to replace 500+ Sound Transit buses, give Sounder over to Amtrak and/or BNSF or another private venture and give Link over to King County.

If it wasn’t for Sound Transit, there would not be this additional transportation infrastructure that we now have thanks to Sound Transit because King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish Counties couldn’t get off their asses to develop an extensive transportation plan.

We now have an agency that while not near the size of King County Metro Transit but is already at 35+ million passengers in it’s short life span. I don’t see Sound Transit going anywhere anytime soon and with their recent credit approvals. We need to stop looking at Sound Transit who said one thing in 1996 and changed it in 2001 because of increased costs because every other country happens to be developing at a faster rate that the United States is….It is not Sound Transit’s fault for raising fuel costs, concrete costs, steel costs.

If anything, all of our networks need to be under ONE name instead of 4 different agencies (Community, King, Pierce, ST) I would personally would not mind the new Puget Pass/Orca Pass to include the Washington State Ferry System (foot and passenger) on top of all of our other systems. I also wouldn’t mind the Monorail under King County Metro but that would never happen.

So yes, we have a lot of ideas, plans, thoughts, how we would love to get rid of Sound Transit but without ST, we wouldn’t be where we are at today without them and for that, can not thank this agency enough. Central Link Light-Rail is coming to Seattle in 2009, South Lake Union Streetcar in December, Community Transit’s Swift BRT in 2009 and King County Metro’s RapidRide BRT in 2010 and the 2003 Legislative Transportation Funding Package, Nickel fund, and the 2005 Transportation Partnership Funding Package are well under way all over our State to get our roads improved and in a State of Good Repair.

Give it time for everything to come together and you’ll see that our tax money is going to something good but you all need to realize that it takes time to build up the funds to get our roads repaved, repaired, to get our transportation in a condition that meets our needs, and most importantly, keeps our strong employers in our region. Without a effective transportation system, Seattle and the Puget Sound region will fail to be a world leader in trade and our economy.

Major Nickels pushes for Light-Rail Vote in ’08

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Mayor Nickels makes a strong point in this article. General Elections during an non-Presidential election turns out much fewer voters. Coming back in 2008 would not only bring more voters but also the younger generation of voters.

Nickels recalled that Sound Transit lost its first attempt to pass a regional package in 1995, revised its plan, then won in the 1996 presidential year.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004003616_soundtransit09m.html

At this stage of the game, I would say it would be best to bring a much smaller, rails only vote in 2008. Light-Rail to Northgate Mall to the North, Light-Rail South to Federal Way Commons Mall to the South and a Streetcar or Light-Rail in the Bellevue – Redmond corridor, along with funding for a permanent Tukwila Station and Parking Garage. I still believe a new station at Lakeland Hills is needed. A huge amount of people from Lakeland, South Auburn, and Lake Tapps that use Sounder can benefit greatly from this additional station.

When Sound Transit was formed, Lakeland at the time was very, very small and in it’s beginning stages. Between Lakeland and Lake Tapps, a lot of the traffic is divided between Auburn and Sumner stations.

Sound Transit Q3 2007 Ridership

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

Some highlights from the report on the rail side…Take a look at Tacoma Link vs Everett Sounder……….

http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/newsroom/Ridership_Q3_2007.pdf

Cost per boarding Q3 2006 – $13.98
Cost per boarding Q3 2007 – $11.18

On-time performance Q3 2006 95.60%
On-time performance Q3 2007 98.06%

Q3 2006 Regular Service Everett – Commuter 45,050
Q3 2007 Regular Service Everett – Commuter 52,351

Q3 2006 Regular Service Tacoma – Commuter 355,334
Q3 2007 Regular Service Tacoma – Commuter 480,952

And Tacoma Link….

Q3 2006 Regular Service Tacoma – Streetcar – 220,149
Q3 2007 Regular Service Tacoma – Streetcar – 234,257

Q3 2006 Average Weekday Boardings – 2,914
Q3 2007 Average Weekday Boardings – 3,030

Q3 2006 Cost per boarding – $3.22
Q3 2007 Cost per board – $3.44 (Additional trips for Tacoma Dome concerts were added)

I foresee Everett Sounder getting a major boost in ridership in 2008 when Mukilteo Station opens. I really believe ridership will increase heavily when Everett, Mukilteo, and Edmonds stations get parking garages. This seems to be the consistent complaint for North Sounder riders. I do find it amusing that Tacoma Link’s ridership is half of South Sounder…Impressive even.