Seattle/Puget Sound Transportation
 

First Hill Streetcar: Service Starts Saturday, January 23rd, 2016

Transit, Transportation
January 22, 2016
by Gordon Werner
https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/...ary-23rd-2016/

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has announced via a letter to Community Partners, that the long-delayed, long-awaited First Hill Streetcar will begin service to the public on Saturday, January 23rd, 2016; trains will starting picking up passengers midday.

This will be a soft launch to make sure that there are no problems with actual passenger service before the official opening ceremonies that will be held in various neighborhoods along the route.

Rides on the First Hill Streetcar will be free for the first few weeks or so until the official grand opening ceremony, according to Scott Kubly, Director of SDOT.

Confirmed. Riders on board. Rainy day, packed in like sardines with fogged windows.

So nice to see if finally open. Hope the next phase (connecting the two lines) goes faster.

http://kuow.org/post/transit-station...rban-shoreline

Transit Station Brings Seattle's Growth To Suburban Shoreline

Shoreline, just north of Seattle, is a classic suburb facing a very urban challenge.

It is gaining a light rail station at 185th Street and I-5. And that new station is kicking off a vast redevelopment that will change the shape of the city. In all, 1,400 homes have been rezoned for a densified redevelopment that will change this part of the city into something that looks as though it were born in Seattle.

But Shoreline has always been a place people moved to in order to escape Seattle. Born as just a chunk of unincorporated King County, it became known as a commuter community with good schools, big trees, and a straight shot at getting to jobs in Seattle. Most of the city’s houses are mid-century and in keeping with its roots in the car commuter’s heyday, there is no downtown aside from Highway 99.

The imposition of a densified urban vision for the area around the light rail station at 185th is stressful for the people who live there now. At a 2015 meeting, just as City Council was deciding about the rezoning, resident Rosalyn Lehner pleaded with them to reconsider. "If you rezone my home," she said, "I feel like you’re stealing my American Dream, so please don’t."

But City Council proceeded, permitting a redevelopment area so vast it could eventually house 50,000 people. The city's current population is around 55,000.

Shoreline is doing what other communities have done when light rail came to them: They’re building densified housing and commercial spaces, offering people a car-free, small-scale way of life.

"You know, it’s the kids who are living in Belltown right now working for tech companies and they're going to settle down," Redinger said. "They're going to get married. They're going to start looking at school districts and housing that we hope can still be reasonably affordable."

Redinger said this generation will "really want the community gathering spaces and the coffee shops and the bar they can walk to."

Though Shoreline’s decision about the redevelopment around the 185th Street light rail station has been made, another set of decisions loom: The city will also get a light rail station at 145th St., right at its border with Seattle.

Madison BRT Moves To Full Council
Cycling, Transit, Transportation
January 25, 2016
by Ryan Packer

On Friday, the Seattle City Council's transportation committee voted to send the locally preferred alternative of the Madison bus rapid transit (BRT) project to a vote on the full council.

More: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/...-full-council/

https://www.theurbanist.org/wp-conte...t-13.12.37.png

In depth analysis of the First Hill Streetcar

First Hill Streetcar Opens With Lessons For Future Lines
Transit, Transportation
January 26, 2016
by Scott Bonjukian

https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/...-future-lines/

Seattle’s new streetcar route, the First Hill line, finally opened on Saturday. Despite the cold and rain, months of tantalizingly empty test runs and the promise of free rides drew large crowds along the entire route. The new line runs from Pioneer Square and the International District on Jackson Street, through the Yesler Terrace public housing development via 14th Avenue E and E Yesler Way, and on First Hill and Capitol Hill via Broadway. Though over a year late due to manufacturing problems, and designed less robustly than it could have been, the line adds a new transportation link for Central Seattle and provides lessons for how future streetcar lines should be designed elsewhere.

More: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/...-future-lines/

https://www.theurbanist.org/wp-conte...6-620x420.jpeg

https://northwesturbanist.files.word...pg?w=640&h=480
The First Hill streetcar loads passengers on Jackson Street at Fifth Avenue. (Photo by the author)

Oh and the light rail extension to Capitol Hill and the UW (all tunnel) opens March 16.

They've created a special landing page www.ulink2016.org

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1489/...d17d1ddd_b.jpg

I live a block from Mercer and Broadway, and I really hope they extend the streetcar to Roy...that would be really nice!

A New Transit Hub: Montlake Triangle
https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/02/...lake-triangle/

With a new light rail station soon to open (March 19th) up on the University of Washington campus, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has teamed up with their partner transit agencies to turn the Montlake Triangle into a new transit hub. SDOT is improving the overall transit rider experience and revising the local bus stop configuration. Two new bus stops are under construction on NE Pacific St (both are relocations), a third stop will open northbound on Montlake Boulevard, and fourth stop (also on Montlake Boulevard) will reopen after a long hiatus. All of this is due for completion in advance of the Spring service change due on March 26th. Last year, King County Metro and Sound Transit collaborated on a regional process to revise select portions of the bus network throughout Seattle and the Eastside in order to make better use of forthcoming light rail stations at Capitol Hill and the University of Washington.

https://www.theurbanist.org/wp-conte...36-600x315.png

Tacoma’s Mayor Outlines City’s ST3 Priorities

https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/02/...t3-priorities/

On January 21st, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland outlined to Sound Transit Board Chair Dow Constantine what Tacoma’s top 3 project priorities are for Sound Transit 3. Mayor Strickland’s ST3 priorities: Extending regional light rail from Kent-Des Moines Road to Federal Way and Tacoma Dome via I-5; Extending Tacoma Link to Tacoma Community College; and More frequent Sounder service. The Mayor appears to be making an argument for Tacoma’s ST3 projects based on a general request for geographic and social equity in regional transit investments. She goes on to urge Sound Transit to recognize that Tacoma is planning for growth in the year 2040 at a scale that no other city in the South Sound is making preparations for.

More: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/02/...t3-priorities/

So two new stations on the LRT opened a few days ago. How's it performing?

Extremely well, except too many passengers!

They tried running the old two-car trains (cap. 450 I think, each car is articulated) and they've been too full so apparently every second train at rush hour will be three-car. I don't know why it won't be all-three. Eventually it'll be four.

That's while the University of Washington has been on break, Seattle Central College has been in exams, and bus lines haven't been re-routed yet to end at stations instead of all the way Downtown. All three will mean big jumps in traffic.

Later this year a one-stop extension will open at the other (south) end. That will equalize demand a bit between the long but low-intensity south direction and the short but high-intensity north.

So the stations can all handle 4-car trains? Awesome.

Running half 3 car and half 2 car trains sounds like the issue might be not enough rolling stock to run all 3 car trains.

They've also released the proposal for the next phase of the Link expansion which includes a second Downtown Seattle tunnel: http://soundtransit3.org/Media/Defau...ardhandout.pdf