More Maintenance Coming to Central Link Next Week

Sound Transit sent this out last night.  So, if you plan on taking Central Link anytime at night next week, good luck.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, it would be incredibly helpful to have real time arrival information (or at least a posted schedule) on One Bus Away for link all of the time, but especially when trains are running every 30 minutes.

Track maintenance April 4-7, 2011

Link light rail will run every 20-30 minutes instead of every 10-15 minutes starting at 9 p.m. Monday, April 4 and lasting until 1am daily until Thursday, April 7 due to track maintenance.

Track maintenance will also temporarily close platforms at the following stations:

• Beacon Hill Station
• Mt. Baker Station

If your normal boarding location is closed, please board trains at the other platform to travel in both directions.

Personal experience with RapidRide, light rail and local transit

In days when transit service hours are cut in many areas, the RapidRide A Line has replaced Metro’s Route 174 along Pacific Highway S / International Blvd. between Federal Way and Tukwila, and offers twice as many bus trips as the previous service. This sounds like a great sound bite from the transit provider, right? Well, it is. The wording has been lifted almost verbatim from the RapidRide website.

I'm writing now to tell you about my recent personal experience using the service.

Last week, I traveled from my home in Seattle to SeaTac City Hall. Metro's online trip planner had outlined a three-pronged trip that for me included local transit (#8), light rail, and then a final transfer to another local Metro (#180) or Sound Transit (#574) route. I was actually kind of excited to ride light rail since I rarely have reason to do so. What I did not plan on was being able to also try out the RapidRide A Line. I'm the kind of person who will sometimes do unnecessary things just for the experience. This was one of those chosen moments.

I already knew that the first leg of my trip would be late because the route is notoriously unreliable (route #8). I purposely headed out to my stop 30 minutes early, just in case. However, the bus went by me (either 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late, I couldn't tell). Right off the bat, I was a bit annoyed. I started walking toward the light rail station because I like to stay active and it was a bit cold outside. One more #8 passed me before I reached the light rail station, but I only took about 10 minutes longer than if I had waited for the bus. The first leg of my adventure was complete. No expense was yet incurred on my ORCA card.

The light rail showed up within 2 minutes of my arrival on the platform. Already, I felt assured that I would arrive at my final destination in time. The trip was clean, quiet, quick and dare I say picturesque. Whether or not it was quicker than a local route was irrelevant to me: my impression was that I didn't have to hear the driver quibble with passengers about directions, fares and the like. People moved easily on and off the train. There were a few confused people, but staff members were on the platforms to help them and there seemed to be no problems. First charge to my ORCA card: $2.25. I also remembered to tap my card on the way out as well as the way in.

Signs easily pointed me to the transit station outside of the SeaTac International Airport light rail station. It was a bit far to walk, but nonetheless very clean and clear. I quickly realized that I had a number of options: either take the Metro #180, the Sound Transit #574, or Metro's RapidRide A Line. While I'd never experienced either of the first two options, I already did not trust the time listings on the sign at the bus stop because of my experiences with local transit near my home. RapidRide, however, provided an extremely easy to understand map and the informational signs were up and running (albeit in testing mode). The next red-painted RapidRide bus arrived within 5 minutes. I was a little nervous, but hopped on anyway. Additional fare charge to my ORCA card: $0.25. I was, after all, riding during the peak hours of 6 and 9 am. Had I paid for the #8 ride to light rail then I would have enjoyed free transfer fares on both light rail and the Rapid Ride.

I got off at S. 188th St. and walked to the next stop east of International Blvd. to wait for either the #180 or the #574. It was the latter that finally showed up (the time listings at this particular stop had been vandalized, so I couldn't actually estimate whether or not the bus had shown up on time). Additional charge to my ORCA card for using ST: $0.50. Had I waited for the #180 I suspect that I would have incurred no extra charge. Unfortunately, I am relatively unfamiliar with transfers between transit agency routes such as this. I've since learned that I may have actually paid the extra $0.50 because I didn't know to ask for 1 zone instead of 2 zones on Sound Transit.

Total one-way commute time: 7:20am-8:50am. Metro's Trip Planner had me traveling between 8:09am-8:57am. The difference can wholly be attributed to the local service follies, since the light rail and RapidRide routes run like clockwork every 7.5-10 minutes during the morning peak hours. Next time, I'll use One Bus Away to better gauge the local bus arrival time. Maybe that will help.

Metro's Trip Planner quoted my trip price as $2.50. The Sound Transit leg (#574) caused my actual trip price to total $3.00. As noted above, I'll know next time to ask for 1 zone instead of automatically paying for 2 zones.

Lastly, I'd like to call attention to the local route bus stops on the last leg of my trip: the eastbound stop for routes #180 and #574 closest to SeaTac City Hall was two blocks away and left something to be desired. Because there was no sidewalk or crosswalk east of the stop, I had to back track a block to the nearest traffic signal which took forever to allow me to cross. A westbound stop was conveniently located directly in front of City Hall, so that I did not need to walk the two blocks back to the corresponding westbound stop at 46th Ave S for my return trip.

I noticed a push button at the westbound stop that indicated riders should push it when as the bus approaches in order to let the driver know of our presence. I had never seen this feature before, and already didn't trust that it would work as instructed, but I pushed the button anyway. I'll never know if the bus would have been blind to us had I not pushed the button. In the grand scheme of my travels that day, I really didn't care.

Bottom line: while I cannot give up using local routes for my transit travel because of where I live and my various and far flung destinations, I do greatly prefer light rail and RapidRide.

What are your personal experiences?

Introducing Move Bellevue Forward

Went this this out last week to our Bellevue members. If you care about light rail in the region and Bellevue then you should know about this great group.

Introducing Move Bellevue Forward

Live in Bellevue?   Want to speak up on light rail and other transportation issues but not sure how?  Introducing Move Bellevue Forward, a new non-partisan, grassroots city-wide coalition of neighbors and community leaders dedicated to a progressive, long-term vision for Bellevue – one that includes light rail, a thriving downtown and vibrant neighborhoods.

Bellevue is a great place to live, work and play.   Whether it is light rail or transit oriented development or parks or schools,   Bellevue’s future is at stake without good leadership and community stewardship.  Your neighbors and friends as well as elected leaders including six former Bellevue mayors are getting together to keep Bellevue moving forward.

What's At Stake?
The NUMBER 1 issue right now is light rail to Bellevue.  This coalition wants to make sure that the Sound Transit East Link light rail project moves forward without delay.  The coalition supports an alignment that is affordable, has the fewest environmental impacts and the lowest construction risk and serves our neighborhoods, Downtown, the Hospital district and the Bel Red area to maximize access and ridership. That alignment is the Bellevue Way/112th route to Downtown, serving Downtown through a tunnel and station on 110th Ave and serving the areas east of Downtown by an elevated and at grade alignment.

Transportation Choices Coalition supports the principles of Move Bellevue Forward.  We’ve worked hard over the years to help Bellevue advance policies that create great communities.  And the city has more forward-thinking plans to help Bellevue grow sustainably in the future.   We want to see that vision realized.

Getting involved is easy!  Just visit http://www.movebellevueforward.org/ to learn more about the coalition and sign up.   Join your neighbors and friends from all over Bellevue to make a difference.

You can connect with Move Bellevue Forward on Facebook and Twitter

Light Rail Open House on the B Alignment in South Bellevue
Come to an open house and learn more about Bellevue’s plan to build a new multi-level parking garage in the Enatai neighborhood.  This new parking garage is not a part of any of the light rail routes studied by Sound Transit in a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the regional agency's East Link project.  Preliminary work from the city's study will be presented at the meeting. "B7-Revised" is a variation of an alignment that would run along the BNSF rail corridor.

WHAT: B7-Revised Open House
WHEN: Tuesday, March 8 from 5 to 7 p.m.
WHERE: Room 1E-108 at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. NE.

Link Light Rail Celebrates their 1 Year Anniversary

Link Light Rail just celebrated their one year anniversary! In their first year there was an estimated 6 million riders, travelling a total of 43 million passenger miles. The average rider trip length was 7.1 miles, and the light rail train travelled 1.2 million miles!! Approximate ridership each weekday was 23,400 riders.

High ridership is especially important during Link's first year as a dip in the economy caused transit ridership to drop about 4% last year. The Central Link line is only a portion of the 55 miles that will make up the finished light rail. A 3.1-mile underground extension from downtown Seattle north to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington is under construction and will open in 2016.

Voters have also approved extensions to Northgate, Lynnwood, Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island and northern Federal Way scheduled to open by 2023. Keep riding the light rail and supporting transit!

U-Link is coming!

Photo of the week from Sound Transit. U-Link is progressing; construction above and tunneling below!

ST Ridership Snapshot

Sound Transit released a snapshot of some ridership numbers in their CEO report today:

Ridership report

Through the first six months of 2009, total boardings on our Sound Transit trains and buses was up 4.3 percent over the same period a year earlier. Looking just at June, total boardings were up 1.7 percent compared with June 2008. However, our average weekday boardings were down slightly in June. The increase in total boardings is largely attributable to one additional weekday in June 2009.

Looking more closely, the June numbers show that the average weekday boardings on ST Express buses were down very slightly. Tacoma Link continued to be a bright spot with average weekday boardings up by 9.5 percent while Sounder commuter rail ridership was down 11.6 percent in June, compared to a year earlier. Sounder ridership is particularly sensitive to changes in gasoline prices. Last summer gas prices were nearly $4.50 a gallon, while this summer prices are closer to about $2.70 a gallon.

Also, just to let you know, early ridership on Central Link is going very well. We’re averaging about 12,000 riders a day and estimate that ridership will increase to about 21,000 a day by the end of this year. By the end of 2010, we expect Central Link ridership to be around 26,000 to 27,000 a day.

It is good to see that total boardings continue to grow over last year. I think their analysis on the price of gas about a slight drop in Sounder ridership makes sense, not to mention the economic downturn. I wonder why the Tacoma Link's ridership continues to grow even during the recession and the decline in the price of gas. Perhaps it is due to less available or more expensive parking in Tacoma's Downtown? Other ideas?

Happy Friday Everyone.

Blogging live at Joint Transportation Committee

I am at the Sound Transit Board room attending the WA House/Senate Joint Transportation Committee. I will be posting updates here with significant events and discussions. On the Agenda is the the cost of collecting tolls, I-90 Valuation project, review of Link opening, and implementation of alternative funding methods. Stay tuned.

Ben at Seattle Transit blog has a great post yesterday summing up the updated discussions around the I-90 valuation.

10am:
They are talking about electronic toll collections studies and tolling interoperability. It is quite dull. The I-90 discussions start at 11:00am which should have more lively discussion.

11:05am:
The discussions over collecting tolls are going a little long due to a high amount of questions from the legislature. Senator Haugen is concerned about interoperability issues for collecting tolls from Canadian drivers. The discussion is still fairly benign as most of the audience waits from the I-90 discussion (including my friend who works for WSDOT that I am sitting next to).

11:35am: They are finally moving into the I-90 valuation discussion. Introductions to the discussion are being made by JTC and the consultants who were hired to conduct the study.

11:39am: The study consultants are giving a summary of the report before they launch into discussion and questions. They mentioned the only part of the direction they were not able to complete yet is a consultation with federal agencies who were involved with the original 1976 agreement.

11:42am: The consultant notes that I-90 90% of the bridge was constructed with federal funds and only 10% was constructed with State funds.

11:45: Presenters are discussing other appraisal reports in similar situations (i.e. past Trimet and ODOT negotiations). Senator Jarrett just arrived in the room. Other Legislators here are Simpson, Eddy, Clibborn, Hougen, Becker, someone I don't recognize, Roach, and Mr. I love transit Rep. Doug Ericksen.

11:49: "none of these (appraisal) methods will necessarily result in the final appraisal number" states the consultants, interesting.

Rep. Simpson asks about the state's funding portion of I-90 (which was 10%). The state claims all of that came from gas taxes, but they can't find the record to prove that.

He also asked about the double taxation issues since his consituents have already paid for the I-90 bridge so why do they have to pay for it again? He also points out the road capacity will not be lost and Link will take many cars of the road. Lastly he asks how ST and WSDOT has responded to the draft findings?

The answers from consulting team:
-They report assumed gas tax and MVET funds were used for their 10% portion. They have requested from WSDOT records to show how the records. They have assumed that all of the state funds were amendment 18 restricted (could only go towards roads) whether or not they were gas tax or license fee taxes. Clearly there is still some major confusion here.

-They have not arrived on a number value yet in the report. They have only chosen three methods in which the value should be determined. The report recommends that ST should receive credit against the final valuation for the millions of dollars they are spending on the highway repaving project (R8A). This is a big deal because ST is paying for the vast majority of the highway repaving project.

11:56am: Simpson pushed back after that answers. He notes that WSDOT claims all of the 10% state portion was constitutionally restricted towards roads but the report calls out that WSDOT can not prove this with documentation.

The consultants pushed back and said they basically are trusting WSDOT and are assuming that 100% of the state's contribution came from restricted amendment 18 road only funds.

11:59:
Deb Eddy chimes in and asks if they are assuming all of the money from constitutionally restricted even though they didn't see documentation? Consultants replied simply yes.

Sen. Haugen chimed in saying that while I-90 was built MVET was going to ferries and transit and I-90 was taking almost all of the state's road dollars at the time. Rep. Clibborn thanked Hougen for her "historical perspective". There were some good chuckles in the room.

12:05pm: Senator Jarrett is asking a lot of technical legal questions. He has not called Kemper Freeman Court case yet as what he is asking about but he is getting at the root issue of that case. Very interesting. Basically he is asking if the federal record of decision memorandum of agreement will provide greater weight that WA State law regarding the I-90 valuation (I think).

Consultants responded that some of the legal questions were not looked at in this study but that no constitutional laws have been broken (because the memorandum of agreement states from the beginning that the center roadway was to be used for high capacity transit).

12:08pm: Rep. Clibborn thanks members of the consulting team who presented. She notes that phase two of the study will go forward and there will be a letter to the JTC with principals demonstrating the finding of part one of the valuation.

I am signing off for now but stay tuned as this issue will continue to be important for TCC!

t-minus 23 hours: 35 minutes to light rail in Seattle

Here at the TCC Office is all about Link Light rail opening. We have boxes packed full of awesome Travel Light T-shirts that we will be selling for only $10 at Othello, ID, and Westlake Station! Come by and say hello and pick up a commemorative T-shirt. We will also have free give aways and prize drawing at all three of those stations. The prizes you can win include a signed Le Toux Sounders Jersey, a free 6 month ORCA pass, and free bike tune ups at REI. Make sure to swing by Westlake, Othello and the ID on Saturday and say hello to your friendly TCC staff and volunteers. For a full list of Saturday's opening day activities check out our website here.

Tonight is the Tuxes and Train Gala. For more information go here, it should be a great celebratory event.

New Media:
We will be out of the office all weekend so we will try to keep in touch through the internet. Throughout the whole weekend we will be creating a photo story around opening day at a new social networking site called Whrrl. Check it out and keep your eyes peeled for Whirl booths at the stations where you can get your picture taken and be part of the story. We will also be on Twitter and facebook.

See you this weekend during this historic weekend that we have all been waiting for!

Counting Down to Opening Day

I apologize for the light blog posting of late, here at the TCC office we have been slammed as we prepare for the opening of Central Link this SATURDAY!

We have a ton of stuff going on, check out our website HERE to get the low down on all of the exciting opening day activities. We will have tables, booths, and hordes of volunteers at Westlake, International District, and Othello Station.

Make sure to stop by and say hello grab one of awesome Travel Light T-Shirts as we celebrate this monumental event.

Mega-Bridge with statewide significance

There are various projects in Washington that TCC is involved with, including the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 Lake Washington Bridge. Another large project that we will be getting move involved in over the next few years is the Columbia River Crossing, new I-5 Bridge from Clark County to Oregon. The project website is http://www.columbiarivercrossing.org/

Demonstrating the statewide significance of this project, The Columbia River Crossing recently got some blog/press coverage from the other corner of the State in the Bellingham Herald's "Traffic Talk".

The current design for the bridge has a light rail and pedestrian element which is great news. It also calls for 12 lanes of traffic, on face value this appears to be an excessive and expensive capacity expansion for the corridor especially considering light rail will be coming across the river. That said, we will continue to track this project, engage local leaders in Clark County and keep you informed of its progress.