Sound Transit Makes Noise

Way back when we had steam locomotives and unreliable airbrakes trains were interesting. You’d hear the whistle and open the window to watch the train go by.
In 2009 the light rail is having an opposite effect. People hear the train and it is nothing more than noise. They close their windows.

Trains run of steel tracks and in order to keep them on the rails the wheels have flanges. These flanges rub on the sides of the rails when the train goes around a corner. Big freight trains use much more shallow curves and mostly we don’t live very close to the tracks. The Link line is elevated in Tukwila. There are sharp turns and in places it goes close to homes. Thus the squealing flanges bother neighbors.

Also the brakes seem to make noise. This may be just something to complain about because modern brakes should have ways to keep quiet.

Then there are the electronic beeps that are supposed to warn of an approaching train. They don’t use the big air horns or car type horns. They use a sort of loud computer error beep.

Lastly there is some noise from the train as it goes by on straight flat track. A little more than one would expect from an electric powered thingy.

Well, guess what? The noise exceeds Federal standards and Sound Transit is trying to correct the problem. We thought they would just tell us to get over it. But, no, they are going to address it.

One suggestion was to build walls to separate the tracks from the homes. That won’t happen. It would be similar to building a tunnel through the air. Not even the home owners would want that.

Another one has to do with some kind of lubrication on the flanges. Hoho just what the driver needs running steel wheels on steel tracks is a glob of grease. It would eliminate all those bothersome station stops.

I bet they can find a better warning tone than the “Windows Fatal Error” beep they use now. There must be hundreds of Verizon ringtones to choose from. How about the theme from South Park? Or the 1812 Overture?

We don’t know (at least I don’t know) what kinds of things they might do to fix the noises. But we’re expecting some fixes pretty soon. In December they’re planning to open the last leg from the Tukwila station to Sea-Tac. We don’t need more noise at the airport.

One of the neighborhoods in Bellevue is protesting every route choice from I-90 into the business district. They began this before the noise issue came up. Now they have noise to add to their list of horrid and evil things light rail will do to their area.

All in all there’s a lot of interesting things to watch. How can Bellevue get its light rail connection from Seattle without using the I-90 Bridge? The new 520 bridge? How can the neighbors south of Bellevue’s downtown prevent the noise and other evils of light rail near them? The new 520 bridge? How can we turn up the heat on the critical issue of a major transit center on the shores of Lake Boren? The new 520 bridge? I’m starting to see it come together. Double deck floating bridge with general purpose lanes on top and bus/carpool/ transit lanes below replaces the old 520 bridge. And we make the railing on the new bridge into a giant antenna that can listen for signals from outer space. Feel free to claim you thought of it first.

Al