Glen Tests Light Rail Train

Glen, the Lake Boren Carp, was given a chance to try out the new Sound Transit vehicle recently. Since we don't have any track yet he took it for a swim.

If you can buy a fish driving a train why not believe it runs in water?

Al

A Tour of Link Light Rail

DRAGONFLY SCULPTURE

Yesterday I took the tour of the Link Light Rail construction progress. It was informative and interesting. We ate at an ethnic restaurant where the acoustics made twenty people sound like 20,000.

The new Sound Transit Link Light Rail line from Sea-Tac International Airport to downtown Seattle is a year away from completion. In a snub to the Renton Parks Department the line goes through Tukwila.

There are several segments on the line that have unique features. At the airport it required the relocation of part of the roadway that goes to the freeway. When you drive it’s hard to see how it’s changed because you need to keep all eyes on traffic. From a big bus it’s pretty clear what’s different.

The airport station will be way above the edge of International Boulevard. That’s what they call Highway 99 in that area. Passengers get to amble through the parking garage to get to the ticket counters. For example important business people can get on the train in the Seattle Transit Tunnel without going out in the rain. Then after a smooth ride to the airport, head over to the ticket counter via level 4 in the parking garage. Coming into the airport along with all the other pedestrians will disguise the fact that they came by train rather than the usual limo. Gotta keep up appearances.

On the other side of the station will be a pedestrian overpass so a person can get across the multi lane street safely. For example, one could park in the “Park and Fly” cheaper than in downtown Seattle and take the train to the office. If their company subsidizes transit fares (many do) and provides coupons for airport parking it might be a way to save a few bucks.

When the train leaves the airport it’ll pass a huge development which will be the consolidated Rental Car Facility. Right now the rentals are in the airport garage which means a lot of parking space is unavailable for us. So to add more capacity the Port of Seattle is building an off-site car rental facility. Lots of other big airports have one. I can’t recall what was in that area before but right now it’s full of earth moving machines.

After that the train crosses SR 518 which is actually an extension of I-405. There’s a massive station there which is going to be a transit center. The plan is for thousands of busses to use the surface level to exchange passengers with the light rail in the sky above. It’s essentially a corral of escalators.

From there passengers get an elevated train ride mostly near the freeway to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. At that point the line comes down to the street surface. Here’s where everyone is crossing their fingers. MLK traverses a culturally diverse area where some 14 languages are spoken plus half dozen dialects of English. Not an issue by itself.

The issue is there hasn’t been street level rail traffic in a hundred years around there. That means Sound Transit has to figure out ways to keep folks from walking out in front of the train. You can’t put up signs in every possible language because they would block out the sun. They say they can’t build barriers and fences because the fire department wants to be able to drive over the rails. Elevated costs a lot more. So they do it with art.

Each station has a “work of art” to distract people and make them stop and say “what the heck is THAT?” in their own language, of course. Once they realize it’s harmless they’re supposed to look both ways and safely cross the tracks. If that doesn’t work there are crossing fences to force people to turn toward where the train might be coming. These are called “Z” crossings. That probably doesn’t make much sense unless you see it. You start to cross at “A” street corner, and by the time you get to the tracks… OK, I don’t really know.

Once the train gets to Rainier Avenue there’s a station where everyone can get off and have a Philly Cheese Steak. After that is the Beacon Hill Tunnel.

Sound Transit has built a twin bore tunnel that passes under Beacon Hill and delivers the train near the old Rainier Brewery under I-5. Unfortunately the brewery is no longer there and a coffee company has it now. So stay on the train.

The Operations and Maintenance Facility is located just down the street from the tunnel portal. At that point it turns north again and heads to the sports arenas. That’s where the beer is.
A little wiggle and it enters the transit tunnel downtown. This is a tour all by itself. I think I might do it one day. Busses are free in the core business area. All you have to do is resolve not to give money to panhandlers. You’ll have lots of chances.

At the north end of the tunnel the current line ends. Sound Transit has grand plans but they need more money. They are the ultimate panhandlers.

OK, so we covered the segments, let’s review. Airport station – riders saving money on parking. Elevated Tukwila segment – views of the freeway. Street level MLK Way – pedestrians diving for cover. Beacon Hill Tunnel – toxic stabilization so don’t eat any dirt that falls into the train. O & M Facility to Stadiums – industrial hodgepodge. Seattle Transit Tunnel – busses are free but lots of folks want your money anyway.

There’ll be another transit measure on the ballot in November. They want to build north to the University and east to Bellevue. We might be able to stand it. Newcastle will have to wait a little longer before light rail comes to the shores of Lake Boren. But I got a not paper model of a train set I can take over there.

Al

Light Rail Coming to Eastside

Yes, it must be true, it was in the paper. You know how everything you read in the “News” is true? Well, the Bellevue Reporter ran a story about how Sound Transit will be installing a light rail “Link” to the Eastside via the I-90 bridge. So it must be time to camp out and watch the construction.

It’s a done deal: last month the Bellevue City Council approved amendments to the Comprehensive Plan recommended in a June report by a council appointed Best Practices Committee. Sound Transit is expected to release a draft environmental impact statement by the end of the year. Expectations of Sound Transit include themes such as collaboration, public communications and involvement, and sensitivity to Bellevue’s natural and built environments.

Still awake? After reading that I fell asleep for a week.

Worse yet, that paragraph is a synopsis of a half page story and I don’t drink coffee any more so it was really hard to wade thru.

Anyway, the big plan is to lay tracks on the I-90 Floating Bridge and then find a route across Mercer Island into South Bellevue. At that point the rail will branch off and head to Newcastle and Redmond. It’ll take almost 2% of the traffic off the freeway so we might as well start it right now.

By 2050 when the first trains finally begin to work their way over the lake Mercer Island will probably have sunk so we need to consider an alternative.

I like some of the proposals for the other floating bridge. Folks on the Seattle side of the lake are not interested in seeing a bridge at all. They want a tunnel. Since Bellevue folks want a bridge one proposal has a bridge going half way and then submerging into a 10 lane tunnel with a light rail upper deck. The Montlake interchange would be under water. No annoying bridge to look at.

Rising up on the Seattle side would be about five different outlets. One goes to the underground parking garage at the UW Stadium. In addition to the bridge toll you get to pay again at the parking garage gate.

Another would come up just outside the Arboretum for all those people who want Broadmoor and Madison.

Another would pop up on I-5 near Greenlake for the northbound folks and another on I-5 near Mercer Street for southbound folks.

The fifth exit will be in downtown Seattle. Light rail would have five different places. The material removed would bury Maple Valley.

Now let’s talk about budget. Naw, let’s not.

The surface interchange proposal for the Montlake area is even worse. It wipes out the Museum of History and Industry. It’s been on the move for a number of years so we don’t expect it to be there if the interchange is built.

The State Highway people have been visiting with departments that already have bridge-tunnel experience, such as Virginia and Denmark. The Danes built one across the Baltic to Sweden a few years ago. I think it was an episode of “Modern Marvels” on the cement channel.

The issue is they’re responsible to the public so they have to take every proposal seriously. That means they have also reviewed a soaring suspension bridge across the lake. Because they have to. It gets rejected every time.

What we need to know is whether this whole idea has been evaluated by enough committees. Each eastside community has its own committee. So do Sound Transit, Community Transit, Pierce Transit, Metro Transit, and Amtrak. They have meetings with the commuter rail committee from the State DOT.

These meetings are always separate because we don’t really need everyone hearing the same information. Then we have ad-hoc committees formed by citizen groups that think they have better solutions. Mainly these are people didn’t get the meeting notices for the other committees.

The news media only report on a few of these because they hardly ever get invited. And we certainly don’t want reporters out there looking for information. They should stay indoors reviewing their “press packets.” It would be a real shame if the “public” was actually informed about all these meetings. We only want results.

Anyway, there are about a thousand people involved in trying to figure out how to get commuter rail on the eastside. None of the committees’ plans coordinate with each other. And just for fun there’s another transportation proposal coming up for public vote. It’s asking for funding to actually build something. They know it will take funding but they don’t know what the plan is yet. Whatever it is won’t agree with the committee plans, but it’ll be fun to watch. I just hope we get some really enormous retaining walls. They have some great ones on Coal Creek Parkway.

Al