To think it could have been half priced if we just waited until now! But that's cool! too much stupid decorations and not enough safety lights and bells! it wont run all night so it should stop running before the bars close and the drunks go driving? Next should be a line that runs through the center of Olympic National forest out to Mukkaw Bay!

Dam the naysayers as its a two for one deal as the recession lasts

Oh, and the Sounders (who clearly don't get the love they deserve from public figures and transit authorities alike) are playing at home that Saturday. Normally, that's not a huge deal and draws only a few more people than an above-average Mariners game (!). But that Saturday is special - the Sounders are playing Chelsea FC, from England. Yes, that Chelsea. At noon. And the Sounders decided to sell out the upper half of the stadium, swelling the normal crowds of 28,000-30,000 to Seahawks-size throngs approaching 70,000. Notice is served.

"1. Light rail is really fucking cool."
Incorrect.

http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/~prt-q.html…

also, i was on king way 2 days ago; the trains are definitely not quiet.

Having left the seattle area 2 years ago I am happy to hear that they are finally catching up with the world with regards to a rapid transit system. It can only benefit the city and more routes need to be added asap. I am now living in london and they have had the tube for years - great system! Seattle traffic is one of the worst I have seen anywhere in the world. Maybe the voters will start to get some more funding goin for further projects but americans sure do love their cars!

If you want to avoid construction delays, tell your buddy Frizelle to quit his bitching....

Tukwila station is the best place to join the mile-long club.

Just saying.

oh, by the way, they said the same stuff about Vancouver's light rail when it only had one line ...

I like Stellar...what a cool name.

I realize that the powers that be have been touting the trains as quiet and that people have been complaining that the trains are not quiet at all. So, two reactions:

1) They're trains. They make noise. Get the fuck over it.

2) "Quiet" is being used ruinously out of context by both parties. Of course people don't think they're so quiet - they're not used to having trains zip by on street-level tracks. And the authorities have been using "quiet" as a basis for higher safety vigilance. Quiet or otherwise, its not a bad idea to say that you might not always hear them coming over traffic noise (!!!), so that common-sense-challenged pedestrians don't end up as rail-kill. (This is counter-productive to natural selection, but so be it. Less paperwork for transit staff.)

I'm really eager to see them finish the line to UW. It will make the Sounder a lot more practical for those of us who commute to campus from the south end. Currently it takes me as long just to get from the transit tunnel to campus as it does to get from Kent to Seattle, thanks to the slow traffic on the 71/72/73 bus route.

One thing I learned while using the tunnel during its newly extended hours: Metro must completely rethink its boarding and operations procedures before Sound Transit Link will be able to claim efficiency and before Seattle can start to be a real city:

- Trains sit idly in the tunnel (just past the station threshold) for minutes at a time while throngs of people on a bus in front of it pay as slowly as possible. At the next station, the same thing happens again. Since extending Ride Free hours is unlikely, Metro should immediately institute a fare discount for using ORCA (see New York, Boston) -- or even abolish non-ORCA-based transfers -- to encourage ORCA usage.

- Metro should retrofit ALL tunnel-using buses, removing forward-facing rows of seats in favor of side-seating and additional standing room/navigable space for getting to the exit. It is shocking how big a difference this makes in other cities.

- Metro should also eliminate the folding seats in the wheelchair spaces, and replace the ridiculously cumbersome belts for securing wheelchairs. Better mechanisms exist that could reduce this awkward and socially isolating 5-minute procedure to 30 seconds. Remember, there's a train waiting behind the bus!

- Lastly, and perhaps most symbolically, Metro MUST revert to the previous bike-loading policy -- International District and Convention Place stations only (and no rail conflict at the latter). Why? Because nothing says "rapid transit" LESS than people standing ON THE TRACKS fiddling with bike racks.

The easy answer to "what to call it?" is already written on the wall. There is a huge sign at the Airport Way depot that says "Rail" in Rainier Beer font. The London Underground is called "The Underground" because it runs underground. The Subway in New York is subterranean transportation. The El in Chicago is an elevated train. Light rail is a rail line, so why not? When Seattle's historic metal band "Rail" finally returns to rock out ( http://railonline.net/ ),
you can ride The Rail to see Rail.

I was waiting for the bus on the Ave the other day, and was looking at the historical pictures, and low and behold, they had trolley cars on the Ave back in the 20s!

You'll never get us Portland dicks to shut up. The Max (cool name, already taken, so don't even think about it) has been around for nearly 25 years, is huge compared to ... >cough< ... Stella, or whatever you guys call it, and is augmented by a fabulous streetcar system. Portland is cool for all the reasons Seattle just isn't -- it's gutsy, chunky, and just a wee bit dark. Oh yeah, we're also more than a little bit gay.

Glad to see light rail finally get moving, it was being planned when I left several years ago and I'm still excited to come home and try it.

Not to quibble but...

@Sarita,

Worst traffic in the world? Seattle doesn't even come close to having the worst traffic on the West Coast, Living in LA the last several years I have truly learned what unspeakable-death-fuck traffic is. Seattle traffic is a goddamn refreshing nap under shady pines. What horrific mirror-universe version of Seattle were you living in?

Leaving out Southcenter was indeed an idiot move. Something like 40% of King County youth live in South King County (defined as basically everything south of Seattle). That's where the population growth is, and it's wrong to leave out the major retail hub of that area from a mass transit system that is supposed to last us far into the future. Not all of those kids will stay there as adults, but it's still where the action is at. South King County still has the opportunity to become a vibrant, dense, semi-urban area instead of an Eastside replica. We should be helping that along.

Thank God Seattle has a little bit of light rail, finally.

I'm living in Taipei now, a city just recently out of the second world. The stately slow motion of Seattle looks quaint from over here. Dozens of Asian cities are leaving Seattle in the dust.

Taipei? First line opened in 1996. Currently? 69.1 Km of track, 63 stations, 1 million riders / day. Opening in September 2009, an additional 69.9 Km and 57 new stations. Stage 3 comes on line in 2012 giving a total of 250km of line.

A little perspective for the Seattle celebration: Seattle has learned how to crawl, a truly a major development milestone which should be photographed bragged about and celebrated. What a cute little train!

If the train went to Southcenter, lots of shopppers from Seattle would go there which would increase the sales tax revenue Tukwila gets, and lessen the revenue Seattle gets. So of course Seattle vetoed it. A station on the east side would have made a great transfer point for rail from South King, rail to/from Bellevue on the Burlington Northern tracks, and also buses coming up 167 or east/west. Oh well. Seattle won. Everyone else lost.

We Portlanders don't think we're better than Seattlers. However, we know for a certainty that our light rail system is better than Seattle will ever have because your transportation planners are incompetent and corrupt.

Want to know why Sound Transit decided Link would bypass Southcenter? Downtown Seattle hoteliers, retailers and Chamber of Commerce dicks did not want tourists finding accommodations there. Duh. Southcenter Mall honchos agreed to the arrangement because transit users aren't their favored clientelle. Link planners bragged that the bypass saved a whopping 3 minutes travel time between the airport and downtown. Three minutes! Whoopdee-frickin-doo. When planners resort to such lame excuses, you know they're hiding the truth.

This Portlander considers Seattle the most corrupt city on the West Coast. Pot use is tolerated there because your neo-conservative overlords are dumbing all of you down. Think the Deep-bore tunnel is the best option for the SR-99 replacement? Think again.

Seattle transportation planners intend to ruin the Waterfront District. Picture 2500 more Ballard-bound vehicles "per hour" plying the new Alaskan Way and completely backed up in 15-20 stoplights. The 4-lane Cut-n-Cover tunnel is the best option and less expensive.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured your remaining brain cells with the truth. Go back to sleep in your dope addled matrix. Vote Nickels out of office. He's a crook.

We Portlanders don't think we're better than Seattlers. However, we know for a certainty that our light rail system is better than Seattle will ever have because your transportation planners are incompetent and corrupt.

Want to know why Sound Transit decided Link would bypass Southcenter? Downtown Seattle hoteliers, retailers and Chamber of Commerce dicks did not want tourists finding accommodations there. Duh. Southcenter Mall honchos agreed to the arrangement because transit users aren't their favored clientelle. Link planners bragged that the bypass saved a whopping 3 minutes travel time between the airport and downtown. Three minutes! Whoopdee-frickin-doo. When planners resort to such lame excuses, you know they're hiding the truth.

This Portlander considers Seattle the most corrupt city on the West Coast. Pot use is tolerated there because your neo-conservative overlords are dumbing all of you down. Think the Deep-bore tunnel is the best option for the SR-99 replacement? Think again.

Seattle transportation planners intend to ruin the Waterfront District. Picture 2500 more Ballard-bound vehicles "per hour" plying the new Alaskan Way and completely backed up in 15-20 stoplights. The 4-lane Cut-n-Cover tunnel is the best option and less expensive.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured your remaining brain cells with the truth. Go back to sleep in your dope addled matrix. Vote Nickels out of office. He's a crook.

WOW. Is this teenagers blogging or just poor reporting?

@Wells,

You left out: City refuses to contribute to the 25% under-funding of the monorail project (short $15 million/year) caused by Sound Transit's inaccurate MVET study. Secretive unelected monorail director plans crazy interest-only bonds ("But all the housing bubble kids were doing it!") and cheaper, better (but not local construction industry-friendly) transit project collapses.

One year later, Nickles wants 4 billion or so to fund a highway 99 tunnel ALONG EXACTLY THE SAME CORRIDOR AS THE MONORAIL!? Gee, you don't suppose those $4 to ?? billion in bonds would have cost *a little more* than $15 M annually? You don't suppose a major elevated transit project would have made a cheap surface alternative to the viaduct more viable?

Apparently, what's good for the construction industry is what's good for the city.

toolittletoolate:

PRT???!!! Really? You people are still advocating for that crap? For too many technical reasons to list, PRT will never happen. Automated cars, eventually. PRT... no.

HAH! PRT is to transit what Scientology is to logic.

@ScrawnyKayaker,

I strongly supported monorail expansion but opposed the horribly engineered route via 2nd Ave, Seattle Center grounds, and Interbay. The better route option was via the Waterfront (in place of the AWV), follow SR-99 to Battery Street then Westlake to SPU, then under the canal and enter Ballard.

This route served more than 'twice' as many riders and could direct more than 'twice' as much future development as the Greenline. It was possible to build this route in stages, beginning with an initial 'single-track circulator' line whose physical impact was lower, whose cost was 1/4 the Greenline yet served more people, generated more revenue and directed more development.

Killing the Monorail Project was an inside job perpetrated by automobile-related business interests pulling strings at SDOT. SDOT Chief Grace Crunican was fired from her position at ODOT for her terrible record overseeing inner-city highway projects. Don't say I didn't warn Seattlers years ago about her appointment to SDOT.

Why not call it SLINK?
And that the gods rail is finally coming to this area.

gravitysgone:

It's totally dead. Never gonna happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_…)

It wasn't that great of an idea anyway. It was just better than nothing, which is what we had at the time.

"Portland is cool for all the reasons Seattle just isn't -- it's gutsy, chunky, and just a wee bit dark. Oh yeah, we're also more than a little bit gay.

I totally agree with you, but I also remember when Seattle was as you describe Portland. For example, downtown Seattle used to be interesting, fun and a little sinister. Now it's just a mall. Let that be a cautionary tale for you.

As far as Southcenter goes, if Southcenter were smart (and perhaps if Seattleites weren't so weird) they could operate a free shuttle that would take you from the Tukwila station to the Bon Marche (or someplace like that at the mall)

But, as I say, Seattleites might be too weird for that, it being a bus and all. But it works in Emeryville.

@gravitysgone,

In 2000, a draft submission for expanding Seattle's monorail, the "Circulator Monorail" is still possible. It was specifically designed to integrate with several light rail stations downtown.

The "Circulator Monorail" added 4 miles of single-track to the historic line in 'loops' to each end. Because it's 'single-track' instead of 'double-track', its physical and visual impact is low, its construction of line less expensive, and stations much simpler to locate.

The stations served Westlake Mall, Central Library, Harborview, University of Seattle/Swedish Hosp, SCCC, Convention Place Station, surrounding neighborhoods and commercial districts on the south loop. On the north loop 5 stations served KOMO, 5th Ave parking lot across from Gates Foundation, a station and maintenance facility 'atop' the Mercer Street Parking garage, Key Arena Plaza, and an underground station below the Thomas Roadway to provide "all-weather" access Center House and Fischer Pavilion.

The station-to-station index suggested all-day, all-week ridership would surpass that of the rejected Greenline. It's cost was estimated at 1/4 the Greenline.

In 2005, a 2nd Circulator line was integrated into the Circulator Monorail (also about 4 miles of single-track) to serve Belltown, the Waterfront across from Pike Place Market and Coleman Dock, the Sports Arenas and International District.

Regional double-track lines could enter the inner-city Circulator Monorail system and travel through, south through West Seattle to Seatac Link station, north through Ballard to Northgate Link station, and possibly east to Madison Park.

Along with the Circulator Monorail, the entire downtown Seattle transit system was reorganized in a companion proposal titled "The Seattle Circulator Plan" which mainly reconfigured the trolleybus lines as circulators best able to match supply to demand. Its aim was 5-minute trolleybus service between the Waterfront and First Hill/Capital Hill/Lake Union, between Pioneer Square District and Lower Queen Anne/Seattle Center. It reduced overhead wire clutter and cost less to operate. Both the "Circulator Monorail" and "The Seattle Circulator Plan" are completely blacklisted by mainstream Seattle media, (including The Stranger), and governmental agencies.

markanon @32,

PRT already IS (finally) happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3qadusf…
http://www.prtconsulting.com/Videos/vide…

The reasons it hasn't happened already are political, not technical. It's been possible for 30 years.
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans…

Sound Transit should be helping, like they said they would.
http://www.soundtransit.org/News-and-Eve…

@Roosevelt-
you're correct: much of downtown Seattle and neighborhoods like Ballard and the U District used to be laced with street cars. My grandfather was a bicycle messenger in Seattle during the Depression and he would hook a ride up the hill on the back of the trollies.
I'd like go know where all the streetcars went. Grandpa said the oil companies influenced local politics and had them torn up after the war. Maybe they thought fossil fuels would be cheap and around forever!
do any of you local history buffs know the real story behind the late streetcars?

Troy @ 41,

You're just plain wrong. The presumption that riders only want or will only use one-seat service from their starting point to downtown is how cities like Seattle wind up with fractured, cumbersome systems where hundreds of routes zig-zag awkwardly around, go nowhere with adequate frequency, and are universally prone to delays from...
- overcrowding (uneven usage)
- dozens of left/right turns without signals (straight-ish routes are exponentially more reliable)
- and (ahem) dumb-ass park-and-rides that force buses to make 7 90-degree turns just to stop at a single platform (even more annoying when it happens 5 times per trip)

In cities WHERE TRANSIT WORKS, people do NOT expect one-seat rides. They are more than willing to use 2 or 3 lines, and multiple modes of transit (commuter rail/subway/bus) when each segment of their trip is fast, frequent, and reliable.

So no, "the hatred for transfers" is NOT universal. As long as the overall trip is competitive with the travel time/cost/hassle of driving + searching for parking, multi-leg public transit is an option. (Under Seattle's current system -- your preferred paradigm -- a single-seat trip can be 4 times slower than driving+parking.)

Gravitysgone @ 40, who said the new Link rail is "going to be great for... airport access, maybe commuters... but mass transit in the urban core is really inadequate..."

THANK YOU! This can never be said frequently enough, and those of us who live in the city and rely on public transit for more than just standard commuting must fight the shocking complacency about this (defending Metro seems to stem from some extremely misdirected expression of civic pride).

This is not unrelated to the fallacious system-design premise about which I just schooled Troy @ 41. It is also about...
- King County's politically motivated division of service-hours
- the Bush administration's revision of Federal funding guidelines to require an extremely high percentage threshold of new riders (i.e. suburban riders) for expensive capital projects
- the stupid mass-transit-design trend towards gigantic 2-block-long stations with 3 levels that require tearing down half of Capitol Hill and are FAR more expensive than the simple platform+elevator+escalator that they should be building. Instead of paring down the station size (which would also allow more location flexibility -- do you realize how inconvenient the UW station is going to be?), they cut costs by building stations too few and far-between, thus decreasing the usefulness of the line.

On a slight tangent... You know how when you use a line that only runs every 30-60 minutes, you seem every day to encounter the same mentally ill person, whose behavior, in addition to being unpleasant and/or potentially dangerous, slows the line to a crawl? Now imagine taking a "core" line that runs every 5-10 minutes. Your chances of a ride that doesn't involve that guy just improved exponentially. That alone would be worth a slightly longer walk.

@dp,

No transit system can work without transfers. The 1-seat ride is indeed a faulty premise that is more political than sensible. Old School transit agencies, like Metro, consider main downtown corridors the main half of all one-seat rides, thus serving business interests along these routes rather than transit users who have other destinations to reach via transit. Getting around downtown subsequently requires familiarty and co-ordination with almost innumerable suburban routes. Light rail can change this faulty paradigm by requiring transfers.

Currently, I know of only one transit design proposal for a relatively simple reconfiguration of downtown Seattle transit that would create convenient transfers from the DSTT and other thru-corridors like 1st,2nd,3rd,4th and Broadway. It is titled "The Seattle Circulator Plan". And, it has been completely blacklisted by mainstream Seattle media (including The Stranger) and by government agency for the last 9 years. Corruption in Seattle is rampant. Greg Nickels is a lousy mayor.

how dare he not give a shout-out to the sounders!?!?!

Here I was, dreaming of taking the light rail all the way from the airport to Bothell / Woodinville by this July and now I hear the line won't even be complete to Redmond until 2021 or lynwood by 2023. Damn, If I'm not dead by then I'll sure have been retired for several years and won't need to commute anymore. Now I know why we kept deferring construction on this until our kids would have to pay for it - they're the ones who will finally have a light rail worth using. Better late than never though.

I vote we call it the Nimby. I'm glad it's here, but it's also good to remember what took it so long.

Lack Thereof @ 50,

Metro changed their bike-loading policy about 3 months ago to allow loading and unloading at ALL tunnel stops (prior to that it was allowed in the Convention Place and I.D. stations to mirror the first-stop/last-stop loading policy for surface routes).

Their justification for the change was increased ridership demand from bicyclists. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to them that there has also been increased ridership overall, and that making changes that negatively impact efficiency for EVERYONE in the tunnel is woefully counterproductive.

I am, however, thrilled to hear that they'll be eliminating paper transfers soon. If true, this should be a huge improvement. Do you have a source on this, because I have not seen it anywhere but in my own wishful thinking?

Lack Thereof @ 50,

As far as I can discern, Sound Transit will stop accepting Metro-issued paper transfers at the end of the summer, and some of the smaller agencies (e.g. Kitsap) will do away with paper altogether.

It doesn't look like Metro is planning to do the same. So expect that "rapid transit" we've all just spent billions on to remain stuck in the tunnel behind "permanently lethargic transit" Metro buses.

A few comments mention how lame it is that the light rail won't run all night.

Seattle, I'm a fan of your city, but I am from the old-school city of Boston...you know, home to the first subway system in America.

Guess what? Our trains don't run all night. They stop at about 12:30AM and start at about 5:15 AM. It works pretty well -- most people leave bars early enough to catch the last train home or at least are willing to take a cab that late. The trains will continue running if the Red Sox are playing crazy late (like during the playoffs). And virtually everyone takes more than 1 train to school/work/whatever. Personally I take one line 4 stops (about 6 minutes), transfer, go one stop (5 minutes) and then 4 stops to my college (about 15 minutes). I leave my apartment a half hour to 40 minutes before class, make it on time, and get to read The Economist or New Yorker on the way. It's fabulous. People don't mind transferring as long as service is working and running on time.

TerrierChica @ 56,

Thanks for illustrating my point that efficient transfers are a necessary ingredient of functional urban transit.

Seattleites, please compare her 3-train, 30-minute commute to my 1-bus trip from Ballard into downtown: scheduled for 25 minutes, usually takes 35-40, detours through Lower Queen Anne (missing every light along the way); if I need a transfer downtown, I ALWAYS miss it and am usually fucked for another 30 minutes.

Oh, and Metro actually considers the Ballard routes "high-frequency" and "high-efficiency!"

As for the train's stopping time: the last outbound train from Westlake Station will be around 12:15. (In Boston, the last outbound trains in all directions leave Park Street or Government Center at 12:45.) That's a pretty crucial half-hour, particularly if one is relying on infrequent Metro service INTO downtown to catch that last train. It's also a reminder that Sound Transit might not have planned this thing with on-the-ground urban-transit practicality in mind, as has long been in evidence from route and station-location choices.

(p.s. Having lived in Boston for 20 years, I know that complaining about the T is a major civic sport there. I did it too... until I moved to Seattle and experienced the nightmare of King County Metro. The next time you overhear someone lament the T's faults, please remind them how good they have it.)

toolittletoolate @6:

I am the author of the linked page, which makes me a PRT supporter. That makes me a transit supporter, and I agree that light rail IS really fucking cool.

Goddammit.

That preview comment button is almost as FUCKING annoying as it was on Sunday July 19th when at southcenter I was told that I could not take the bus I wanted because of the rail.

The first time I wrote this it was worded so much better....and then I tapped the little pad on my laptop after clicking what I thought was the final post comment button, and it re-directed me to the page before I typed my original response.....erasing the history because the page expired...STUPID. I hate it because it's STUPID.

Choosing to ride the rail, I was told that the wait was going to be more than 45 minutes.

I had some goddamn gundam wing model shopping to do in the international district. I could walk there in that amount of time.

the lightrail is not "fucking awesome" it's fucking stupid. Why would I pay whatever the cost is, when I can hop on a bus in the ride free zone and get to EXACTLY where I want to go.

Or.......for fucks sake I COULD WALK AND GET SOME EXCERCISE!

Fucking lazy fat ass american BASTARDS. (I'm american....)