http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/06/city-hits-milestone-on-transit-plan-that-could-bring-rapid-streetcar-to-downtown-seattle Comments On: City Hits Milestone on Transit Plan That Could Bring "Rapid Streetcar" to Downtown Seattle by Goldy en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Thu, 23 May 2013 18:15:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:07:49 -0700 The Stranger
Nah, there's never be enough construction company pork for the city to support that.
Posted by ScrawnyKayaker]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:12:37 -0700 The Stranger paint the hood black. Flat black. Paint the hood black and sit back and enjoy the rapidity, 21st Century style.

Prolly get re-entry burns when you stop if the hood is painted black. Beware.
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:41:14 -0700 The Stranger
The massive public works project approach is probably good for the labor and developer crowd, but more unrealistic financially. And certainly slower to deliver.


Posted by south downtown]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:18:41 -0700 The Stranger Posted by mitten]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:17:24 -0700 The Stranger Posted by kitschnsync]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:50:46 -0700 The Stranger http://seattlesubway.org).
Posted by Ben Schiendelman]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:38:43 -0700 The Stranger
Any transit study takes a year plus - you have to study traffic patterns for at least a year (and before that you have to determine what data you need to sample) to know what future use will be like across a year, and determine cost-effectiveness. If you don't want to do that, contact the federal government, they require it before they'll help fund projects.

As we have almost zero local money to connect the First Hill streetcar to the South Lake Union streetcar, this is the next step in getting a connection funded. Building this would not be a "new line", it would allow First Hill trains to go all the way to SLU and vice versa. It helps tie together the pieces.
Posted by Ben Schiendelman]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:37:50 -0700 The Stranger
Twice-approved Monorail System, come back, all is forgiven!
Posted by Max Solomon]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:55:15 -0700 The Stranger
A central loop from 1st north to Denny to SLU to Broadway to the hospitals to the ID/King street station to the stadiums to 1st to Denny and so on. Have a south Seattle loop, a West Seattle loop, a Queen Anne/Interbay/Ballard loop, an I-5 east to the lake loop, a north Seattle loop. Each loop slightly overlaps at a major terminus. West Seattle and Central and South can overlap at the ID tunnel station. Then you can ride Central if you wanted and jump off at the Broadway Link station and hop on the Northeast loop and get off at the UW.

It's a few jumps but it's a zero-brain power route if you wanted to say go from the West Seattle Junction to see a UW game.

Then you just create a bunch of hub-and-spoke lines for all the other areas and neighborhoods, aimed into downtown. You can then jump on or off these neighborhood lines from the loops.
Posted by Joe Szilagyi]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:52:38 -0700 The Stranger
Don't forget the new bus stops!
Posted by keshmeshi]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:25:32 -0700 The Stranger
A step forward? Spending tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to provide yet another connection between Westlake and Pioneer Square? One that will get stuck in traffic and behind improperly parked UPS vans?

No, this is more feel-good bullshit because this city can't find the wherewithal to build actual rapid transit.
Posted by mloar]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:45:15 -0700 The Stranger
The Connector is a rare step forward for Seattle transit. Is it a subway? No, but the subway is a pie-in-the-sky idea for now.

People like to ride rail. Whether their preference is justified or not is a moot point; more rail is coming because Seattleites have asked for it. LINK can't deliver as quickly as the Streetcar Network can. How is connecting the lines a bad thing?

Nothing from the Mayor's Office on this yet... Nice scoop, Goldy.
Posted by kitschnsync]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:46:49 -0700 The Stranger
Posted by d.p.]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:39:10 -0700 The Stranger Posted by MacCrocodile]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:21:06 -0700 The Stranger
This doesn't just duplicate existing buses. It duplicates the existing subway tunnel directly beneath it. The one with the trains stuck behind slow-loading buses. The one with such overbuilt, cavernous stations that a 1.1-mile trip across downtown is prohibitively arduous and time-consuming in a way it would be on no other subway in the world.

If the subway tunnel worked, you wouldn't need to spend millions more "connecting the South Lake Union streetcar with the First Hill line" because that connection would already exist.

@Goldy: Our new "RapidRide" buses are just buses with the word "Rapid" painted on them. That's evidently how we roll.

Posted by d.p.]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:12:10 -0700 The Stranger
No, silly, they'll paint it red, too!
Posted by urn]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:04:40 -0700 The Stranger This connector is a great idea as it starts to stitch things together a little.
Posted by flotard]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:57:25 -0700 The Stranger
The best news, this won't be up and going until 2020 or later.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:41:59 -0700 The Stranger
We need Seattle Subway. Hopefully the results of this study are broad enough to support it.
Posted by Matt the Engineer]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:41:58 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Chef Thunder]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:41:26 -0700 The Stranger #2

The reason we built tunnels is because LINK can't go up hills.

But SLUT can go up hills and doesn't need tunnels.

I'd rather have a SLUT than a LINK, but I realize I'm in the minority here.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:31:03 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Fnarf]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:30:52 -0700 The Stranger Posted by doceb]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:27:54 -0700 The Stranger Posted by mitten]]> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:27:44 -0700 The Stranger