More Streetcars? McGinn's Winning Plan to Build Streetcars to Ballard and the U-District by 2018
Kelly O
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When Mayor Mike McGinn unveils his 2013–2014 budget to the Seattle City Council on September 24, his proposal will do more than balance a $20 million deficit—it'll include an ambitious $6 million pledge to study high-capacity transit.
If the council approves that plan, McGinn says the city could complete four new lines—likely streetcars—connecting downtown to Ballard, Queen Anne, and the University District within five years, as well as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system servicing Madison Park.
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"This is exactly the way I think we should proceed," says Tom Rasmussen, chair of the council's Transportation Committee, who's been critical of McGinn's attempts to study and fund new rail systems in the past. (Rasmussen praises this latest plan as "thoughtful" and "collaborative," instead of the mayor's previous "arbitrary" proposals.) Rasmussen says full council support for the mayor's proposal is all but guaranteed.
Specifically, McGinn's budget proposal includes:
• $2 million to fund a corridor analysis of a downtown to University District line (perhaps along Eastlake)
• $1 million for corridor analysis of a Madison Street BRT line
• $500,000 to study a north/south crossing of the ship canal for pedestrians, bikes, and transit
• $2.5 million to fund the next phase of the development process—the design work—for whichever line is ready first.
In hindsight, pledging to study transit lines may seem like a modest proposal from a man who campaigned in 2009 with a promise to put a Ballard to West Seattle light rail measure on the ballot within two years of being elected (and didn't succeed). "My last attempt was not a winning strategy," admits McGinn, referring to a failed 2011 ballot measure that would have used car-tab fees to fund transportation projects. "There's no mayor's school, and I didn't expect the headwinds I would face."
This time around, McGinn and the council are working together after agreeing to a Transit Master Plan. In that plan last year, the Seattle Department of Transportation pinpointed the top corridors ripe for high-capacity transit development. The city and Sound Transit have also begun studying a so-called downtown connector that would unite the First Hill streetcar and the South Lake Union streetcar.
Preliminary studies of the Ballard to downtown line show that it should accommodate 26,000 people using the line each day. As McGinn points out, "Street rail is the only mode that could move that many people through the city each day—as much as Link light rail is moving through Rainier Valley."
And after getting the council's preliminary nod last week to build a Sonics arena, this rail plan could prove to be a significant step in his transformation from a mayor of aspiration to a mayor who finally gets things done. 
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So the UW streetcar extension will not compete with Link. People who want to just get from the U District to downtown will use Link. People who want to get to destinations between those areas, without stopping every block on a confusing series of 70+ buses, will use the streetcar.
Similarly, in Ballard, the streetcar connects intermediate destinations and can serve in a pinch as a connector for the end points, but in the long run Ballard needs a station on a second downtown Link line with its own downtown tunnel, that serves a regional purpose connecting Bothell to Northgate to Ballard in the north, and probably goes to West Seattle and Burien to the south. Ballard also needs to anchor rapid transit across town to the U District, with a possible eventual connection over the lake to the East.
Connections (and connectors) are a key part of an integrated transit system. You need coverage, too, but every route needs to connect as seamlessly with others as possible.
True! I shouldn't have phrased that in such a way. My main issue is that these streetcars are a tremendously expensive solution to a problem that could be solved with a couple of extra bus routes. And we're super-shitty about even thinking about how these extremely expensive systems integrate with the rest of our transit planning. Remind me again how long it's taken just to get Orca card readers on the South Lake Union Streetcar?
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Fill in the "x's" and "y's" and "z" with any name and numbers, and you'll be looking at an opening paragraph of a Seattle story from the '70's, or '80's, or '90's, or the early 21st Century--and beyond.
"If the council approves that plan, McGinn says the city could complete four new lines—likely streetcars—connecting downtown to Ballard, Queen Anne, and the University District within five years, as well as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system servicing Madison Park."
Or, "Shetland Ponies in sparkly livery will pull rickshaws--likely wheel carts--connecting downtown to blah, blah and blah within five years."
It ain't gonna happen.
Seattle--and its feckless leadership--truly never met a problem it couldn't further study and discuss.
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But all jokes aside... with the joke being streetcars, when is Seattle going to wake up from it's coffee induced coma and start building a real rapid transit system?!?
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