By all accounts at City Hall, the Seattle City Council is about an hour away from unanimously passing a resolution that would open the door to extend the future Fist Hill streetcar about two-thirds of a mile north, all way up to East Aloha Street—continuing past the corridor of high-density housing and string of (struggling) small businesses on Broadway.
- Via Capitol Hill Community Council
- The Streetcar Extension to Aloha (click to enlarge)
The resolution, sponsored by City Council Member Tom Rasmussen, includes a provision to ask Sound Transit for money already allocated for streetcar funding to study the extension (the existing streetcar money, approved with light rail in 2008, only set the terminus at East Denny Way). “SDOT should request the Sound Transit Board allow the City to use any excess capital funds provided by ST2 for the First Hill Streetcar Project for the purpose of extending the Project’s route north on Broadway,” the resolution says. The Sound Transit board will ultimately decide—and they appear likely to approve the request—as the Broadway streetcar alignment comes about $6 million under the $132 budget cap. That’s not enough to pay for the extension (estimated at $20 million), but would provide for $750,000 for an engineering study to occur at the same time as the rest of the streetcar line.
The advantage of studying the extension now—rather than waiting until we have the money to fund the full project—are threefold, says Bill LaBorde, director of Transportation Choices. He says that the city can attempt to cash in on federal stimulus dollars sooner, save money by doing the engineering at the same time, and ultimately draw more riders.
“You’ve got a lot of people in the Broadway corridor and, now that zoning is increasing, there is potential for a lot more development,” LaBorde says. “You should have a lot more ridership potential by going all the way to north end and serving the business district.”
SDOT recommended the two-way Broadway alignment in March, Mayor Mike McGinn gave it his thumbs up in April, and the Capitol Hill Community Council has been leading the charge to study an extension since winter and spring.
In the resolution, the council, as McGinn also recommended, vows to improve transit service along 12th Avenue and the hospital district on First Hill—two areas that were vying for closer streetcar service.
UPDATE 2:19 PM: The council passed the resolution unanimously.
UPDATE 2: The Capitol Hill Community Council is pleased with its success and will be throwing a party on Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00pm at Sole Repair. Good job, CHCC.
Extention?
Two-thirds of a mile north? Here’s a better solution: walk it. It really isn’t that long…
Does it come with a bunch of people on it singing show tunes? I would actually like that.
That would be cool. We could call it Show /B/o/a/tStreetcar.
The “Fist Hill Streetcar”? Is this a follow-up to the PDX streetcar Hump! entry from last year?
That said, yay! If/when this opens I’m totally taking the streetcar down to the ID for banh mi at lunchtime. Every day!
Now let’s bring back the rest of the streetcars too. Fun/boring fact: when the 14 trolleybus used to be a streetcar, it was still called the 14. That route has been there longer than most people have been alive.