This advancement in our light rail system is huge. We finally finish the section we should have started with: U-District to downtown. This is starting to look like a real subway system. It isn't about trips to downtown, or even trips across town. Both were possible before (e. g. you could get from Columbia City to Northgate via the 7 and 41 quite quickly). It is about making trips that are difficult otherwise, even with a car. For example, Roosevelt to Capitol Hill. By car, it takes around twenty, thirty minutes in the middle of the day (not counting the time to park, or for your cab to arrive). The subway will do it in eight minutes. This in turn means you can walk for ten minutes, or catch a connecting bus and still be way ahead.

This is a great accomplishment, but let us not forget to mourn the First Hill Station, as well as other stops that should have been added -- victims to the suburban focus of our mass transit system. At least us urban dwellers have this.