A train every 3.5 minutes on Capitol Hill

We recently posted about the possibility that Broadway will have a streetcar by 2012. When Scott from Central District News shared the scoop with us, he also included some interesting thoughts about the future of transit on Capitol Hill. Not long after 2020, the Hill is going to be the public transit capital of the city.

Capitol Hill will be connected to three major rail projects

• University Link
• East Link
• Seattle streetcar

Here's how Scott says they all might fit together:

Once the new Sound Transit additions are finished in 2020 or whenever, there will be two lines running.  The cool thing is that the new route to the eastside doesn't just go to downtown Seattle.  They keep going all the way north to Lynnwood.  That basically doubles the light rail service that you'll see on the hill:

Route 1: Lynwood to Federal Way - every 7 minutes peak, 10 minutes off-peak*

Route 2: Microsoft to Lynwood (via I-90) - every 7 minutes peak, 10 minutes off-peak

What that means for you lucky folks on the hill:

Every 3.5 minutes there will be a train coming through at peak times to take you either north to the UW, Northgate, or Lynnwood

Every 3.5 minutes there will be a train coming through at peak times that will take you at least as far south as the International District. 

Every 7 minutes there will be a train coming through at peak times that will take you from Capitol Hill to Bellevue or Microsoft, without any transfers.

Every 7 minutes there will be a train coming through at peak times that will take you to SeaTac

The trip north to the UW will take only 3 minutes.

* = Off-peak trains will only go as far north as Northgate.  i.e., if you're going from the airport to Lynwood, you'll have to transfer to a different train once you get to Northgate

Full details here:

>http://future.soundtransit.org/documents/SYS_LRT_Link_Maintenance_Bases_Vehicles_Operations_2008.pdf

Our current situation isn't that bad if you don't mind buses -- so it's not quite famine or feast. But the future of Capitol Hill transit definitely looks like a feast.