McGinn, as expected, is submitting the Broadway alignment for the streetcar that will connect the International District and Capitol Hill. Here’s the announcement. Next for the process: the plan must be approved by the City Council.
McGinn transmits preferred First Hill Streetcar alignment to City Council
Broadway/Jackson route preferred option
SEATTLE – Today Mayor Mike McGinn transmitted to the City Council the Broadway/Jackson route as the preferred option for the First Hill Streetcar project. Seattle’s Department of Transportation (SDOT) recommended the Broadway/Jackson route late last month as the best alignment for the First Hill Streetcar.
If approved by the City Council, construction would begin in 2011, creating new construction jobs in the near term and supporting economic development over the long term when operations begin in late 2013.
The recommended alignment is consistent with the origins and history of the First Hill Streetcar project. Ten years ago this month, the Seattle City Council approved a route for Sound Transit’s Central Link Light Rail project that was to include a First Hill Station on Madison Street, near Broadway. As the light rail project advanced, the costs and risks of a deep bored tunnel and light rail station under First Hill emerged as a concern for the Sound Transit Board and for the Federal Transit Administration, the major funding partner for Central Link Light Rail. In 2006, the Sound Transit Board deleted the First Hill station from the Sound Move plan, and authorized study of alternative means of connecting First Hill to the regional transit system. A streetcar connector operating primarily on Broadway and Jackson emerged as the preferred alternative means of connecting First Hill to the regional transit system.
There are many advantages to the recommended route. The Broadway/Jackson route is estimated to cost approximately $125 million, comfortably within the maximum Sound Transit funding limit of $132.8 million, and will provide an efficient and accessible new transit option. The route also presents opportunities to rethink the Broadway streetscape in ways that support walking, biking and riding transit. In the Chinatown/International District, the Jackson Street route and the Pioneer Square loop integrate well with other transit and connect First Hill and Capitol Hill to this historic district and the adjacent stadium district.
The mayor is committed to developing plans to address the key transit issues that stakeholders identified throughout this process, including:
- Improving transit access to the Boren/Madison area, through measures such as speed and reliability improvements to existing Metro routes;
- Developing alternatives that provide north-south transit service in the 12th Avenue corridor; and
- Extending the First ilHilHdlxcHilHill Streetcar to the north end of Broadway, to support the economic revitalization of Broadway and improve neighborhood access to the Capitol Hill light rail station.
The mayor has asked SDOT to address each of these issues as it begins the development of a Transit Master Plan that will serve as a blueprint for future transit investments in Seattle.
Original Post:
Our news partners at the Seattle Times take their deepest look yet at the streetcar alignment plan as Mayor Mike McGinn is expected to make his decision later this week:
Streetcar planning largely has escaped public notice, overshadowed by rancor over the Highway 520 bridge replacement and the Highway 99 tunnel.
At ground level, however, an energetic debate over route choices has been under way.
The big question is the purpose of streetcars: Should they serve existing transit demand, or promote transit-friendly dense development?
Clearly, the Times is referring to the small portion of the public not yet reading CHS. No bother. Here’s what we reported on SDOT’s recommendation of the Broadway route and more information on part of the story the Times decided to not even broach: the Aloha extension. In the meantime, enjoy the cranks in the Times comments.
I don’t understand the fascination with streetcars. For the $130 million proposed for a streetcar line that has a fixed route maybe a mile long, you could buy almost 200 new metro buses that can go anywhere. You could add tons of express routes between outlying areas like West Seattle and Northgate, instead of funneling everybody through downtown. My seven-mile commute to work used to take two buses and averaged 50 minutes each way, including walking and waiting time. I put up with that for nine months to do my bit for public transportation, but eventually gave up and went back to the 15-minute car commute. I would ride the bus if it could get me near work without having to transfer downtown, and I imagine a lot of other people would too. If metro added say 50 express-only buses that bypassed downtown, even if they ran half full or less, they would carry thousands more people per day than the proposed Broadway streetcar, for a fraction of the cost. Streetcars just don’t make any sense.
If you’re from the hill, why do you need to bypass the downtown area? There are several buses that do exactly that.
I like this alignment and I like the idea of a streecar. No argument there.
However, what exactly makes a streetcar a better mode vs. a Trolly bus? I mean other than the general feeling that the idea of a streetcar is nice. Both are electric, both can be set up to time the traffic lights, etc. Is it that streecars are more traffic calming? Use a narrower space?
It seems like a dedicated trolly bus would be a cheaper way to connect the areas.
I assume this has been answered before but I looked around and couldn’t easily find it.
Spencer
For some reason, more people will take a streetcar than will take even a trolly bus. I don’t know about the psychology of that, but ther you have it.
Not an option here – trolley vs. streetcar – Sound Transit is paying the bill – the money was voted to build a streetcar – funds on hand, it will be a streetcar.
Funding from Sound Transit for this line is approx 130 million, all in the bank.
Good deal for the city….. esp. in a cash strapped economy.
Buses definitely make sense for what YOU seem to think transit should do–serve anyone anywhere in the city and enable people to sprawl in all directions. I think transit should primarily enable people to live without needing a car in the dense urban core. Streetcars are better than buses for this purpose precisely because they can’t go anywhere. When the city lays down rail it is saying “this is where we want development to happen, this is where people can choose to live without car dependence.” When cities buy buses it is just business as usual. We always will need buses, don’t get me wrong, but streetcars serve a very specific service that buses do not. We can spend the money on low-quality infrequent transit all over the city or we can focus our dollars on high-quality frequent transit in the dense areas where it makes sense. I know which one I would choose.
There are several reasons a streetcar is preferable to a trolleybus:
–More people ride streetcars than equivalent bus lines because of comfort, dependability, easy-to-understand routes, and things like level boarding (better for disabled) and off-board payment. Some of these things can be done with buses to make them better, but the comfort will never be there. Think about which vehicle you would rather use for grocery shopping. Buses are mainly used for getting to work, whereas streetcars are especially useful for shopping and recreation.
–Streetcars seem to attract a broader range of people for a broader range of uses. This may be related to the comfort factor, but more affluent people and car-owners are more likely to ride streetcars and light rail than buses. It makes sense when you think about it. If you are transit-dependent, you really don’t have a choice but to ride the bus. If you own a car and your choice is to be stuck on a freeway in your comfy car with your own music, or to be stuck on an uncomfortable bus with a bunch of strangers, you’ll choose the car. If the choice is between the car and a more comfortable streetcar where you can surf the internet on your iphone and enjoy the smooth ride and not worry about parking, the choice becomes more transit-friendly.
–Streetcars drive and support dense urban development. Developers will never make an investment based on a bus line–it is too easily changed. Even the trolleybus network has been shifted from time to time, and right now Metro is threatening to shut down the trolley network completely. The sense of permanence that rail provides gives developers and city planners (and neighborhoods!) the confidence to invest in high-quality transit-oriented development with lower amounts of expensive parking.
–Streetcars run on electricity, last longer than buses before they need to be replaced, and in general represent a more long-term investment. Buses are like that cheap Bartells toaster–it will do the job but will not last that long. If you have the money, better to invest in a well-built model that can stand the test of time.
“Streetcars run on electricity, last longer than buses before they need to be replaced, and in general represent a more long-term investment. Buses are like that cheap Bartells toaster–it will do the job but will not last that long. If you have the money, better to invest in a well-built model that can stand the test of time.”
Zef, and others who keep saying streetcars are a good investment in the future… do you realize that the proposed streetcar line with two streetcars would cost ONE HUNDRED TIMES what two buses covering the same route would cost? Buses last 12 years or 500,000 miles. Do you think a streetcar line will last 1200 years or 50 million miles?
As for comfort, does anyone who has actually ridden the SLUT genuinely think the seats are more comfortable than bus seats? The streetcar is more spacious than a bus because there’s more standing room, but typical bus seats are much more comfortable than the rigid plastic seats on the SLUT.
As for level boarding, that’s not restricted to streetcar lines. I’ve ridden buses on the 55 line that are like that. But hey, I’m all for attracting yuppies to ride the bus. If you think comfort will do it then let’s buy super-spacious luxury buses that cost ten times what a normal bus costs. We could do that and still not come anywhere remotely close to the cost of a streetcar line.
The arguments for streetcar lines as a good investment simply aren’t backed up by the facts.