19th Ave Originally uploaded by eastcolfax
The Central District News and CHS have been beeping the bus horn for months about King County Metro’s plans for the electric trolley buses that serve many of our busiest routes. Here’s CDN’s latest write-up on the potential cut of electric trolleys from the Metro fleet and what the City of Seattle needs to do keep the buses in the plans. Our posts — including this recent reminder — prompted King County Council member Larry Phillips to post his views on the situation to CHS. This coming week, the discussions will shift into a higher gear.
First, the City Council’s transportation committee will take up the issue with a briefing from Metro in Council chambers on Wednesday. Here’s the agenda description:
Metro Transit’s Operation of the Trolley System Current Fleet & Need for Replacement Findings from Audit of Metro Relevant to Trolley System Description of County Council Mandated Trolley System Evaluation Study
Meanwhile, on Friday, Metro announced a public meeting to bring the process of deciding on what to do about the aging trolley fleet to the community:
Metro to study possible alternatives for aging electric trolley buses
King County Metro Transit has a fleet of 159 electric trolley buses that are reaching the end of their useful lives, and Metro may need to order replacement buses before the end of 2012.
Before doing that, the agency has been directed by the King County Executive and the Metropolitan King County Council to study alternative bus-propulsion technologies in order to evaluate and compare their costs, limitations, and benefits. The goal is to evaluate several factors to ensure the best overall value for the region.
That evaluation will kick off with a public open house:Tuesday, June 22
5-7 p.m.
Plymouth Congregational Church
1217 6th Ave., SeattleThis in-depth study will focus on the current 14-route trolley system. The findings of the study will help the county make an informed decision about the best vehicle technology to use on these routes as the current trolley buses wear out.
Questions or comments about the study can be directed to Ashley DeForest, community relations planner, at (206) 684-1154 or by email at [email protected]. There is also a project website at www.kingcounty.gov/TrolleyEvaluation.
But after having been in TWO buses now in a matter of months that have gotten disconnected from the wires and blocked traffic on Madison, I now want to get rid of them.
Why don’t they at least have a gas backup, or something?
New buses would have a battery backup for this problem. Metro’s buses are from the 1970s!
gas is not an acceptable alternative
BP- hello?
Can’t believe this idea, to replace the smooth, clean, wonder hill mounting trolleys.
Stupid.
Yes, to a battery option in new models to get them out of the way.
No, to the change. No, no no.
Metro gets weird at times. Very weird.
Curly says NO way
Battery back up won’t magically reattach the bus to the wire.
It takes very little time to reattach a bus. So it isn’t really an issue.
I live at the intersection of 12th and madison where busses seem to become detached from the wire on a regular basis, and trust me, when a bus is sitting prone in the middle of a busy intersection, it takes far too long to reattach the busses to the cables.
In terms of energy powering the vehicles, whether it’s coal burning offsite to create electricity for the trolly, or a gas/electric hybrid, it all seems to be a bad choice with greenhouse gas production. Whichever fleet are the most efficient in terms of carbon footprint would be my preference.
Uh… The electricity to drive trolleys comes from the dams opened in the cascade mountains about 100 years ago by Seattle City Light, a publically-owned utility. There is essentially zero CO2 released in the production of Seattle’s eletricity.
The batteries will get the bus out of the intersection.
I’ve seen a few buses throw their poles and it seems to be because of either the driver was going to fast through an area with wire junctions, or the driver did not use their turn signal which allows them to switch between different wires. If they are supposed to signal to get the switch to move and when they don’t, their poles will come off. I saw that very thing one day near Harborview.
Oh, those horrible trolleys and their wires always coming off. It takes too much time out of my busy day and makes me sit idle in my status car while they “fix” it. How can people see how important and lovely I am if I’m just sitting there in my lovely liability?
It’s just like those stupid ambulance, fire and police vehicles. What gives them the right to hold ME up? I’m not the one in trouble!
Received this email from the Sierra Club:
The City Council Transportation Committee is holding a special meeting tomorrow (Weds 16 June) regarding the future of the electric trolley bus system in Seattle.
For agenda see: http://db.tt/haPXlW
Summary:
Retention and Enhancement of the Electric Trolley System in Seattle
Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 12 noon – 1:30pm
Council Chambers, Seattle City Hall, Floor 2
600 Fourth Avenue, Seattle
Personal comment: the trolley buses are the most environmentally friendly form of mass transit in Seattle. Replacing them with anything else would be one more in the endless list of crimes against the environment perpetrated by our stupid species.