With planning underway to extend the First Hill streetcar and Broadway bikeway north toward Volunteer Park, Seattle is also moving forward with planning to connect the route through downtown to the SLUT line through South Lake Union, officials announced Monday.
The Seattle Department of Transportation will study two possible routes through the downtown core to connect from the First Hill streetcar line’s end in Pioneer Square to the South Lake Union’s line:
Analysis also showed that two alignments, one along 1st Avenue and one using 4th and 5th Avenues (in the same direction as traffic), should be carried forward for further study. Both alignments provide a connection to the Westlake transit hub and serve the key project purpose of connecting the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars.
This route was identified as one of four priority corridors in the Transit Master Plan unanimously adopted by the City Council in April 2012. The Transit Master Plan prioritized these four corridors based on their ridership potential and need for higher capacity transit service. Each corridor will provide for a faster and more reliable transit network that adequately addresses the highest demand corridors in the City.
The full announcement on the updated Center City plan is below. A “Center City Connector” open house will be held on Thursday, June 6th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the South Lake Union Discovery Center located at 101 Westlake Ave North.
Center City streetcar plans move forward
Two routes through downtown advance for further studySEATTLE – Mayor Mike McGinn announced today that a streetcar has been selected as the preferred mode for a Center City Connector, and that two potential alignments have been selected for further study: 1st Avenue and a 4th/5th Avenue couplet. The Center City Connector will provide a new high capacity transit service to connect major destinations in downtown Seattle and nearby neighborhoods.
“More jobs, housing, and businesses are coming to downtown Seattle, and we need more high capacity transit to meet those needs,” said McGinn. “The Center City Connector is another important step forward in building a rail network that connects our neighborhoods to each other.”
The Center City Connector project seeks to improve north-south transit mobility and link the First Hill and South Lake Union streetcars through downtown. This route was identified as one of four priority corridors in the Transit Master Plan unanimously adopted by the City Council in April 2012. The Transit Master Plan prioritized these four corridors based on their ridership potential and need for higher capacity transit service. Each corridor will provide for a faster and more reliable transit network that adequately addresses the highest demand corridors in the City.
Analysis done by the Seattle Department of Transportation indicated that a streetcar was the best mode of transit for this project. Estimates show that by 2030 transit will need to carry an additional 8,000 people per hour into and within the Center City during the morning peak. This is equivalent to approximately 150 additional buses per hour on downtown streets and would require the equivalent of two new bus-only lanes. Alternatively, if this demand was met using rail vehicles, 20 two-car or 10 four-car trains would be required (assuming 160 passengers per car). Since a train can carry more passengers than a bus, the labor costs for operating trains are lower than for buses. This analysis also took into account future Sound Transit rail operations in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
Analysis also showed that two alignments, one along 1st Avenue and one using 4th and 5th Avenues (in the same direction as traffic), should be carried forward for further study. Both alignments provide a connection to the Westlake transit hub and serve the key project purpose of connecting the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars. Each alignment also serves important destinations in the Center City. An alignment on 1st Avenue beyond Stewart Street to serve Uptown will be evaluated for a potential future phase of the project.
In addition to the two remaining route alignments, further analysis will be conducted on options for how a streetcar could operate on each street (in mixed traffic or in a dedicated lane). In November, a locally preferred alternative will be identified with a final alignment, and will be followed by creation of an implementation plan as well as a finance plan.
Planning continues on the other high capacity transit routes identified in the Transit Master Plan. The Ballard to Downtown Transit Expansion Study, a partnership between the City of Seattle and Sound Transit looking at rail, is under way. A Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit Study is being planned, as is a high capacity transit study of a University District to South Lake Union corridor. A study to extend the route of the First Hill Streetcar north on Broadway is also underway.
Additional details of the Center City Connector can be viewed by the public at an open house on Thursday, June 6th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the South Lake Union Discovery Center located at 101 Westlake Ave North. The public will see details on the two alignments and have an opportunity to share feedback, ask questions, and learn more about the project.
Meanwhile, continuing construction on the First Hill route will mean some pains for bus riders in the area:
Permanent NB bus stop closures on Broadway across from SCCC & at Howell St. Eff June 15, originally uploaded by Gordon Werner.
and all this time I thought the two were already going to be connected. Now if they’d just hurry up and run it as far north as the Deluxe on Broadway, it’d be more useful to those of us up on that end of Broadway.
They should connect both ends and make it a loop. Loop lines are an order of magnitude more useful than U shaped routes.
Also, if the lines were actually joined instead of just next to each other, people wouldn’t have to transfer as much.
We should really be able to treat these more like trains than buses…
I am not sure I see the point. Since streetcars do not do hills (hence the weird jog in the FH streetcar line) the best we can hope for is a three sided trip.
From the SLUT you can transfer to the tunnel which will get you to Capitol Hill (eventually) or points south. From the FH line you can transfer to the tunnel as well. So there is already a connection. A lot of money will be spent to save a transfer for a trip that may be better served by taking a north south bus (or a gondola!).
I would much rather see the money spent on the Ballard connector. I quit going to Ballard years ago because the routes are packed, slow, and frustrating. Can’t imagine what it is like now.
Streetcars don’t do hills? Um, this city was well served by streetcars that went up the hills decades ago.
Current streetcars max out at 9% grade. Seattle’s original streetcars could handle some slopes fine – eg. Pike and Pine streets – but cable cars were used instead for the steeper hills – Yesler, Madison, James; with a hybrid counterbalance system used on Queen Anne.
Closing the loop between the SLUT and Broadway lines at the north end via Denny Way is likely not an option given how steep it is; would have to go some ways north to get a shallower grade: the original Seattle streetcar network had tracks from downtown extending north along Eastlake meeting tracks from Capitol Hill north along Broadway/10th/Harvard just south of the University Bridge, but that’s some ways north…
Lets just name it the Firsthill Amazon Rapid Transit-FART for short.
Who, on earth, would ride a streetcar with a transfer from pioneer square to SLU? you would take something in the transit tunnel because it would be so much shorter, and then xfer to the SLUT.
This is a silly project, like all the street car projects. We would be better served by better and more frequent bus service than by a system of connects (or disconnected) street cars.
And where is SDOT on recommending a terminus for the Broadway extension? Stopping it at Roy makes the most sense, so i guess they’ll probably push it into the residential blocks north of there (because nothing about the streetcars makes sense).
Has anyone else noticed that the 1st hill route will stop 1 block short and across the street from the Capitol Hill Light Rail station? So people will have to walk a block and cross the street to make their transfer.
The First Hill Streetcar will stop in front of an entrance for the Capitol Hill Station that travels under Broadway. It’s shown here as the West Station Entrance:
http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/projects/link/north/ULink/CHStationSitePlan(0).pdf
I am very excited about this project! For commuters using the Sounder train hundreds of people work at the hospitals on First Hill and currently have no good options from King Street Sounder station. This can’t roll out fast enough for me!