posted 12/14/09 10:27 PM | updated 12/14/09 10:27 PM
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Streetcar Public Meetings this week

By JohnS
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As many CD residents are aware, the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) ballot measure allocated funding for a streetcar to replace the originally-planned First Hill light rail station (see maps attached). Discussions have been ongoing on precise routing for the streetcar, and we are now at the public meeting stage. The design intent is to connect the International District and (future) Broadway light rail stations, but the devil as always in the details.

When are these meetings happening, you ask? Why, today! And tomorrow, and Thursday - as follows:

Tuesday 12/15 Seattle Central CC

Wednesday 12/16 Yesler Terrace

Thursday 12/17 Union Station

All meetings are 6-8 PM.

Why should you care? Ah, now there's the rub.

The original maps (see attached) for the First Hill light rail station and "station overlay area" extended over to 12th Avenue. Quite a few folks have been advocating for a Broadway-12th Avenue couplet for the streetcar, running north on Broadway and south on 12th. This alignment would serve the First Hill employment center, while also connecting the 12th Avenue business corridor with Capitol Hill and the ID, thereby connecting three neighborhoods together as well as providing transit service on 12th, where as CD residents are certainly aware htere is currently none. The couplet would maintain the service promised to First Hill, while achieving community economic revitalization goals on 12th.

If nothing else, it seems wise to continue to study the different alignment options through the environmental assessment process, looking at economic development opportunities and neighborhood priorities along the way. These lines may well be in the ground for 100 years or more, so getting the alignment right is crucial.

This alignment would be the closest thing the CD will see to a streetcar for the foreseeable future; the proposed "Central Line" would run up Jackson to 23rd but has no funding source, while the First Hill line's funding is guaranteed in the ST2 legislation.

If you're interested in learning more, seeing the maps in detail, talking with City staff and others about how this whole thing would work, or expressing your preference for an alignment, please come out to one of the meetings! They're pretty conveniently located for CD residents, and the City and Sound Transit need to hear lots of voices.

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Street railroads to last 100 years?
The last set of street railroad lines in Seattle didn't last 100 years. I wonder why anybody thinks these ones will last a century given the technology dynamics of transportation.

See the 1916 Map of the Seattle Municipal Street Railway (pdf) from Seattle Municipal Archives, with annotations showing source, at http://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/SeattleStreetRailwayMap. This pdf has a reference to a web page at University of Washington showing the history and photographs of this system. The last Seattle streetcar from this era ran in 1941.
Comment by John Niles
December 15, 2009
The Meeting Tonite was Really Good
Suggest folks go to one of them at least, and submit your comments. There are a lot of thoughtful ideas, including a routing option on 14th which many of us were excited to see. Given the historic maps which show the original intent, and add in the torturous routing options around Boren, it is pretty clear that VM and Harborview were never in the plan, and the west side of First Hill routing makes no sense at all.

Weaknesses include:
- unrealistic development capacity, with no regard to what is already developed and won't change, and what will be just medical related offices as opposed to neighborhoods that neighborhood people will want to move around in
- no numbers about the realities of traffic, where streetcar ROW can be established easily, and some scary turns and grades
- no actual bus routes and ridership, especially none based on the new light rail downtown station

All in all, the folks were really happy to see that neighbors are engaged and 'fighting' over having a streetcar. The interactions are priceless.
Comment by ktkeller
December 16, 2009
RE: The Meeting Tonite was Really Good
@JohnNiles: but it was an impressive system when it was around, no?

I'm not even going to consider Boren as a viable option for a streetcar. Great street for a cut&cover line, but not surface. Note also: First Hill's current transit commutes are full and slow.
Grades don't make streetcars stop though: all this smokescreen about 'grades' is ridiculous. SF, anyone? Or, better yet, see the SDOT map of the Boylston alignment: it goes up/down the Union hill between Seneca and B'way.
@kt However, The west side of First Hill DOES make sense if someone's trying to lay in the transit system for a city bound to grow beyond it's current state - and for those thinking further out than one generation.
Namely, a route along Terry or Minor would create a walkshed nearly adjacent to the bus tunnel/light rail downtown's walk shed. That's a powerful & significant step in creating a city-wide AND regional transit system. And stay in straight lines: turns decrease a walk shed, so just bring the line up Minor all the way to Pike or beyond (and then N on Harvard or even Olive Way!). A Minor alignment straight through First Hill would pick up nearly double the city blocks (and 2 to 3 times the population) of walk shed/overlay that the Summit&Madison LR station did in its overlay. This kind of walkshed would hit all 3 hospitals, 4+ churchs, the Frye, two schools, the SW corner of SU, town hall, and even touch WSCTC.
And, Yes, the zoning on FH (300'/HR in many blocks) means high ridership and use. That's good! It means less cars on the streets and less gas burned! Safer streets... read more
Comment by Rev Smith
December 20, 2009
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