From the latest news about the taxpayer-financed ongoing exhibit of surrealist performance art commonly known as "Sound Transit": Agency planners are now working feverishly to extend to SeaTac airport the light-rail line that would otherwise dead-end in the middle of the Tukwila wilderness.
Here are a few highlights from the news article:
* The projected ride time from Westlake Center to the airport station would be 33 minutes. [As a point of comparison, Yahoo! Maps estimates that a similar journey by, say, taxicab, would be 22 minutes]
* The pedestrian walk between the airport station and the terminal will be 1,100 feet, or almost a quarter of a mile. [As a point of comparison, an alternative mode of transportation, say, a taxicab, would stop right in front of the terminal]
* The Soundies are assuming that many of the airport rail passengers would be willing to leave their luggage in one train car while riding in a different car, even though surveys of airport rail travelers in other cities show that most passengers are reluctant to be separated from their luggage.
* The millions and billions that would be spent on construction of brand new rail and facilities would serve only 2% of airport travelers. This figure is based on Sound Transit's own [read: unrealistically optimistic] ridership projections.
* Many of the projected riders are assumed to be business travelers staying downtown [read: people who have the expense budget to pay for a cab ride and who would value the relative convenience, shorter travel time, shorter walking and security of knowing where their luggage is, that taxicabs offer but light rail does not].
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 07, 2004 01:21 PM | Email This(P.S. According to Justice Phil Talmadge's press release as a gubernatorial candidate (now out of the race) last autumn, Sims is continnuing to tax the amount I-747 in 2002 repealed.)
Posted by: Josef on September 7, 2004 04:47 PMAnd the _second_ piece is the kicker - if they ever succeed in pushing through the second piece of light rail, it will make this one look positively cheap. (It will have to tunnel Capitol Hill.)
This is the reason I personally support the Monorail folks. Yes, it will be expensive also, no it isn't in the _best_ route (the one ST already has). But proof that a transit system can clear the canal for a fraction of the price of ST and run with a net push on operating cost... That had better be the stake to prevent any further pieces of light rail, ever.
Posted by: Al on September 7, 2004 05:38 PMI've used the Red Line in Portland to and from the airport a couple times and it was OK, though my friend lives only a couple blocks away from a station.