Persistent readers recall my enthusiasm for Seattle's first go at light rail. The first stretch opened one week ago, while I was down in California, cheering Denny on in his triathlon. Today, I eagerly took my first ride.
So far, the train runs only between downtown Seattle and Tukwila -- Tukwila station being located just outside the airport grounds. The final link with the airport should be finished by December. Construction of an underground extension, under Capitol Hill, from downtown north to the University is just getting underway, with completion scheduled in about five years.
Tickets ($2.50 each way) are purchased through vending machines. But they are not used to activate turnstiles, either entering or leaving the train. Nor, on my round trip to Tukwila, were they inspected on the train itself. Nevertheless, long lines of honest soccer fans, coming into the city to watch a game, stood waiting to buy tickets in Tukwila. I understand that random inspections of tickets will be made, with the occasional scofflaw undoubtedly taking a bullet on the spot as an object lesson to other riders.
The ride was quite smooth. You can go a bit faster from downtown to the airport by car when the freeway is clear, but will still face expensive airport parking. Also, smooth sailing on the freeway is not a given. When you're in a hurry to reach your flight, you're apt to encounter traffic jams -- sometimes predictable, often incomprehensible -- en route. The trains travel underground through downtown, above grade to Beacon Hill, by tunnel under Beacon Hill, at grade level to Rainier Beach station, within a few miles of Tukwila, and on elevated tracks the rest of the way. The trains, when traveling at grade level, have priority at all grade crossings. Traffic is not a problem.
It was fun and efficient. The Seattle Times continues to express the same ambiguity it has expressed from the outset: i.e., light rail is a real boon to the city but, gosh, it sure is expensive and takes a long time to build. In Seattle, all public works are expensive and always take a long time to build -- if they don't die while being talked to death, and end up never constructed at all. In Seattle, we pay a price for full democracy in local government, and for our insistence on open and transparent processes of decision-making. That price is a frequent inability to do anything at all, or to finally do it years later when the costs have ballooned.
But at least, for once, we did something, and we did it right. Cheers to Sound Transit!
----------------------------NOTE (7-31-09): See the New York Times's discussion of Seattle light rail, and the "Seattle Process"
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