this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Seems like Seattle is doing ok.
Link across lake Washington was supposed to be done already, but the floating bridge itself has an issue with improperly made concrete for the tremendous additional tonnage frequent train service will add (particularly if there was a seismic event).
This has had a number of knock-on effects, particularly the lack of access to the main OMF (operations and maintenance facility) in Bellevue, so the 1 line only has access to the smaller facility near sodo. That also means the additional train sets ordered can't be stored in a useful place, and messes up the phases of other parts of the schedule.
Good news: tracks are done, most likely we should expect to get trains testing for a few months in mid to late spring, with the cross-bridge connection finally opening to the public in summer 25.
Little late, sure, but I'd say this system is coming along quite nicely, after having previously supported NYC's transit systems.
Just a slight correction: the Link Light Rail project officially opened their first station (although served by bus at the time) in 1997. It's taken almost 28 years to get to this point.
The Tacoma Link started in 97 as just a bus line/station, and later grew into a low speed, at grade/street level, street car system.
It does not and cannot directly connect to Link Light Rail, which is a different thing, uses completely different train cars with significantly higher speed and passenger capacity, which could not make many of the tight street car system's turns, has much more high capacity stations, many of which are below ground or elevated... both just include 'Link' in the name.
What is now called the One Line of Link Light Rail was originally named Central Link.
Construction on that began in 03, went down from Westlake Center to Seatac, completed in 09, later expanded up to the U District, Northgate, Lynnwood, etc.
Its not helpful at all that the nomenclature is confusing and basically changing every couple of years, but basically, Tacoma Link (which is now called the T Line) is a street car... not a lightrail system comparable to a subway.
Seattle also has its own street car lines... but these are managed by the city itself and the county Seattle is in... whereas the proper light rail system and the Tacoma streetcar are managed by SoundTransit.
Its all clear as mud.
Anyway thats a long way for me to say I'm counting the 03 starting date of the Central/One Line under SoundTransit as the starting point for the light rail system, not Tacoma Link, which is a streetcar.
EDIT: Fucking woops, I'm actually counting from roughly when the first segment of the One Line / Central Link was completed, not started, in my original post.
I lived in and near Seattle since 07 and I can't even keep any of this straight, blargh.
EDIT 2: Just for shits and giggles;
When Seattle's first, modern streetcar system opened up (we used to have one back before WW2, but car companies lobbied the city to tear out the tracks)...
It was officially named the South Lake Union Trolley.
So, within a week, people began making tshirts with 'I rode the S.L.U.T.!'
It was then renamed to South Lake Union Streetcar in about 2 or 3 months.
... Seattle is a place that is so bad at naming things that the official name, in all the official documents and such, the name that the automated voice on the lightrail speaks aloud when you arrive in a section of downtown is:
Chinatown/International District.
Because ... it used to be called Chinatown, due to mostly being comprised of Chinese migrants.
But then other, mostly asian minorities began to move in, and Chinatown was seen as a racist term, so it was changed to International District.
But them the Chinese community got angry, because they'd been there longer and were still the majority minority in that area, and they actually liked the name Chinatown.
So then the official name became both, and not either/or, both.
And then it got even more specific with block by block different secondary languages on road signs after english.
Some are Mandarin, some are Japanese, some are Vietnamese...
Oh, sure, it's been a while. I just wanted to point out that the system has a lot of positive inertia coming towards the end of the project.
For the record, I'm sad that a system this size still took almost an engineer's career to implement, time-wise.