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News & ArtsFriday, October 23, 2009
Transportation / Politics OMG! Light Rail Ridership is Down! WTF!!??!
Posted by Will Kelley-Kamp on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 10:21 AM
Link light rail's monthly ridership dipped slightly between August and September, according to Sound Transit's latest estimates.Weekday ridership averaged 14,852 boardings in September, down from 14,931 in August. The $2.3 billion, 14-mile line between Seattle and Tukwila opened in July.
John Niles, Kemper Freeman, Ted Van Dyk...
You guys win. I give up.
I'm turning in my transit nerd photo ID, my Sound Transit pocket protector, my ORCA card, my "I Rode The SLUT" commemorative whiskey flask, and I'm getting my "I Like LINK" tattoo lasered off tomorrow. The laser will hurt, but do you know what hurts more? Having your dreams destroyed, that's what.
1
Random variation over a small sample size can account for that. So can the collapsing job situation downtown. Wait a year and see what happens. Particularly after the airport station opens in a couple of months.
2
I guess I'm not obsessively aware enough of this to unpack exactly how ironic this post is meant to be.
3
People can't afford it, and there are no transfers. Or jobs.
Why is this surprising?
Stop jacking the rates up for transit and allow transfers and it will go up.
Why is this surprising?
Stop jacking the rates up for transit and allow transfers and it will go up.
4
Month to month figures don't matter much. Transit also sees a decline in the fall and winter months.
I'm reserving judgment until one year from launch.
I'm reserving judgment until one year from launch.
7
Why would anyone take it? Maybe they should have had a useful stop, one that people would actually use. Like... oh I don't know... SOUTHCENTER! Gee, it's only one of the largest shopping centers in the seattle area. I happen to know two people who DRIVE there every single day to go to work. It's totally clogged with cars and a lot of people work/go there. Why in the world did they skip Sounthcenter (or whatever it's called these days)? Sure, the once or twice a year I go to the airport I may take it. That's about it.
9
Build light rail and they will come because it basically in now serving only one part of the community.
10
@7
I believe Tukwila was the one that made that call. Perhaps they were worried about disrupting car traffic?
I believe Tukwila was the one that made that call. Perhaps they were worried about disrupting car traffic?
11
@7 Take the Sounder or the 150 from the tunnel.
Also, I'll never stop calling it Southcenter. Fuck them and their corporate branding.
Also, I'll never stop calling it Southcenter. Fuck them and their corporate branding.
12
On Sept. 19th runs of buses serving the SE Seattle stations were cut back as just darkness and rain kicked in. Nobody wants to wait 30-40 minutes in dark rain at MLK & Alaska or Othello or Henderson at night for the next bus to their neighborhood. Buses from downtown to Seward Park, Rainier Beach, South Beacon Hill are packed in the evenings.
13
@3 You can also transfer if you use an orca card within 2 hours of your trip.
And the 79 trip differential was me. I was using it to go to and from work until I lost my job. Now I'm "fun"-employed and can't afford shit.
And the 79 trip differential was me. I was using it to go to and from work until I lost my job. Now I'm "fun"-employed and can't afford shit.
14
for $2.3 Billion you could hire a Chinese coolie for each and everyone of the 14,000 commuters and he could give them a piggyback ride to town...
15
@10,
Incorrect. Tukwila badly wanted light rail to go to Southcenter, but the powers that be decided that going to the airport was more important (I also think this decision was made around the time that it came to light that the project was massively over budget).
Incorrect. Tukwila badly wanted light rail to go to Southcenter, but the powers that be decided that going to the airport was more important (I also think this decision was made around the time that it came to light that the project was massively over budget).
16
Well, it should have gone to Southcenter AND the airport. Instead, we have that gigantic space station in the middle of nowhere that is the "Tukwila Station". Overbudget? How about not building any more of those?
It is nice to be able to take the train to the Pancake Chef, but when it takes as long to get from the station to the restaurant kitty-corner away as it does to get downtown to Tukwila -- having to navigate a ridiculously huge station, an even huger parking lot, and two eight-lane boulevards, both of which actively discourage pedestrians, and then two more giant parking lots, you have a problem. Tukwila is a shithole, and that station is plum in the middle of the shitholiest part of it.
In general, it's the case with most light rail lines built in the last fifty years that the stations are placed exactly where someone violently opposed to the idea of light rail would put them. Look at what's happening to the U District.
It is nice to be able to take the train to the Pancake Chef, but when it takes as long to get from the station to the restaurant kitty-corner away as it does to get downtown to Tukwila -- having to navigate a ridiculously huge station, an even huger parking lot, and two eight-lane boulevards, both of which actively discourage pedestrians, and then two more giant parking lots, you have a problem. Tukwila is a shithole, and that station is plum in the middle of the shitholiest part of it.
In general, it's the case with most light rail lines built in the last fifty years that the stations are placed exactly where someone violently opposed to the idea of light rail would put them. Look at what's happening to the U District.
17
The decision to go to the Airport was in the 1996 plan approved by voters. Going to Southcenter and THEN to the Airport would've put a huge dogleg in the line and added a few hundred million $ more to the cost.
And contrary to some of the comments here, suburban shopping malls with one free parking space for every shopper and for every worker are not large generators of transit ridership.
And contrary to some of the comments here, suburban shopping malls with one free parking space for every shopper and for every worker are not large generators of transit ridership.
18
Fnarf,
You DO understand there's going to be a station on Brooklyn Ave too, right?
And that the UWMC has as much office space as all of DT Bellevue?
You DO understand there's going to be a station on Brooklyn Ave too, right?
And that the UWMC has as much office space as all of DT Bellevue?
19
This could be more significant than some are suggesting. One would expect a significant increase in September, since it follows the biggest month for vacations, plus schools and colleges are back in session.
20
See the Seattle Transit Blog for a detailed explanation... as well as a link to the raw data if you really want to be a "transit nerd."
23
@18, you're right -- I always forget about the mythical "Northgate link", which will have a stop at Brooklyn & 45th -- in twenty years. My bad.
I still say the utility of the train is greatly compromised by the widely-spread stations. It's pretty apparent that the only reason that there's a Tukwila station at all (or Rainier Beach for that matter) is to make it less obvious that there's nothing between Othello and the airport. Would that dogleg have cost hundreds of millions? Hmm, you could have saved hundreds of millions by not building the Tukwila station, though.
As for not wanting to service a shopping mall, realize that Southcenter isn't just a mall; it's a vast neighborhood of strip malls too. It seems to me that the light rail could have been used as an impetus to rezone some of that into an actual urban environment. As a retail zone, it's got to be comparable to downtown; it's spread out but it's HUGE.
I still say the utility of the train is greatly compromised by the widely-spread stations. It's pretty apparent that the only reason that there's a Tukwila station at all (or Rainier Beach for that matter) is to make it less obvious that there's nothing between Othello and the airport. Would that dogleg have cost hundreds of millions? Hmm, you could have saved hundreds of millions by not building the Tukwila station, though.
As for not wanting to service a shopping mall, realize that Southcenter isn't just a mall; it's a vast neighborhood of strip malls too. It seems to me that the light rail could have been used as an impetus to rezone some of that into an actual urban environment. As a retail zone, it's got to be comparable to downtown; it's spread out but it's HUGE.
24
@23 - actually, they're already started on Husky stadium station and there will be public design reviews soon on that, Fnarf.
Southcenter is just tiring, IMHO. Driving around, walking around - it's a total MESS.
Southcenter is just tiring, IMHO. Driving around, walking around - it's a total MESS.
28
"Down 1/2 a percent" from the previous quarter isn't the issue. It's that it's at 15% of what it was sold to us. The whole thing stinks of backroom deals, labor unions, misinformed public, corrupt polititions and sorrily misled Socialst types that believe in government provided everything . . . Wait a minute, I think it describes the Seattle lib culture perfectly. Just missing the link to Acorn or ELF somewhere.
Bottom line. It's a waste of tax payers money for the few that will ever use it.
Bottom line. It's a waste of tax payers money for the few that will ever use it.
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