![]() ![]() In the plans made in the 1990s for the rail service going between Lynnwood and downtown Seattle, the trains were expected to carry a maximum of 800 passengers per train, with trains coming every three minutes, translating to 20 trains per hour, or 16,000 customers per hour in one direction. ![]() The planned control system technology and station design put limits on train spacing and frequency. There is also a limit on how many people fit on a rail car. ![]() How that could happen: The length of train stations limits Sound Transit to four car trains. But what if the trains alongside the busiest stretches of I-5 leading to Seattle downtown are so full that some customers seeking relief are turned away? Instead, light rail is advertised as an alternative to driving in congestion, for those who choose to ride. Sound Transit – Seattle’s regional mass transit agency - has already reported in environmental analyses that the trains will be unable to carry enough commuters to make any difference in peak period congestion on the roads. Two new stations north of downtown Seattle are the source of the recent upward surge.Īfter a half century of regional growth, a question arises: Will there be room enough for likely commuter volumes on the Link four car trains, given the unexpected popularity of the partially built Seattle light rail so far, given population growth, given a TOD (transit oriented development) focus, given the bus-to-rail feeder services being planned, and given hard limits on the physical capacity of the system? Monthly ridership of Seattle’s light rail has increased since the grand opening in 2009, now at two million boardings per month, as shown in the graphic of ridership reported to the U.S. ![]() Those two jurisdictions were added to the voter-approved Sound Transit plans beginning in 1996. The plan back then did not include tracks into Snohomish County to the north and Pierce County to the south. Starting in the 1980s, the central Puget Sound region committed itself to a network of four-car light-rail trains having less passenger capacity than the eight-car heavy-rail subway rejected by King County voters in 19, a service territory that included Seattle and Bellevue. ![]()
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