Every City NEEDS a Transit Hub! | Seattle's Big Decision

if you've been watching the channel for a long time you'll know that Seattle is doing one of the largest Transit expansions in the United States with new Light Rail lines extending to the north south east and west of the city center alongside new brt expanded commuter rail and more but like so many great North American Transit stories there is a big potential decision at the heart of current plans that risks hurting the entire Network's connectivity forever so let's talk about what that is and how Seattle can unlock the true potential of its Transit Network Seattle is undertaking a massive Transit expansion with new Rail lines heading out in all directions to supplement the currently cute but majorly underwhelming link-like rail system and that's important because the city's economy is booming and the region is growing really quickly which makes a lot of sense because the Pacific Northwest or British Columbia South as I know it is one of the nicest places in the world a big upcoming phase of this expansion is known as st3 which we discussed in a previous video a really long time ago that'll link up here at st3 will add a bunch of really badly needed Transit including the main topic of today's video the West Seattle to Ballard line now while it's called a line that's a bit of a confusing misnomer you see Seattle's Transit plans have its current light rail line known as line one or Central Link being extended All the Way North to Everett and all the way south to Tacoma which will mean that the line will be nearly 100 kilometers long or over 60 miles long and a light rail line this long becomes completely unwieldy to operate because an end-to-end ride will be over two hours long making Staffing and the introduction of delays a real pain to manage because of this the plan is to add a new West Seattle to Ballard line which would be much lower use than the current central Link but then to split up both lines so that trains run from Ballard to Tacoma and from West Seattle as well as Redmond up north to Everett if this all feels a little bit oddly planned well yes Seattle has a bit of a reputation for a long history of bad decisions in transit planning starting from rejecting a subway system decades ago and then sending it to the transit Haven that is Atlanta just kidding and then going on to building a light rail line with the costs of a Subway but the limitations in service of a surface-running tram I literally made a whole video a while back called so you built the wrong transit system fortunately ultimately most of these problems are fixable and Seattle's Transit has actually been so popular especially for the United States that if Works actually have to be done at some point I'm sure they will be you can always remove some tram running sections and grade Crossings as well as expand capacity but the new city center tunnel that needs to be constructed to bring the West Seattle Ballard lines into the mix is the type of thing you only get one shot at it's the linchpin and in the entire st3 expansion and frankly it will be at the center of the entire Seattle Transit Network the old tunnel which carries Central Link trains has some weird design problems which limit capacity and upgrade ability seemingly in part because it was originally built as a bus tunnel with the plan to convert it eventually into Light Rail and actually at one point buses and Light Rail ran in the downtown Seattle Transit tunnel this tunnel while functional for getting trains through the downtown really only does that it kind of avoids a lot of the key densest places in Seattle City Center kind of skirting around the edge of it but what it does hit is King Street Union Station which is already a real Hub with the aforementioned Light Rail which sort of acts like a Suburban rail slash light rail network for the region Sounder commuter rail and the very well used and very nice Amtrak Cascades route which potentially will be converted into High-Speed Rail at some point in the future connecting Vancouver Seattle and Portland make sure you're subscribed down below for a future video on that project as well as brt light Services trolley buses and even one of Seattle's streetcars yes it still has two separate lines that aren't connected but that's again a topic for a different video now all of this could come together to be a hub like Toronto Union Station with massive Transportation interconnectivity as well as shops and services just like Seattle's Central Station Toronto Union Station also has stadiums right nearby meaning a ton of Transit trips are generated just because of sports events so Seattle clearly has the beginnings of an epic Green Transportation Hub at King Street Union Station so of course the new downtown tunnel meant to connect areas of the downtown not currently all that well served by the rapid transit network is going to connect really nicely to it right might we even see an epic cross-platform transfer interchange station unfortunately that's not the lead eating plan at the moment and not just not having cross-platform transfer but not even having an interchange at the station at all which I shouldn't have to say but is really bad especially because Portland and Vancouver also don't have Central stations where commuter rail Intercity Rail and the local Rapid Transit Network all come together so why is this happening well King Street and the light rail station at the same location which has a different name Chinatown International District it's a personal bug bear of mine when you have two stations which are connected with different names are as you might expect located in Chinatown a neighborhood which has legitimately suffered with construction and displacement over the years including both for I5 the interstate highway that travels through downtown Seattle as well as for the original light rail line and because of all of this impacting the neighborhood is really unpopular at the same time though the really bad soil quality in the area which is a mix of landfill and debris from the famous Seattle fire means that tunneling is also an option that sound transit who coordinates the Region's Transit plans really wants to avoid now I have heard some of the rationale here for this new route might be cost control but the whole issue with expensive Transit projects and cost control isn't about trying to get a less good Transit product for Less dollars it's about trying to get the same Transit product for Less dollars if you're making projects worse saving money isn't really worth it is it and the truth is that if you're tunneling anyways you're always going to be taking a risk so why not take a slightly larger risk for a much higher payoff by connecting to Chinatown International District and King Street Union Station there are too many names for this station unfortunately the impact this will have on the transit network is enormous Riders traveling to King Street from Point South say to get on an Amtrak train we'll need to pass the station North into downtown Seattle and then get on a different train for one or two stops back to the station make taking a long walking transfer at Pioneer Square or perhaps even riding further north to West Lake where a more reasonable transfer will be available this also means that Riders from West Seattle as well as Redmond and Points East will also need to backtrack to get two points to the South such as Tacoma and the airport this also weakens what could be an epic Transit Hub at the middle of a revitalized Chinatown neighborhood which is still going to see Construction in it no matter what because it's a central neighborhood and Transit needs to go somewhere now maybe a plan which avoided King Street would make sense if the alignment was going to go East-West across the city but the reality is it makes no sense to go near to King Street Station but not actually connect at it building a massive expensive new downtown Transit tunnel and not connecting to what could be the largest Transit Hub in the Pacific Northwest is crazy but what's worse is that this alignment somehow also misses out on a station in Midtown which would be one of the most use stations on the entire Seattle Transit Network and would provide access to core parts of Seattle's downtown that aren't currently that well served by link but also parts of the important First Hill neighborhood now this seems to be justified by a replacement connection instead of Chinatown International District at Pioneer Square but that connection is going to be bad and it's duplicative of the existing alignment so my guess would be a lot of people will both be better and will actually just ride to Westlake and change there instead now I might support giving up the Midtown Station if it meant a proper Hub at Chinatown International District but that isn't what's happening this plan is the worst of Both Worlds and for me it's not even clear that it's less expensive than the medium to long term that's because a key point of judging the costs and benefits of a Transit project is the amount of time they save people and the massive amounts of wasted time necessary at the core of the transit Network where the most Riders are going to be writing will mean massive costs for this less direct route at the same time since this option gives you only really one good interchange between the two trunks of Seattle's light rail system at west lake because Pioneer Square will again be a long walk this plan risks overcrowding Westlake which is a real problem in transit networks that only have one major Hub and what that could mean is very expensive upgrade projects being needed for station at the center of Seattle which isn't cheap all of this obviates any cost savings from the changed alignment and worse still it means a lot of congestion and wasted capacity at the center of the network which is where new tracks are the most expensive not having a major Rapid Transit Hub at both the North and South ends of Seattle's downtown would be a really bad idea because it would mean that anyone traveling to the South or to the east would have to go through Seattle's downtown when really they could change to the south of it so if Seattle wants to kick its history of half-baked Transit ideas it may needs to change this plan a route via King Street's costs will be higher as will the disruption but the cost of not doing anything will be even higher than both and if you want transit to actually be competitive with driving well you need to have good connections and strong hubs I really hope this is where you thought because there are other options which seem at least plausible including cut and cover on 4th Avenue Terrace Street and 5th Avenue with room under Goat Hill Park for a potential curve which shouldn't be necessary but would be worthwhile if it meant this major Transit Hub still gets to exist now yes tunneling in this area is going to be hard Subway and landfill and poor quality soil doesn't sound good but the reality is that lots of cities have waterfronts which were built on poor quality soil in fact most waterfronts are built on poor quality soil all the way from Tokyo to Amsterdam and these cities do build and have build and have built many rail tunnels through said poor quality soil it's possible it isn't easy but a lot of valuable things aren't easy modern tunnel boring machines such as Earth pressure balance machines are magical and use their Earth pressure balancing powers to keep crappy soil out of the tunnel while you're Excavating it so a lot is actually possible at the same time though Seattle kind of has it easier than cities like Tokyo because it has a lot of still industrial land just south of the downtown where you could set yourself up for a nice connection to the north giving you flexibility to Route existing lines into different locations I would say that even the potentially challenging option of going under the existing rail Corridor and BNSF tunnel through Seattle's core would be a better option than what's currently planned because For Better or For Worse the current rail alignment isn't likely to have deep foundations underneath it and a challenging project would again be worth it if it meant a connection at what can be Seattle's main Transit Hub a solution like Barcelona's wine 9 were a single large bores built and both track sizzles potentially stations go within that bore would even be an option I'd be willing to accept if it meant having better connections at Chinatown International District and that could be possible with a high quality vertical transfer with a bunch of escalators though Seattle might want to build extra because it has a bit of an escalator maintenance issue this isn't an easy or inexpensive solution but why build Subways if you want easy or inexpensive Solutions there are subways and cities all around the world and North America have managed and continued to manage to build them even in difficult soils public transit and especially Rapid Transit is extremely valuable but there's no free lunch going through a downtown core is difficult and it often means choosing either a good route or an easy route you often can't get both and I think Seattle is unfortunately getting ready to make the wrong choice here if you're curious about this whole issue I recommend checking out the urbanist which has a ton of great information in various articles about these problems I'll leave a link to set articles down below Seattle could and should be the center of a high quality Pacific Northwest and British Columbia Transit network but Vancouver smokes it on quality and Portland smokes it on coverage Seattle needs to level up its approach if it wants to meet people's Transit expectations that they should have and it can actually provide something that neither Portland nor Vancouver does a high quality centralized Transit Hub if it wants to be a regional leader as the biggest city in this part of North America it can't afford not to thanks for watching [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: RMTransit

Views: 144,125

Keywords: transit, transportation, rail, railway, railfan, public transit, public transport, public transportation, train, subway, metro, underground, rail transport, urban planning, seattle, seattle link, light rail, link light rail

Id: AlKGIRm4S70

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Iskandar206]

I really hope more people realize how good a centralized hub would be for the city. Too many people are about pinching pennies when we could be saving dollars in the long run. The economic boon and infrastructure boon is enormous. Too many people think about the benefits as only riders get, but non riders get less highway congestion and it allows for denser neighborhoods driving down housing costs.

I also understand the CID and the struggle the community has undergone, but being in the heart of a centralized transit system will bring so much foot traffic to the community and in turn bring in so much business. I know the fear of being displaced is real, and the city needs to do much better at not displacing people but that doesn't mean doing the cheap thing.

[u/PrinceofMemes]

Reece is spot on to point out the economic potential of a hub like this. Union station could be an incredible transfer station for event-goers and commuters alike, the pride of the city. Anyone travelling by train from Ballard, Northgate or Bellevue to the airport would get a peek at a thriving junction of one of the highest-ridership rail systems in the country.

Which is part of why it is so objectionable that the mayor and the county executive want to scrap the idea entirely, delete the highest-ridership station at the next stop and consolidate with a station next to the jail! With a terrible transfer! Resulting in longer trips to the airport!

And to make things worse, it specifically inconveniences the people worst-served by the existing system (south King county).

I am writing, calling and generally pleading with the board members to avert this terrible alternative. If you have time for none of those (very understandable), please sign the petition!

https://www.change.org/p/move-forward-on-4th

[u/rigmaroler]

If the board opts to skip out on the second CID station and Midtown we need to sue. We were sold a bag of goods in 2016 when we voted for ST3, have been paying for it for 6 years, and will be paying in perpetuity. Cutting out part of what we voted on is irresponsible, if not potentially illegal.

Hell, ST even didn't want to skip a station in West Seattle because that wasn't part of the plan that passed a public vote. How can we really be considering skipping multiple stations in the most important segment of the entire system.

[u/scottydg]

He makes a great point at the beginning. You get ONE chance at this. Screw it up and you'll regret it forever. Make the right decision and you'll never think about it again. Looking back at Seattle's previous transit decisions is not great, let's not add another to that list.

[u/EEOPS]

Email the mayor, your city councilor, and the Sound Transit Board that you support a shallow CID 4th Ave station that enables easy connections between Link, Sounder, Amtrak, and buses.

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

https://www.seattle.gov/mayor/contact

https://www.seattle.gov/council/meet-the-council/find-your-district-and-councilmembers