A big chunk of Seattle’s spanking new light rail line grinded to a halt for much of yesterday, as problems with the downtown tunnel’s sophisticated control and signaling system (the only one in the world with stations serving both trains and buses) shut down service north of the Stadium station. And yet… no screaming headlines declaring light rail an epic fail.
Crosscut’s Skip Berger wrote on the opening of the line that light rail does not make Seattle a “grown-up” city, but perhaps our media’s calm and muted reaction to the new system’s first major hiccup does?
OR, nobody noticed because hardly anyone rides it?
Just sayin…
signal problems happen occasionally in all systems, London – NYC, D.C. Kind of goes with the territory.
It’s the Blue Screen of Light Rail (BSLR)!
1 RS
hardly anybody rides it—only 92,000 people.
http://www.soundtransit.org/Ne.....rdings.xml
DL
C’mon now!
Open house, free rides, try the new toy weekend ridership?
The ridership was not so great Monday, when you had to pay… Funny, there aren’t any rah-rah press releases from Sound Transit about how commuters are embracing the new trains…
Or that they expect greater ridership ….
“”I wouldn’t say ‘light.’ I would say this is expected,” said spokeswoman Linda Robson. “Ridership will grow over time as people discover the convenience, and work out changes to their habits.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....it20m.html
She doesn’t explain why they expect greater ridership…Because they are going to cancel the bus routes that people are currently taking that are cheaper and faster, leaving only one option for those commuters…
We will be a big city, when we stop obsessing over it, writing about it, and debating it.
If you write about it you ain’t one.
“Grinded?”
No.
Ground.
The Piper
Why didn’t Seattle build a simple, inexpensive, plain-vanilla light rail system that works like every other city? Why did the municipal poobahs who spend our money have to be different?
Rabbit: because, if they built it on the cheap – ie, running rails where rubber tires now tread – idiot car addicts like you would be the first to complain.
Um, RS, I suggest you take a ride during midday hours some time. You might be as surprised as I was seeing full seated loads in the middle of the day. Yes, some sightseers, folks who missed the free weekend, but a lot of people going about their business.
And what bus routes are Sound Transit canceling due to Link light rail? Details please. Bus route numbers.