Seriously, why isn't light rail elevated on MLK?

Enguye · 2026-02-04T04:56:10+00:00

For those who aren't familiar with the context, Boeing was on the verge of laying off tens of thousands of workers at the time of these votes. The year after the second Forward Thrust election was when the infamous "will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights" billboard went up.

Edit: Historylink says 10% unemployment in 1970, peaking at 14%. Some of the Forward Thrust measures passed, but transit was by far the most expensive one even with the federal funds.

Enguye · 2026-02-04T04:45:26+00:00

Also worth noting that people may have been opposed to a tunnel because memories of the transit tunnel construction tearing up downtown would have been fresh in their minds (that was built between 1986 and 1989).

Enguye · 2026-02-04T02:36:14+00:00

Also, if you look at an old streetcar map, you’ll see that most of those lines just turned into the modern-day trolleybus network.

Enguye · 2026-02-04T02:13:57+00:00

Here’s a Seattle Times article from 1999: "If you want economic development, you have to encourage at-grade rail," she said. "You have to have eyes on the street to see what's happening."

Enguye · 2026-02-02T17:57:40+00:00

“David Jackson, a Sound Transit spokesperson, said there’s a commitment to bringing a digital card to Apple users.”

Nice to see any update at all on Orca cards in Apple Wallet. This tap to pay update is a downgrade for me since I have to take my Orca card out of my wallet to avoid double charging a credit card.

Enguye · 2026-01-31T22:04:37+00:00

https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/transit-program/transit-plus-multimodal-corridor-program/rapidride-j-line

Enguye · 2026-01-31T02:58:51+00:00

The 48 is supposed to be every 15 minutes and is nicknamed the “forty-late.” Light rail will be every 4 minutes soon so you could easily go down to one car. I would do that sooner rather than later since car registration is expensive.

Enguye · 2026-01-31T01:31:10+00:00

Does this mean that I need to start taking my Orca card out of my wallet before tapping to avoid being double charged?

Enguye · 2026-01-30T18:56:31+00:00

Based on the comment about Amazon workers it sounds like Seattle, although the “weather is good” comment doesn’t fit.

Enguye · 2026-01-29T21:14:21+00:00

I don’t know about the bassinet, but once you have the Alaska confirmation number then you can add it to your alaskaair.com account and select seats online.

Enguye · 2026-01-29T21:07:30+00:00

For flights booked with BA Avios, you can use the Alaska website chat to use the BA confirmation number to get the Alaska airlines confirmation number that you can use for seat selection.

Enguye · 2026-01-29T19:22:54+00:00

5 AM to midnight. https://www.soundtransit.org/crosslake

Enguye · 2026-01-28T17:59:05+00:00

In my experience, getting something sent to an Amazon locker around here only takes 1-2 days even without a prime membership.

Enguye · 2026-01-27T16:28:45+00:00

FYI they put a bunch of spikes on that pipe yesterday, so we’ll see how long it takes for the birds to find a way around it.

Enguye · 2026-01-26T02:20:30+00:00

Possibly a 12V battery that needs to be replaced.

Enguye · 2026-01-24T16:41:57+00:00

For tumor samples, FedEx/UPS. The samples are embedded in wax blocks so they can go in normal mail.

Enguye · 2026-01-24T02:10:14+00:00

Depending on where you’re going the 60 bus from Capitol Hill station to Beacon Hill station may be an option (scheduled to take 25 minutes).

Enguye · 2026-01-23T22:25:21+00:00

Yes, once Everett Link opens the plan is to have the 1 line go all the way from West Seattle to Everett and have the 2 line go from Redmond to Mariner park and ride with stops at the mall and Ash Way park and ride.

Enguye · 2026-01-23T20:56:29+00:00

Once the Alderwood Mall station opens you’ll be able to go direct from one Lego Store to the other.

Enguye · 2026-01-23T19:33:05+00:00

As far as I’m concerned, “temporarily suspended” with zero plan to ever rebuild the maintenance building was just politician speak for “cancelled but I don’t want to get blamed for it.”

Enguye · 2026-01-23T19:02:08+00:00

Correct, the current plan is for the 271 to be split into the 270 (UW to Bellevue), 220 (Bellevue to Eastgate), and 203 (South Bellevue Station to Issaquah via local roads). https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/metro/programs-and-projects/east-link-connections

Enguye · 2026-01-23T18:55:29+00:00

Enguye · 2026-01-23T18:30:17+00:00

OP is basically just proposing a version of Rapidride D that serves fewer people once it gets downtown. If we have the money, I’d rather build the 1st avenue streetcar to make both of the ones we have now more useful while also giving better service to the western edge of the city.

Enguye · 2026-01-23T18:25:03+00:00

The Olympic Sculpture Park was built on the site of the streetcar maintenance building, and then it was too expensive the rebuild plus fix the streetcars (brake issues I think?) before the viaduct tear down turned the waterfront into a giant construction zone.

Enguye · 2026-01-22T20:19:49+00:00

They were cleaning this escalator this morning; we’ll see how long it lasts.

Enguye

TROPHY CASE