Puget Sound Transportation Projects

My thoughts on transportation in the Puget Sound area and transportation issues in general.

Archive for 2010/10


Alaskan Way Tunnel Bids Come In

From KOMO-TV: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/106315008.html Bids are coming in within budget, but there are still issues between the state and the City of Seattle. This project needs to be built, quickly and efficiently. A tunnel is the best method to change what was a poor decision made in the 1950s. Ben

Washington Gets More High Speed Rail Grants

From WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/10/102810_MorerailgrantstoWashington.htm Washington State has received $31 million from the Federal Government to make improvements along the Pacific Northwest Corridor. Improvements will include new sidings in Mount Vernon and a new Sounder station. This is excellent news as high speed rail is absolutely the way to go to interconnect regions. More: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013282231_railgrant29m.html http://www.pugetsoundtransportation.com/hsrail Ben

Seattle’s First Hill Gets Streetcar

From KOMO-TV: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/106301023.html This is the streetcar that would run from the International District to the Capitol Hill Link station, probably along Broadway. This partially replaces the Link station that was to be built on First Hill, but was canceled due to engineering issues. Having attended Seattle University on First Hill, this is great news. [...]

DOT Awards 2.4 Billion for High Speed Rail

From the USDOT Blog: http://fastlane.dot.gov/2010/10/dot-awards-24-billion-to-continue-developing-21st-century-high-speed-passenger-rail-corridors.html The United States Department of Transportation awarded 2.4 billion for 54 projects to expand high speed rail across the country. This is great news as high speed rail is a great resource for inter-regional travel. And yes this does include funding for Washington and Oregon. More: http://www.pugetsoundtransportation.com/hsrail Ben

Pierce Transit Fares to Increase Monday

From The News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/29/1400615/pierce-county-price-of-bus-vanpool.html Fares will be increasing to offset the lowered sales tax. More: http://www.piercetransit.org/alerts/fare_change.htm Ben

Get Your Train Tickets Fast

From KING-TV via MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39870799 Thanksgiving tickets for the Amtrak Cascades are selling out fast. Book online. Ben

Last day to take North Corridor HCT Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D3DVF96 This survey is for the North Corridor High Capacity Transit project. Ben

Phoenix Airport Bridges Runway

From The Seattle P-I: http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/226057.asp The Phoenix Sky Harbor airport built a bridge over their taxiway for the new Sky Train. This is the first mass transit bridge over an airport taxiway anywhere in the world. Ben

Eastside Transit and HOV Project Breaks Ground

From WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/10/25_SR520EastsideGroundBreaking.htm The project to expand SR 520 between the bridge and I-405 broke ground today. This project will also add HOV lanes and inline transit stops at key locations. This is great news. SR 520 is massively overloaded and is a primary route to major employers such as Microsoft. Ben

Lake Washington Congestion Management – Transit

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/LkWaMgt/Transit.htm With the impending replacement of the SR 520 bridge and the addition of tolls, transit providers are adding and expanding bus routes and facilities to help commuters across Lake Washington. Ben