Rail solutions for Seattle? - includes related article

Railway Age, Dec, 1990 by Joe Asher

What a siren song it was: "Are you fed up with the traffic jams and air pollution of California-or the Rust Belt or the East Coast? Come to the beautiful Seattle area, where the air is like crystal, the salmon are jumping in sky-blue waters, and you'll be surrounded by the spectacular scenery of the Pacific Northwest. "

Among the chief singers of this song in the 1980s were the booming aerospace, electronics, and computer software companies in the Seattle area which advertised heavily for engineers and other skilled workers. And they succeeded wonderfully: Lots of people bought the pitch and moved out here. They liked what they found, and told their friends. So the people kept coming. In fact, in the past two years, they've been coming into the metropolitan area at the rate of almost 1,000 people per week, or about 50,000 per year.

Result: a rise in traffic jams, a decline in air quality, and a good start on the very same urban congestion that the refugees from other places came here to escape. Today, some 60% of Washington State's 5 million population is ranged in five counties along Puget Sound. A megalopolis of sorts is forming in the corridor along Interstate 5, with Seattle at the center. The U. S. Department of Commerce predicts a further 16% population increase in the SeattleEverett area (up 300,000 to 2.16 million people) by the year 2000.

The change has had an important consequence, and that is that mass transit proposals that would have gotten short shrift only a few years ago are now being taken much more seriously. The proposals range from high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on freeways to express busses on exclusive rights of way to conventional rail, light rail, and even (for super-regional purposes across the state) high-speed rail and maglev.

The precise mix is being settled right now, and the planning processes, although in some aspects still very preliminary, in others are well advanced and taking on new urgency. In the words of Bob White, "In the past, the planners were telling the public, there will be a problem. Now, the planners are saying to the public, there IS a problem. And they can see it for themselves. "

White should know, because he is capital planning and development manager for Metro-the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle-the agency responsible for transportation and water quality in Seattle and surrounding King County. Metro operates the local bus system, and was responsible for building the new 1. 3-mile, $470 million bus tunnel running below downtown Seattle, which opened for service last September.

* Keystone for light rail? After three years of agony over downtown streets tom up by excavation, the relief was vast when regular service through the tunnel began. The five stylish and spacious underground stations, which make liberal use of marble and tiles in handsome contemporary designs, drew oohs and aahs from the public and media alike. There was pleasure, too, in finding that the time it took for a bus to traverse downtown was cut by two thirds or more.

And note two more things. Tunnel clearances were designed to accommodate an eventual light rail system. So was the fact that steel flanges for wheel rims were set in the tunnel and station roadbeds. In short, a key building block was put in place for what could eventually be a large regional transit system with light rail as the spine.

To Dick Sandaas, executive director of Metro, the favorable publicity generated by the tunnel opening is good advertising today, and a calling card for more ambitious kinds of mass transit tomorrow. As he put it, "It's gotten the juices of our citizens flowing. Besides the immediate benefit to our current transit riders, it's the springboard for getting the system we will eventually have. " As to the precise mix of bus and rail that is coming, Sandaas said, "It doesn't pay to get hung up on technology at this point. The important thing is that the geometry of the tunnel doesn't preclude future options. "

Paul Kraabel, who is both Seattle City Council president and chairman of the Metro Council transportation planning subcommittee, noted that, besides the new tunnel, the recently renovated stretch of Interstate 90 leading from Seattle across Lake Washington to the important East Side towns was also designed to accommodate light rail, if need be. And Kraabel said, "It's jumping the gun to say there will be light rail. But it is a very definite possibility. "

In a 1988 advisory referendum, over 65% of the voters wanted Metro to accelerate planning for some form of high-capacity mass transit-a clear sign of community support-and $15.6 million was later voted for that purpose. The intention was that by 1990-this year-Metro would settle on the favored corridors for mass transit on exclusive rights of way; by 1992 the choice of vehicular modes for each corridor or corridor segment would be made, and a detailed long-range construction and financing plan would be presented to the voters; by 1995 construction in at least one corridor would begin; and actual service would start in the year 2000.