Hey Cliffe,
As I haven’t decided yet whether to be happy or not about the new, $2.3 BILLION light train line, looking back at how much we’ve lost our way over the past 70 years is certainly nothing to be happy about, and in doing so, we’ve created quite a mess. Lucky are the relative few who live along the new line, while the most of Seattle continues on in auto gridlock. Maybe I’m just jealous.
Many of the comments on the Times’ site parallel my “train envy” of not having our own line down Fauntleroy — especially since we already had one almost 100 years ago. Riding the St.Charles Streetcar last month in New Orleans, which started running under steam power in 1835, just reinforced my disdain for the lack of vision from our city’s leaders, past and present. I guess we can lay the blame on Henry Ford and Standard Oil.
Richard P. Hill
Via E-Mail
7/21/2009
As I haven’t decided yet whether to be happy or not about the new, $2.3 BILLION light train line, looking back at how much we’ve lost our way over the past 70 years is certainly nothing to be happy about, and in doing so, we’ve created quite a mess. Lucky are the relative few who live along the new line, while the most of Seattle continues on in auto gridlock. Maybe I’m just jealous.
Many of the comments on the Times’ site parallel my “train envy” of not having our own line down Fauntleroy — especially since we already had one almost 100 years ago. Riding the St.Charles Streetcar last month in New Orleans, which started running under steam power in 1835, just reinforced my disdain for the lack of vision from our city’s leaders, past and present. I guess we can lay the blame on Henry Ford and Standard Oil.
Richard P. Hill
Via E-Mail
7/21/2009
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| Streetcar at Youngstown Place grade crossing, 1930. Photograph courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Transit ad, circa 1940s. Image courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives. |
Oh, and speaking of Light Rail… “The Dude” got in on the action.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009512896_webthedude21m.html
Snippet:
And what do you do, Ted?
Oh, I work for GE. I’m a trick photographer.
Snippet cont:
Didn’t catch the last name….
Photoshop. Ted Photoshop.
Back in the day, we had the trolley system and an interurban line (from Tacoma to Bellingham). Why doesn’t Seattle just retrace the old rail lines?! And by the time it reaches the eastside, everyone who paid for it will be dead!
It was just like in L.A. with Pacific Electric. A great transit system destroyed by “progress”! blah blah blah I’m done ranting now…
@Colin
There was a great episode of NOVA (or something similar) that detailed a campaign by rubber tire companies and bus companies to villify, shut down and replace the trolley and light rail systems throughout America that I found alarmingly sinister and efficient. One of the vivid images I remember from this documentary was of fields of retired trolley cars burning and burning, torched in the name, as you point out, of progress. It reminded me of the awful scene in Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel by Virginia Burton, where Mike and Mary Anne look over the cliff and see all the unwanted steam shovels, scrapped in a big pit. BBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. We do some crazy stuff.
Instead of lamenting what is long gone (most of the interuban rail line is now paved over by 99 and other streets) I would propose working what what we DO have, but are NOT using.
Bring back the Benson Waterfront Trolley and extend the existing line NORTH through Myrtle Edwards Park to the Cruise Ship Pier at 91.
• –Low cost to build, and quick to install
• –Green transportation solution
• — Historic Landmark Attraction
Running the line north through Myrtle Edwards, you would be on city land most of the route. Some of the new line would be on Port of Seattle land. A Temporary Trolley barn could be constructed under the Magnolia viaduct on City or Port property. The Benson Trolley averaged 200,000 paying passengers yearly and used a “temporary†barn for it’s entire life.
Pier 91 now has a 10 year commitment from Carnival Corp, and beginning in 2010 will be home port all summer long to three cruise lines, Holland America, Princess and Carnival Corp.
Imagine a green, historic, fun way to offer transportation to the approximately 6,000 to 8,000 ship passengers who transit every Friday, Saturday and Sunday to two or more cruise ships all summer long. The trolley would offer them green access to our International District, Pioneer Square, Pike Place or even just the sculpture park without impacting surface streets. Not to mention the potential to be used year round by Amgin and all the lower Queen Anne residents and work force, all without adding another cab or bus to the streets.
Best of all it connects with the major transportation hubs, including the Washington State Ferries (4 MILLION walk ons a year), The West Seattle Water Taxi, Sounder Rail, the new Light Rail, and the Metro Tunnel.
I bet you could even do it for less than the 52 million it cost for the Westlake Line.
We already own the five streetcars. We already have the right of way secure for the length of the existing line. We own the park land. It is in the Port’s best interest to give us access for the rail line. Both the city and the port own land under the viaduct, and north of the viaduct.
Amgin currently pays a good sum of money for a private charter service to run shuttles all day long to Pier 86 from downtown.
Five years ago Amgen and the Port of Seattle BOTH offered the city money to possibly cover the cost of extending the line north. For whatever reason that memo got lost. Perhaps with the Benson Trolley Line Extension, the money Amgen spends on bus shuttles could now underwrite the Trolley.
Out of town visitors and ship crews would pay for the line within a few years, let alone daily commuters to Amgin and offices along Elliott.
The new line could run from Pier 91 all the way to 5th and Jackson until the Viaduct is ready to come down. Just prior to the construction starting, you could temporarily end the line at Pier 50, across from the Washington State Ferry Terminal. If that is too close to construction, you could end it at Madison, or at the Hill Climb for access to the Market and the city’s Aquarium. If viaduct construction required, even ending it across from Pier 66 to keep the line out of “harms way†would still be a huge improvement and allow access to the Lenora pedestrian overpass up to the Market
Once the Viaduct is finished, the trolley line could return to servicing the Pioneer Squre and end at Jackson to meet up with Amtrak Sounder, Light Rail and the Metro Bus Tunnel.
!.
Convincingly drawn, SG.
Remember how the monorail (we approved 4 times) was cancelled because it would cost $11 billion over the next 50 years??
I haven’t heard one mention of how much light rail will cost over the next 50 years. Or how you get east or west a mile once you step out of light rail.
Anyway … I’m pausing to think about the advent of *mass transit envy* after 50 years of the auto being the only respectable thing. Would anyone *really* want one going down their street?