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For a comparison other light rail systems on this metric
Boston Green Line Light rail ~11,000 rider per mile (also a subway in the core)
Philadelphia Subway-Surface Trolley Light Rail ~4,300 per mile (also a subway in the core)
SF Muni Light Rail ~3,500 rider per mile (also underground in core)
Plus these cities also have connecting Heavy rail traditional subways with higher ridership per mile
Is Seattle the best, today no in the future maybe though am not sure it will ever achieve ridership per mile on the level of the Boston Green lines
I suppose. Better could mean the riders are nicer or something. The point I was making is, as you say, Denver provides more transportation (higher ridership) than Seattle does with their respective light rail systems.
While I agree with you that Seattle's system will eventually catch up and surpass Denver's, it's already a far more expensive system. The high cost of Seattle's system has advantages and disadvantages. When built out, the routing is better so I'd expect it to have higher ridership... plus Seattle is a denser city than Denver which doesn't hurt any either. Seattle will never provide the cost effectiveness of Denver's system. That doesn't mean it's worse.
That is to be expected since Denver is relatively flat and Seattle is somewhat a difficult terrain to work with when it comes to running rail lines.
"We are choosing to do the hardest possible thing, to build new, grade separated, truly high capacity transit. We’re doing so in a wealthy region, through and under valuable land, while appeasing every environmental regulation, mitigating every property owner’s complaint, showering goodies at cities along the way, and securing the majority support of a very engaged citizenry.
The legacy systems of New York and Chicago, etc, built hard things the easy way, with often callous disregard for human life and the environment. Today our peer cities are building easy things the hard way, creating inferior products while encumbered in the same process mess. We are choosing to build hard things the hard way. That is by definition torturous, but it’s also the only way to get real value out of what we’re paying for."
It is true that Seattle is getting much higher ridership per station - they just opened two new subway stations earlier this year and ridership jumped up by 25K.
What do you think? Is Seattle's metro-style system superior to other new systems relying on old railroad right of way and primarily going along highways even within the city?
I'd say it's about time, Seattle. Voters have only been turning down bonds to build a rail system for the past 50 years. With its hourglass shape it was a natural for a rail system. It's finally catching up with the rest of the West Coast cities.
No, we turned down votes in 1968 and 1970, and have otherwise generally supported transit at the polls. Transit only votes have passed, while a big transit/roads vote failed.
"We are choosing to do the hardest possible thing, to build new, grade separated, truly high capacity transit. We’re doing so in a wealthy region, through and under valuable land, while appeasing every environmental regulation, mitigating every property owner’s complaint, showering goodies at cities along the way, and securing the majority support of a very engaged citizenry.
The legacy systems of New York and Chicago, etc, built hard things the easy way, with often callous disregard for human life and the environment. Today our peer cities are building easy things the hard way, creating inferior products while encumbered in the same process mess. We are choosing to build hard things the hard way. That is by definition torturous, but it’s also the only way to get real value out of what we’re paying for."
It is true that Seattle is getting much higher ridership per station - they just opened two new subway stations earlier this year and ridership jumped up by 25K.
What do you think? Is Seattle's metro-style system superior to other new systems relying on old railroad right of way and primarily going along highways even within the city?
In the United States? Yes. Every other new light rail system runs either infrequently (Seattle's frequency isn't great at 6-15 minutes, but it's still better than many of the other systems), is slow due to street-running sections, etc., or both.
The major complaint is that it shuts down too early at night. I believe most stations see their last train before 1am.
In the United States? Yes. Every other new light rail system runs either infrequently (Seattle's frequency isn't great at 6-15 minutes, but it's still better than many of the other systems), is slow due to street-running sections, etc., or both.
The major complaint is that it shuts down too early at night. I believe most stations see their last train before 1am.
6 minute frequency is actually really good, that amount of wait time is very little.
6 minutes is alright, not great. And it only runs that often a few hours per day.
From what I have seen, it runs that during the times most people would use the system. Even at 15 minutes for off peak isn't that bad. When the system has more lines, you will see trains arrive more often at stops with multiple lines running through it. That means eventually you could see the downtown stops have trains stopping every minute and a half to two minutes.
I believe it's 10 off-peak and 15 in the really-off-peak.
Every six minutes with a two-car train was resulting in near-Tokyo levels of crowding and people not being able to get on (ok, not literally sardine level), so they've mixed in more three-car trains. Our cars are longer with accordion middles, so three is halfway decent capacity. But I believe Sound Transit was caught off-guard by demand, and they don't have enough cars or operational funding to do all-threes. So you might have to squeeze on or wait.
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