Does Seattle/Tacoma Have Subways or Trains (Bellevue: live, bus)

[tada]

Originally Posted by bigtrees

Tada is comparing our public transit to Toyoko, and Japan is generally better than here.

Toyoko - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hm? Toyoko isn't even in the same continent as Japan.

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by tada

Some routes are consistently late, and if there's an accident, the buses are affected just as much as cars by delays.

If I want to go to, say, the Seattle Uwajimaya from Issaquah, that's $5.00. It's about the same (maybe even less) in gas. And as long as you buy at least $7.00 worth of stuff (I always do) the parking there is free. Plus they are going to jack up the prices soon due to gas prices.

goes to zillions of locations,

Idle hands are the devil's work. It would take me 1.5 hours to get to Seattle by bus. It takes me 30 minutes by car. Plus it's kind of hard to relax with people sharing their end of the cell phone conversation with the whole bus, listening to music on their iPods way too loudly, and other stuff.

That's when driving is the most fun. It's more enjoyable than fun when it's sunny out.

What's a "zillion"? I assume it's a pretty large number. If so, why aren't the route numbers like 3,002,195,730 1/2? Do you think that the average person would be able to remember route numbers that long, given that they can barely remember phone numbers?

Originally Posted by tada

Look at the timetables for route 271. Except for the very early ones (I'd probably suicide if I had to wake up at 5:24am each day, much less be ready and catch the bus by then), it's about 65-80 minutes to get from Issaquah to Seattle. Not quite the 1.5 hours I said, but still close, and much longer than 30 minutes, that's for sure. Even from Eastgate it takes about 45-60 minutes, and that's already halfway to UW from my house. The "express" 272 to UW takes about 40 minutes, which is longer than the entire drive from my house, and it starts at Eastgate, which as mentioned before, is already halfway to UW from my house.

I'm not against transit, I'm against bad transit. We do need to invest in public transit, because as it stands now, I would not use it.

edit: Recalculated the times using the stop I usually get (got) off at.

You didn't use UW in your original example, you said Uwajimaya, which is just off I-90, and would take you 45 minutes to get there in heavy traffic.

[mrman78]

Well, at least now you have the South Lake Union Streetcar and the Downtown Trolley and then the new light rail system coming next year... The other train line is the Sounder from Tacoma and what is the one that comes from Everett? I hadn't heard of that one...

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by mrman78

Well, at least now you have the South Lake Union Trolley and the Downtown Trolley and then the new light rail system coming next year...

We have a downtown trolley? What is its route? Or do you mean the waterfront Trolley? That was closed down a few years ago and there is a question as to whether it will reopen.

[bigtrees]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

We have a downtown trolley? What is its route? Or do you mean the waterfront Trolley? That was closed down a few years ago and there is a question as to whether it will reopen.

Yeah, I'm referring to the waterfront trolly. Yeah, I know that it was closed but I liked it and hope it will reopen.

[Monumental1]

Originally Posted by computer chick

Does Seattle or Tacoma have subways or commuter trains? I am considering

moving there and would like an alternative to driving sometimes.

The Seattle area has -

Light rail going from Sea-Tac airport to Downtown Seattle (This is near completion)

A beautiful street car from Downtown Seattle to South Lake Union that I love riding.

Sounder Comuter Rail - A double decker heavy rail regional system that goes from Everett, WA to Seattle on down to Tacoma and points in-between.

Seattle has one of the largest fleets of busses in the United states and considered one of the best in the nation (Settle Metro Bus). Seattle has a Downtown Metro Tunnel (http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/tunnel/tunnel-map.html - broken link) for the train and busses.

You could throw in the monorail if you like.

Tacoma has a link light rail and the Sounder.

Then there is the ST Express Busses.

Here is links to the major transit operators in the Seattle area

Sound Transit (http://www.soundtransit.org/x19.xml - broken link)
King County Metro (http://transit.metrokc.gov/ - broken link)
Seattle Street Car


Seattle Street Car - from Flickr





Light Rail



Heavy Rail



Metro Tunnel

[tada]

Originally Posted by toughguy

You didn't use UW in your original example, you said Uwajimaya, which is just off I-90, and would take you 45 minutes to get there in heavy traffic.

And about the same time as U-Dub in not-heavy traffic. And don't forget, heavy traffic makes the buses slower too, simply because they're buses.

UW also costs more money to get to and park by car, but I'll gladly pay it due to all the other problems of the buses. Also, the buses usually don't run past 11pm or so, and CS has you working long hours.

[vnodak]

Interesting----however, the transit system is Seattle oriented. I would love to take a bus but it would take me hours to get to work. I think it is great for those of you who have access but that is not the case for alot of us. As far as being reliable the trains are not and the buses are often late and if they are full, they pass you by and you have to wait for the next one. Look at Washington DC---they have an awsome transit system. It all depends on where you live and where you are going. Check the metro web site. If you live and work on the greater eastside or snohomish county, it is not the greatest.

[augustus1016]

two srs will be visiting in may for a cruise so what is the most economical means of getting fm the airport to the cruiseport fm the airport to the center cityas we return would like to stay in the city for a few days the hotels are pretty stiff priced for srs on fixed income so where is a good location with transportation to the city to stay

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by allforcats

I do call it great.

I'd have to say Seattle public transport is pretty good as well. I had no issue getting where I needed to up there and it was relatively fast and efficient (a bit less though than in the Bay Area but far far better than in San Diego). I didn't take any trains anywhere so I can't speak to that but of the three metro areas I've taken public transportation, I'd say that Seattle's is on the better side.