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Seattle Streetcar:Mayor proposes to connect SLU and First Hill lines


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#21 KevinKorell

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Posted 27 September 2017 - 11:28 AM

<p>The City of Seattle anticipates $83 million from the federal government to help pay for the project, $58 million of which has been approved by Congress, with the remaining $94 million coming from local taxes and utility bills.</p><p>SDOT</p>

SEATTLE — Early next month, the city will break ground on a $177 million, 1.2-mile Center City Connector streetcar line that, when complete in 2020, will link the city’s two fragmented streetcar lines and connect South Lake Union with downtown and the Chinatown-International District before looping around to reach First Hill and Capitol Hill, The Seattle Times reports.

The City of Seattle anticipates $83 million from the federal government to help pay for the project, $58 million of which has been approved by Congress, with the remaining $94 million coming from local taxes and utility bills.

Previous reports listing the cost at about $152 million did not include the costs of public water and electric utility work. For the full story, click here.

 

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#22 CNJRoss

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Posted 28 September 2017 - 05:39 AM

The Seattle Times, 9/25/17:
 

Seattle to spend $177M on new streetcar line amid questions about ‘unrealistic’ revenue, rider projections

 

Seattle is slated to break ground soon on a streetcar line running along First Avenue. Officials say it will provide a crucial link through downtown, but streetcar lines aren’t meeting projections, and critics say the city’s assumptions aren’t realistic.

 

 

Your fares cover about 40 percent of operating costs for Sound Transit’s Link light rail. Fares cover about 31 percent of the cost of King County Metro buses. Seattle’s two streetcar lines cover 23 percent of their costs with fares.

 

But once a streetcar is built along First Avenue in downtown Seattle, the city Department of Transportation (SDOT) expects fares to cover a whopping 56 percent of operating costs for the three lines.

 

That would be among the highest rates of any transit agency in the country.

 

And it’s one of a number of optimistic financial projections contained in Seattle’s plans to expand a streetcar system that is performing far below expectations.

 

Continue here.

 

Related topic:  How Bad Do Streetcar Predictions Have to Be .....



#23 KevinKorell

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Posted 02 October 2017 - 12:12 PM

Metro Report, 10/2/17:

 


 

CAF wins Seattle streetcar contract

 

Seattle Department of Transport has awarded CAF a contract to supply 10 three-section 100% low-floor Urbos trams.

 

Announced on October 2, the contract is worth in excess of $50m including spare parts, tools and testing equipment. SDOT has an option for up to 10 more vehicles. The bi-directional cars will be equipped with CAF Power & Automation’s Onboard Energy Storage System for use on catenary-free sections of the network.

 

 

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#24 Sloan

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Posted 23 October 2017 - 08:56 AM

 

 

Seattle Streetcar May Once Again Be on the Chopping Block

 

Plans to build a downtown streetcar have long been a source of debate among Seattle politicians, in large part because of the low ridership on the city’s other streetcar lines. Last week, during a City Council budget hearing about the proposed 2018 Department of Transportation (SDOT) budget, the center city connector line was once again contentious. Several council members argued that even with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) chipping in $50 million to $75 million for the $177 million project, local money would still be better spent elsewhere. Streetcar proponents say that the center city connector is a worthy transit project and that turning down the FTA money now could hurt Seattle’s chances on other current and future grant applications.

https://nextcity.org...-chopping-block


Edited by Sloan, 23 October 2017 - 08:56 AM.


#25 EvergreenRailfan

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Posted 24 October 2017 - 02:51 AM

Figures. Then again, some of the new residents of Seattle don't know about Forward Thrust, and it's rejection by the voters sent the Federal money elsewhere, to Atlanta.

#26 Sloan

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Posted 26 October 2017 - 09:09 AM

 

 

Center City Connector survives part of budget process

 

Comments by city councilors had some worried that money for the Center City Connector streetcar line, which was included in Mayor Tim Burgess’s budget, was in jeopardy as the budget winds through the Seattle city council. But the budget amendment deadline has come and gone, with no proposal in sight for pulling funding.

https://seattle.curb...treetcar-budget



#27 Sloan

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Posted 09 November 2017 - 10:15 AM

 

 

Despite talk of halting Seattle’s First Avenue streetcar, work moves ahead on the $177M line

 

Construction on Seattle’s new First Avenue streetcar line is well underway and moves to stop the project have not materialized, despite blustery threats from City Council members.

https://www.seattlet...-the-177m-line/



#28 Lightning

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Posted 10 November 2017 - 06:28 PM

With infrastructure on First Avenue now on hiatus until January, I hope anti-streetcar officials do not succeed in canceling this line.  Studies indicate that with the connection between the two existing lines, ridership will increase through the entire joined route.  There is a strong bias against the fledgling Seattle streetcar system.  Even some who support other forms of rail denigrate the streetcar.  Some of it is, frankly, semi-justified.  The current system's track layout causes streetcars to get stuck in traffic (such as along Broadway on the First Hill line and at Fairview Avenue at Valley Street on the South Lake Union line.)  I have been stuck at both bottlenecks and it is very frustrating.  The City Center Connector should not have that issue.  More than anything, I hope we do not make the same mistake and have bad history repeat itself, albeit in a "lesser" manner.  As Evergreen mentioned, in the late 1960's the citizenry rejected a plan which would have built an extensive urban and suburban rail system, including subway, light rail and streetcar.  Our late Senator Magnuson, who knew how to bring home the bacon, saw to it that the Feds appropriated something like 75 percent of the cost.  Shovel-ready money, free for the taking.  Except we threw it away.  Back then, Seattle thought of itself as a minor, frontier town of little consequence  (except for Boeing, which almost went under shortly thereafter in the wake of the SST debacle).  I'm sure those voting against the plan couldn't understand why Seattle would need such a system as there were no traffic gridlock issues then and who needed big city transit anyway when we weren't one.  How times have changed!  If the naysayers of today get the Center Connection axed, then the current two lines will atrophy and, at some point, probably be shut down.  If the line does get built, the result might be positive enough to extend the system, perhaps to Fremont to the north and along Eastlake Avenue to the University of Washington campus to the northeast.  STAY TUNED.


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#29 KevinKorell

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Posted 17 November 2017 - 11:53 AM

KIRO-TV, Channel 7 in Seattle, WA, 11/17/17:

 


 

Seattle sacrifices two lanes for new streetcar

 

Seattle is going ahead with the First Avenue streetcar project, despite the two current streetcar lines falling well below ridership expectations. Drivers are not going to like the end result.

 

It’s hard enough to get around Pike Place Market or Pioneer Square now. Imagine First Avenue with fewer lanes to work with.

 

 

News item



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#30 Lightning

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Posted 29 December 2017 - 10:30 PM

I know it's easy for me to say, and I am hard-hearted on this issue, but as for the above news item, individuals, except if absolutely necessary, have no business driving in downtown Seattle due to extreme automobile congestion.  Individual cars cannot continue to impede public transportation.  Said.  Next month should see some real progress in getting the City Center Connector "moving".  From the Seattle Streetcar.


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