Long awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the First Hill line will be held on April 23 at 12:15 PM at the corner of Boylston Avenue and Broadway. Construction to take two [full] years, which is longer than I believe was first planned. Better late than never. Will be a great addition to the fledgling streetcar network.

One interesting aspect of this one, is how they are going to minimize conflicts between the streetcar and trolleybus wires, like the ones that originally happened with the SLU line, where it crossed the Stewart St(and the wire for the 49 and 70 Trolleybus routes). Jackson Street is only going to be wired one way, and they will use off-wire capabilities for propulsion. Jackson Street currently carries the 7, 14, and 36 Trolleybus routes and along with Broadway, is the route the First Hill/Capitol Hill trolleybus routes take to deadhead to their starting points in the morning. and back to Atlantic Base in the evening.

Seattle Times

Do they necessarily need the trolleybus and streetcar running via the same streets? Did they learn anything about the coexistence of bus and rail with the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel? And can the First Hill Streetcar save some money by using some of the existing infrastructure supporing the trolleybus wires?

On Broadway, the trolleybus that ran on the street south of Pine Street was converted to a diesel bus years ago(and mainly an express route at that), but the wire is used for deadheading. The 49-University District/Boradway runs north of Pine Street, and is a key link, and would continue with local service when U-LINK goes online(as it does not go near Husky Stadium).

Technical Report(on Page 55, a little bit about the trolleybus/streetcar conflicts)

I vaguely remember seeing once a case with the F-Line in San Francisco sharing the wire with the trolleybus routes on Market Street in some locations. The second wire is for current return, because the rails did that job for the streetcar, but since the trolleybus has rubber tires. It looks like the First Hill line will share the same voltage with the trolleybus lines, they should have tried that out, but probably not possible with the pantograph(especially since they could be sharing spare parts with the South Lake Union line, since they are both using streetcars from Inekon), and the F-line uses Trolleypoles. Although I thought I saw a photo or a drawing of the Flexity vehicles for Toronto having both pantographs and trolleypoles. If Seattle had, hypothetically) done that, it would not be the first time. The Puget Sound Electric Railway ran between Seattle and Tacoma up until 1928, and used the overhead wires of the streetcar networks in Tacoma and Seattle, but in between, they ran on a third rail.

MyNorthwest.com



This morning, I saw a good example of what we could be missing with the still suspended and possibly never to be restored at this point, Waterfront Line. At least the First Hill line should have got to the ferry dock. I had a temp job in West Seattle(that abruptly got canceled, all I can say, I don't give details of what jobs I work, or what companies I get assigned to), and coming home this morning, I got off the bus about the time one of the ferry boats got in. A couple hundred people rushing up to 1st Ave to catch either the first ave buses, or Madison/Marion street trolleybus. The modern streetcar design could carry as many, or more, than the ex-Melbourne W-2s that used to run on the Waterfront. At least extending the 10/12 Trolleybus routes to the ferry dock would help out a lot.

Doesn't the 99 bus (converted from the former 99 George Benson Waterfront Streetcar) still run along the waterfront in one direction? IIRC it was changed to run a circular route, northbound on First Avenue and southbound along the harbor. Getting to First Avenue on foot is no easy matter, as there is a large hill and some long stairways. By at least making that bus circular, they can carry people through the loop so that when they get to 1st they can transfer to other buses or walk another 2 blocks to the Downtown Tunnel to catch the Central LINK light rail.

For walk-ons getting off the car ferries, they have at least a head start getting up one part of the steep hill, with the bridge from the dock to 1st Ave crossing Western/Elliot Avenues. So perhaps if any of the city's Transit Master Plan ideas ever come to fruition(it's more of just the city's blueprint, with Metro and Sound Transit superseding them, I doubt any of their ideas will ever happen), The Center City 1(CC1) Corridor would have a streetcar(or BRT) running from Lower Queen Anne to Downtown using 1st Ave, which gets closer. The 16, 66, and 99 buses, the routes that serve Colman Dock, usually rate the standard 40ft bus, which could fill up fast. The way the transit tunnel was designed, does a disservice to this intermodal facility, as one has a choice of stations, University St or Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square Station has a route closer to the Foot Ferry dock, relatively flat, except the last block, and it's the side entrance(midway up the hill between 2nd and 3rd), that lands ont the North Mezzanine.

Progressive Railroading, 4/26/12:
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