From Garrett:
Train slightly derailed, zig zag fashion, right under the intersection of 99 and spokane st viaduct. Don’t know if this will affect any West Seattle Bridge traffic!
8:45 UPDATE: John from WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits forwarded a city traffic alert e-mail that says: “All lanes on S Spokane St are blocked by a derailed train at E Marginal Way S. Seattle Police are providing traffic control.”
How would one even know if the stinkin train was derailed at that intersection? I sat there last night for almost 40 minutes waiting for the intersection to clear – train goes one way then backs up then goes the other way then backs up – then no train for a while, then train goes one way and then backs up – seemingly endless!
And is there ever any hope that the railroad or the city will do the much needed repairs to the pavement around that crossing? How big is the hole in the middle of the eastbound roadway anyway? I thought I saw J-pod swimming in there during the rain the other night.
I hear ya Eddie. Trains running through SODO are insanely slow and ill timed. Despite complaints I have seen in the getting there column in the PI, trains still run at peak, rush hour times. I understand the sounder has to run but after seeing complaints for the last 7 years and having to experience this problem myself, daily, can’t something be done to keep things moving in this area?
What you’re seeing when a train goes back and forth slowly is the building up of a train that is longer than the train yard. They pull the first half of the train out of the yard and far enough that the end of that segment can be backed up to another track in the yard, wherein is waiting the next segment of the train. Then they pull that forward and maybe do it again to hook up another segment.
As is pointed out in the Times and PI traffic columns whenever this comes up, railroads have right-of-way (under federal law, dating back to the dawn of railroads) and have no responsibility to accommodate vehicle traffic or rush hour traffic patterns. According to the answers provided there, the railroads purportedly attempt to avoid long crossings during rush hour but they don’t guarantee it.
I rent a space in the warehouse on the corner of Spokane and E. Marginal. Sometimes the only way to get it is to go 99 north and back south on Alaska because of the trains blocking Spokane.
I have gone down Marginal only to find a train, double back, go north on 1st ave, go left onto Spokane only to find the same train. Arrrgghhh.
Eddie brings up a good point- those roads around the port and RR tracks REALLY need to be repaired. The trucks do all the damage, and I have to wonder why the DOT and Port don’t do anything to fix them? I feel like my car is going to fall apart when I drive down there, even if I cross the tracks going about 2 MPH. The tracks at Lander were fixed; if only they could do that to the ones on Spokane!
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