Metro proposes pushing back West Seattle RapidRide one year

(May 4 photo, taken as first RapidRide bus was shown off)
Confirmed by King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office: During a hearing this afternoon, it was revealed that Metro is proposing pushing back the start of West Seattle RapidRide bus service by a year – that would mean it debuts in the second half of 2012 instead of 2011. But it’s not a budgetary matter, according to Constantine’s chief of staff Chris Arkills – it’s because of the construction that will be under way as part of the “South Portal” package of projects related to the Highway 99 corridor, and Metro wouldn’t want to unveil a service as “rapid” when it may well not be, in the midst of construction and changes. Arkills stresses that the increased bus service levels promised as part of mitigation funding for the Viaduct construction WILL still kick in by then, so West Seattle WILL still have more service – including the 54 corridor that RapidRide is to follow. The Constantine team has arranged for us to speak with Metro tomorrow morning to get more details on the proposal and what happens next – so look for a followup.

21 Replies to "Metro proposes pushing back West Seattle RapidRide one year"

  • Sage June 17, 2009 (6:04 pm)

    This points yet again to the utter lack of clarity on what quite is the difference between the current 54 and the future RapidRide. Other than the bus colors.

  • Creighton June 17, 2009 (8:40 pm)

    We need to dig a canal from Alki to the Junction(s), for the water taxi. Or maybe…does Home Depot sell train tracks? I’ve got a truck if I can get some help. We can go out one night and reroute the light rail over the bridge. Or I can wait until 2012. I’ll just do that.

  • chas redmond June 17, 2009 (9:40 pm)

    I’m more than disappointed by this move. It’s a violation of the trust West Seattle residents have provided WSDOT, KCDOT and SDOT. I expect and will fight for the delivery of the RapidRide in 2011 as originally planned and as originally intended as one of the mitigations exactly because of all the issues with Spokane Street, First Avenue, East Marginal and Alaskan Way and, of couse, the Viaduct.

    I repeat – this is a VIOLATION of trust. Dow. Chris.

  • chas redmond June 17, 2009 (9:44 pm)

    Then deliver all-Peninsula taxi service on 10 minute centers and deliver a Water Taxi which makes a crossing every 20 minutes for a period of at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Eh! And deliver it by 2010 as an indication of Good Faith on behalf of King County to the residents of West Seattle.

  • HomeOnBeachDrive June 17, 2009 (10:27 pm)

    You know what WOULD have been rapid, and almost done by NOW….a monorail, a ‘train’ that isn’t just another ‘vehicle’ on the road (sitting in the same traffic jams as everyone else) but riding separate/above traffic no matter how bad the traffic may be. We were ready to turn the first shovel of dirt, and instead killed it after first spending $100 million dollars. Just because the financing sucked. Pardon me, but you could REDO the financing without killing the ENTIRE project. No we have no (mono)rail or ANY mass transit in West Seattle. Just “buses” (which are years away even) that will STILL just sit in the deadlocked West Seattle bridge with everyone else. Wheeeeee!

  • wseye June 17, 2009 (10:28 pm)

    Q: “the difference between the current 54 and the future RapidRide”

    A: Two main differences: RapidRide is slower than 54, and the stops are about as twice as far apart.

  • chris arkills June 17, 2009 (11:23 pm)

    Chas, Dow and I found out about this today as did you. Metro PROPOSED delaying Rapid Ride by a year saying they didn’t believe they could operate the service as Rapid Ride with the currently evolving construction schedule on the south viaduct. Today’s hearing had no time for extended questions and we certainly plan to ask more before any decisions are made.

    Tracy called me right after the hearing with the info and I simply reported the facts. Don’t shoot the messenger.

  • J June 18, 2009 (12:00 am)

    Amen to that, HomeOnBeachDrive. But I think we’d have already been riding the monorail for a year and a half, by now–I seem to remember it was scheduled to open December 2007?

    While I realize the “we could have had the monorail” litany sounds like sour grapes, I think we need to keep repeating it, because people need to realize they don’t have to settle for pseudo-rapid transit.

  • Keith June 18, 2009 (1:00 am)

    “Metro wouldn’t want to unveil a service as “rapid” when it may well not be”

    Oh, that’s rich. Might as well cancel the whole thing, right now. Because with no dedicated bus lane, it won’t be any faster than any other vehicle stuck in traffic.

  • ArborHeightsMom June 18, 2009 (6:13 am)

    The monorail was a total pipe dream. Tell me about another project that doesn’t underestimate it’s budget by billions of dollars. Plus, I’m still sore I paid about $500 in car tabs for it.

  • I had heard June 18, 2009 (7:51 am)

    The monorail wasn’t a pipe dream. The engineering was solid and DONE…the trains were configured, the electrical/computer issues figured, the stations designed…not a “pipe dream”. The point was that it was a separated from traffic grade transit into West Seattle. That’s not magic. I’ve lived in other cities (DC/NY) that have mass transit…why do people in this city think it’s something MAGICAL that only exists in some fantasy land? The ONLY problem we had was the mechanism to pay for it was flaky. The IDEA wasn’t flaky, just the financial packaging…fix the financing, don’t scrap the system itself.

    I’m perfectly happy if they can figure how to just add ONE minor extension to the light rail from down at the Beacon Hill entrance to West Seattle. We need something.

    It’s not impossible, it’s not magic, it’s not a pipe dream, it’s JUST A TRAIN! Come on folks, get out of Seattle and see the rest of the world, they’ve been using them for almost 2 centuries.

  • wseye June 18, 2009 (8:00 am)

    Chris: Your argument about the south viaduct work makes no sense. RapidRide is a bus just like any other bus (unlike grade separated transit like the monorail), and it will need to go through the same construction work – whatever it is. The one hopeful promise of RR is frequency of service, and that has nothing to do with work in the south viaduct or anywhere else.

    Personally, I think the RR money would be better spent on building up the whole bus network rather than the current half-baked plan, so I would be happy if the money went in that direction, but you just need to be honest and say that there are serious budget problems causing this. Not south viaduct construction, that is insincere.

  • chas redmond June 18, 2009 (9:47 am)

    Chris, Agreed, I won’t shoot the messenger. But, Metro needs either a new director or a new methodology by which it A) decides when and how to implement an already approved service; B) some method of getting actual public feedback. If this is the first time Council and the KC Council Transportation Committee have heard about this, Metro is not operating in an open management manner and that also needs to change. You both should have been apprised of this and other potential negative impacts long before yesterday, as should those like me who will be affected.

  • Al June 18, 2009 (9:55 am)

    Ah, but frequency of service does depend on construction delays and traffic delays. If there’s traffic delays (no dedicated bus lanes are planned but for a short 2-3 block area at the Royal Brougham exit) and the buses cannot get to West Seattle from the city to complete their circuit and vice versa from West Seattle to the city then the whole shebang is broken. It’s why we have problems now when traffic is backed up in the north end or on the West Seattle bridge. You can’t catch a bus at Morgan Junction because there’s a baseball game at the stadium – no buses can get through = not rapid.

  • wseye June 18, 2009 (12:23 pm)

    “no buses can get through = not rapid”

    That sounds like circular policy wonk talk. The 4th Ave. ramp will be complete by 2011, and that was the original route for RR. The same Metro buffoons who once said that was going to work just fine with no viaduct replacement at all (aka “surface route”), are now saying RR won’t work because the same formerly unnecessary SR99 corridor will now have traffic delays. It is bad enough that our tax dollars are paying for a permanent coffee break for Metro planners, but please don’t insult us with distortions of fact.

  • Al June 18, 2009 (1:26 pm)

    wseye – what are you talking about? I was just referring to your statement that frequency of service was not related to construction, “The one hopeful promise of RR is frequency of service, and that has nothing to do with work in the south viaduct or anywhere else.”

    I disagree. If construction causes traffic disruptions in the corridor that will effect bus travel because buses will be stuck in the traffic disruption. Frequency of service will be impacted by traffic flow. Traffic flow will be impacted by south viaduct construction.

    What “distortion of fact?”

  • wseye June 18, 2009 (2:02 pm)

    Al: Although all traffic has to go through the same bottleneck, it is a relatively small part of the total ride. Therefore, some forms of transportation will be more rapid than the rest, depending on how fast they are able to move in the aggregate. But the ultimate fact is that RapidRide isn’t rapid, even when all conditions are optimal. It is a flawed idea.

  • Al June 18, 2009 (7:38 pm)

    wseye – I’ve been arguing that RR is not the answer for over a year, we do agree you know…https://westseattleblog.com/blog/forum/topic.php?id=57

  • wseye June 19, 2009 (8:00 am)

    Al: It would seem that we do indeed agree ;-) “Great minds think alike and fools seldom differ… which are we?”

  • dwar June 20, 2009 (2:20 pm)

    You have to be kidding!! Who ever believed it would be rapid in the first place!

  • jiggers June 20, 2009 (2:58 pm)

    i think we need to move slower if you ask me. i like slower transportation.

Sorry, comment time is over.