While awaiting the imminent public opening of the Canada Line next Monday, TransitFan decided to check out the history behind a major new addition to Seattle’s transit system: the Central Link light rail system.
Seattle has been waiting for this for a long time – a major new rail line connecting the downtown core and the suburbs. As in most major cities prior to World War II, Seattle had an extensive streetcar network as well as interurban lines that ran north to the suburb of Everett and south to Tacoma as early as 1910. However, the city lost its original passenger rail lines even earlier than Vancouver did. The completion of Highway 99 ended interurban service between Seattle and Tacoma by 1928, and Everett by 1939. The entire streetcar network was shut down only two years later.
But Seattle would begin experimenting with rail systems a couple of decades later. It opened the Seattle Center Monorail as part of the Century 21 Exposition in 1962, linking downtown to the fair site north of the city with a 1.9 km line. While plans were made in the last decade to extend the monorail, including a proposed Green Line that would reach north to the community of Ballard, a ballot on financing the project was defeated in 2005. Seattle’s monorail would continue mainly as a tourist attraction, with a track only half as long as Disneyland’s monorail.
Seattle was one of the first U.S. cities to create a heritage streetcar line. In 1982 it opened the Waterfront Streetcar, which ran from Jackson St. west towards the water, then along the hideous Alaskan Way Viaduct up to Broad St. Inexplicably, the maintenance barn was torn down in 2005 to make way for the Olympic Sculpture Park before a new barn was built. Resumption of service is indefinitely on hold until the question of what to do with the Viaduct is settled, and the line now uses special buses to cover the route. Current plans are to build a monster $4.25 billion tunnel underneath the city to accommodate the 100,000 cars that use it daily. TransitFan hopes that the thing will just be demolished, as we know how costs escalate when you start tunnelling under a city. Boston is paying about, oh, $19 billion more than it expected to with its Big Dig.
Modern streetcars ended up arriving in Seattle at the end of 2007, with the South Lake Union Streetcar that connects downtown with the South Lake Union neighbourhood and the biotechnology research facilities in the area. While the line is only a little longer than the monorail, Seattle’s city council has recently stated its support for additional lines to the University of Washington, Ballard, and First Hill/Capitol Hill. Funding for the First Hill Streetcar Line has been approved, while the other lines are awaiting funding.
In the meantime, Seattle has a brand-spanking new light rail line to enjoy. Officially opened on July 18th, the Central Link was 13 years in the making. A ballot measure for $3.9 billion in transit improvements was approved in 1996, which included a plan for the light rail line between the University of Washington and SeaTac Airport, commuter rail between Everett, Seattle and Tacoma (bringing back the interurban in a slightly different form), and new express bus routes. There are now 20 ST Express bus routes, while the Sounder commuter rail South Line opened in 2000 and the North Line in 2003. However, light rail construction was delayed for over five years due to numerous lawsuits and disagreements over the routing. An agreement was finally reached in 2001 to construct a shortened line between Tukwila and downtown Seattle, with construction north to the University to proceed later. Construction began at the end of 2003.
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John Calimente is the president of Rail Integrated Developments. He supports great mass transit, cycling, walking, transit integrated developments, and non-automobile urban life. Click here to follow TheTransitFan on Twitter.
