“This is an important step in the evolution of our regional transit system,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. “Not only are we adding a fifth round-trip train to our popular Tacoma-Seattle commute; for the first time, people – especially those in South King County – who work or go to school in Tacoma will have the option of riding a Sounder train instead of sitting in traffic.”Why is this big? Because it recognizes that Tacoma has jobs, primarily. We are not a bedroom community to the neighbor up north, we have jobs that people are willing to commute for, and that's a pretty big deal in my book.
I actually know a few people who like the "big city Seattle" feel but still commute to Tacoma for work. Why not make it easier? I am really impressed Sound Transit made this decision. Now if they would only add a noon train back and forth, so people could cut their day in half if they chose, then we'd really be going strong.
2 comments:
It may be great recognition, but regional commuter rail has yet to prove itself as a cost-effective or time-efficient solution.
My sister-in-law lives in Tacoma and works in Seattle, and she believes strongly in taking mass transit to reduce congestion and pollution. For her, it's quicker to drive to the Tacoma Dome station and catch a bus up to Seattle instead of the taking the Sounder. She tells me she saves about twenty minutes that way.
When you factor in things like the high overhead of light rail and its inflexibility (remember the mud slide closures this past winter?), it makes far more sense to expand the bus system and scrap regional light rail.
Not that I expect Sound Transit to do that now that they've sunk so much money into the rail system, but it's just going to be a huge drain on government resources.
Nathan,
I think it depends on where you work in Seattle. I have a friend who relies on the Sounder because she works 6 blocks from King Street, where it currently stops. She also prefers the guaranteed commute time to one that is variable based on accidents.
My defense of the light rail and commuter rail would be simple: all estimates point toward the population of King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties doubling in the next 20 years. I-5 will simply not be able to handle it and it's opportunity for expansion is low. The benefit of light rail and commuter rail is that it gets people off the street, making room for those who really do need to drive. Those people will need an effective non-freeway transit system and it's cheaper to build it now than build it later.
As to the cost-effectiveness of rail mass transit, I would disagree with your assessment. The costs of a freeway system are beyond the actual funding of the system through gasoline taxes because it costs the consumer so much to use the system. From car purchase to maintainance to fuel, the costs are high. But since our entire system of transportation is built around it, people don't question how much they are paying.
With an effective transit system combining freeways, ferry, rail, bus, and other forms of transit, someone's taxes may be a little higher but I would speculate that the amount an individual or a family would have to pay to commute or travel would actually decrease. Not to mention all the great social effects of promoting community instead of urban sprawl, preserving rural areas, cutting pollution, and getting people out more and healthier are all very positive benefits not factored into the purely financial analysis.
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