D Line is now open and running to Ballard, giving real connection frequency and time to that town center.
and
C Line is now open and running to Fauntleroy and West Seattle. Both I’m thinking will rock – possibly surpassing the other lines already in service in large part.
Both of these lines connect some of the most active and vibrant parts of not just Seattle, but the entire Seattle Metropolitan area! I’ll be up to give em’ a good test ride soon!
That’s not it from Seattle King County Metro either, they have a couple more left. The E and F Lines are still in construction and final planning. To keep up with these lines and the others check out the Rapid Ride Blog.
Transit Sleuth 
They havent been as well received as you may have hoped, since RR resulted in an actual reduction in capacity.
Aren’t they killing some pretty serious routes in the process too? I mean, overall, they aren’t cheap, and over time they’ll far more pressure on the budget than a local style route or even light rail (at the highly elevated prices Seattle has been paying).
I really like the BRT style routes, but reducing overall service in an area doesn’t really seem to jive with the end goal. 😦
Many commuter only routes were dumped, and essentially not 1 for 1 replaced. The 18X remained, and its faster than RR D, and people notice. West Seattle got shafted more than anyone.
Oh shaft indeed. That’s how BRT generally will have to work though, which is why I’ve been adamantly against it. Because it is cheaper to get running, but over time other local services will generally need to be cut in order to keep it running since it is operationally still expensive. Light rail has the saving grace, that once the capital is expended, operational costs are much lower over time and thus easier for a transit authority/agency to keep running.
…thus one of the advantages Link Light Rail has over these BRT routes. In 5-10 years when Seattle is tired of paying for pretend BRT on core arterials like this and people start screaming for their locals back, the Link Light Rail will be costing almost 1/3rd to 1/2 the cost of the BRT routes with the capital already put into place. The only way it would be more expensive at that point is if they tore up the tracks completely.
I’m all for these BRT routes, but they better figure out an exit plan for them or they’re going to gut the other routes to keep the BRT routes going with the way the money goes. 😦
blagh… I should do a write up of this and how the inflation + money + fiat system works to model these things out like this.
Well, this isnt really a Line by line comparison. For example, the 15 & 18 had combined service levels of 10m. So 6 60′ buses/hour off-pear, RR is 4 60’/hour. The 54 was 15m, and still is. But they added 54X to add capacity during peak. the RR is up to 10m headways during peak, which is an improvement over the old standalone 54, but its not enough with the 54 (15m) + 54X (10-15m) = avg 5-8m headways. The first issue is Metro under-ordered equipment for RR. I mean if you take your light rail argument, if its packed, and dont have the equipment to help, your still screwed, and thats the problem here. They need the equipment to beef up headways, I hope they at least look into using regular equipment to add capacity until they order more equipment and it arrives, then try and run 5-7m headways.
Good points there.