This is the Yellow Line coming across Burnside. When this was under construction a lot of people said this would be a place were wrecks occurred on a frequent basis. So far, that hasn’t happened yet and doesn’t look like it will happen. It has however traffic calmed the street a large degree making it a much better environment for pedestrians.
This is the same train after I rode it a stop, departing and heading away from Union Station to traverse the Steal Bridge on its north bound journey.
Nuff Said
Just a few shots of transit in service around Seattle. Enjoy. (Click on any image to see the FULL SIZE image – warning, they’re big)
Give me some steal rail vehicles. I took another bus ride out and about, as I’ve done hundreds of times before. The biggest gruff I have with buses is they have to travel on the roadways. The roadways in the US are absolutely falling apart – and if the roadways are as smooth as a runway, then the bus turns into a rickety rackety vibrating sardine can. It makes it very hard to do anything on board, such as using a cell phone, txting, working on a laptop, watching a DVD, or otherwise.
Almost any type of flanged wheel vehicle; streetcar, tram, trolley, light rail, passenger rail, or otherwise has almost none of these issues. Even on fairly rough track the issues are drastically reduced for maintaining a smooth ride. Throw in the fact that rails last decades longer than roadways at a vastly higher ride quality and you have some real money savings!
I digress though, I’m really glad to have what services are available! Seattle, Portland, Vancouver (BC), and San Francisco all have superb transit services (in spite of the locals, they always find reasons to bitch or become NIMBYs). Oh well, I’m off to board a train and just wanted to rant about crappy, unmaintainable roads beating up buses (and by proxy, all of us riding the bus).
The speed record.
CNNs Coverage
A lot of what is stated in this spot on China’s High Speed Rail at CNN is off kilter. For instance, the train doesn’t go “into the country”, but instead generally stays in the densely populated coastal regions. It WILL create a huge industry, and even though there is something stated about the tickets being too expensive, that’s the case with airlines too. It is almost as if the burgeoning middle class of the country is disregarded. They all will be able to use this train.
Naysayers the lot, but just like the Great Northern and the original railroads of the US, it’ll prove invaluable for the nation.
Meanwhile, the US continues to spiral into incompetence and infrastructure neglect. Where once the US was untouchable, we’ve lagged in development and capability. Often not even able to build our own tracks anymore let alone reliable, high speed passenger trains.
Transit Sleuth 