10 Jun Waterfront Streetcar: is it in or out?

Image Credit: Oran Viriyincy

Popular blogs Orphan Road and Human Transit have been discussing the Seattle Waterfront Streetcar this week and debating whether or not it will (or should) come back.

Orphan Road argues that local cruise ships bring over 800,000 passengers a year to Seattle and that the waterfront streetcar would be a perfect mode of transportation, even if it becomes clogged (and therefore not useful to locals), and subsidizes bus operations as a result.

(The Port of Seattle estimates that in 2010, they will receive 223 cruise ship visits and an estimated 858,000 passengers. One can only assume these numbers will be higher in 2018 – when a waterfront streetcar – if it happened – would be built.)

His further argument is that the city should not only have legacy bakeries and bookstores, but also “legacy transit.”

Human Transit blogger Jarrett argued back that the streetcar would be “largely useless to people who just want to get where they’re going” and to instead seek a better transit solution. He continues, however, that “if it had been a great tourism amenity or if it garnered broad enthusiasm as a recreational service and as a statement of Seattle’s embrace of its own history, then sure, it would have been great.”

During Pioneer Square Alaskan Way Viaduct meetings, WSDOT officials have answered any streetcar concerns by saying that the options are still there for reviving the waterfront streetcar, but that it won’t even be looked at for quite a few years.

Central Waterfront Coordinator, David Goldberg, said that until you actually get into construction of the new waterfront, a lot of options remain up in the air. “The goal is to have a robust planning process,” he said. “We don’t want to cut any ideas yet.”

And that seemed to be the opinion of everyone that I talked to — no idea is totally off the boards.

Steve Pierce at SDOT said that part of the original tunnel proposal included a 1st Ave streetcar, and not a waterfront streetcar. A few of the stated benefits of the 1st Ave streetcar over the waterfront streetcar are the following:

• It would serve a similar market more effectively
• Better connections to key destinations
• Higher ridership

Additionally, Pierce said that “because the waterfront street is playing a big role in the bored tunnel program, due to the volume of traffic predicted at the street level, it would be difficult to run the streetcar in mixed flow.” Basically, you would need an independent right of way for the waterfront streetcar, which would take up (valuable) public space.

SDOT would be less likely to commit resources to a parallel streetcar (i.e. both the 1st Ave AND the waterfront), but they are now taking a look at the broader set up issues with the 1st Avenue streetcar under the new transit master plan from the mayor.

“The bottom line is, nothing’s decided yet.”