Streetfilms: Seattle’s Link Light Rail — The Start of Something Big

10:26 AM PST on March 3, 2010

Right now, Seattle is making as serious a commitment to transit as
any city in the nation. Recently, Streetfilms got to take a tour of the
newest addition to the city's network --
the 13-station Link Light Rail, which opened in
mid-2009.

The route is beautiful, swift, and has great
multi-modal connections. Service is frequent, with headways as short as
7 minutes during rush
hour, and never longer than 15 minutes. And like many of the newest
American light rail systems,
the stations feature copious art.

Seattle has a lot of car
commuters, but in a sign that many are looking for more efficient and
environmentally friendly ways
of getting to work, the new light rail line will be followed by several
more additions to the city's transit network. As Seattle's Sound
Transit CEO Joni Earl told us:

[Voters]in November 2008, by 57 percent -- which was a thrill in a recessioneconomy -- voted to expand our light rail system, and our commuter railsystem, and our buses... to add another 36 miles of light rail in theregion. And to add 65 percent more capacity to our commuter rail system.

We'd
like to thank everyone who talked to us for this shoot, especially
Bruce Gray from Sound Transit, and Andrew Schmid for arranging it all.
And of course a big shout out to the intrepid scribes over at Seattle Transit Blog, who cover the local transportation scene with zeal and gusto.

Clarence Eckerson Jr.

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