Here are some photos from today’s excursion on Seattle’s South Lake Union Streetcar. Here, we’re boarding at one of the stops.
Showing support… (note from Kevin: I’m honestly very flattered by your Fort Worthology shirt. Thanks!)
Here, we’re at Vulcan Real Estate, Paul Allen’s development company in South Lake Union, as we’re shown examples of new developments along the streetcar line.
Some of the signage near a streetcar stop.
Here’s an example of one of the many new mixed-use developments that have sprung up along the streetcar line.
And here’s another. This new residential/retail building is nearing completion. There are many new developments along the streetcar’s path.
As someone who has been involved in the operation and maintenance of streetcars for lonher than I’d like to admit, I have concerns about the concept of color coding the routes by the ends of the car. I think I read Phillip Poole mention this idea in one of the articles recently. Color coding is great in that it makes it easy for non-transit people to figure the whole system out; but, I think painting the whole end of the car to match the route color is not a great idea. It could lead to uneven wear on the car as well as car availability issues for dispatching. That would be my question for the guys in maintenance and operations about that whole car paint coding. Seems like if you have more than two lines you would lose flexibility of transferring cars round too. Keep the color coding to the destination signs.
Andy -
Would not a good solution for that be to not *paint* the cars particular colors, but instead to use a vinyl wrap? Perhaps even just a simple band of color around the cars, rather than an entire body’s worth.
This is a really minor issue, but I wouldn’t do anything that couldn’t be changed in 30 seconds or less by pressing a button.
Operationally speaking, to be able to use a red line car on the blue line should be a minor thing and not require turning the car around. Who knows when a car has to be swapped out for one on a different line? If you want a car facing a particular direction, on tracks you have to think ahead because you can’t just loop around the next block to turn the car around.
I am aware of maintenance issues that occur when you run a car the same direction every time. The wear builds up unevenly. Denver had a problem with their historic car that never got “turned”. It was wearing unevenly and they ended up renting a crane to lift the body up while the wheels were turned around underneath since they had no way of turning the streetcar around on the tracks they used. I would think this problem is more common on shorter lines, but it is a legitimate consideration. Before MATA in Dallas extended their route, they had a loop and a wye so their cars naturally turned every trip. Now, with the replacement of the Hall Street Loop with the Cityplace wye, they don’t turn naturally and have to be turned by the maintenance crew (which is supposed to be done on a weekly basis). A painted car would have to run the same route every time facing the same direction. Higher chance of uneven wear. Oh sure, there used to be single ended cars, but that is one of the nice thing about double-ended streetcars. If you got ‘em, you might as well utilize both ends equally.
I don’t mean to detract from Joel’s posting, but since Mr. Poole posited the suggestion, I have been dying to know how Portland’s maintenance and operations guys feel about it. His Fortworthology shirt brought the question to the front of my mind.
Andy, My intention was only to color code the routes to the varous districts and not the actual car colors. We will at the outset have to use cars on different lines as you suggested. It would also allow perhaps full car sponsorships if a distinctive look was desired by a sponsor. Perhaps our Museum’s would sponsor a car that could have an artist execute a car wrapping as a moving piece of public art.
Color coding routes definitely makes sense. Perhaps I am mistaken about the paint scheme on the Portland cars? Do they color code their direction of travel by the face of the car? I am focusing too much on a minor detail for a system that is still in feasibility stages, but if the full body color coding is used in Portland, I would be curious how well their maintenance and ops guys like it.
I really like their real-time stop information. Although compliance with the printed schedules by the operators is a simple enough method of handling the “when is the next streetcar question”, the automated system looks pretty cool.
http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/publicMap.shtml?a=portsc
I know this may be a naive comment, but is anyone else concerned about the aesthetics of the streetcars and all these wires that will fill the spaces above our streets. Why not just better equip the bus system, make it more extensive and effective, and for-go this eye sore?
@ Jen,
Your comment is not naive at all! I’m sure there will be people that share your opinion.
I think the benefits of the streetcar system outweigh the slight impact on overhead scenery that the wires and poles will have. As for the streetcars themselves, to me they’re a lot better than buses lurching all over the place. (Not that the streetcars will replace the buses.)
I’m just saying, I like fort worth, and find fort worth livable, because of the closeness to nature i feel as i drive and experience the town. from the kimbell yard to the botanic gardens, to driving the streets and see clearly to the sky above me. i would rather see buses some of the time than wires at all times. especially these cleaner-burning buses that we have a few of….
Jen,
I think the impact of the streetcar wires is very negligible. They’re not going to be all over the place - they’re a single wire on each side of the street on certain streets, held aloft by slender poles. They’re barely noticeable.
Streetcars are smoother running than buses and evidence from cities with them shows that they have higher ridership than the buses that ran on their routes before them for a variety of reasons (such as the ease of figuring out streetcar paths vs. more nebulous buses, the comfort, etc.). They’re also vastly quieter - I’ll have to post video of the Portland streetcar again, because it’s virtually silent as it glides by with just a gentle whirr from its electric motors. Compare that to the roar of the CNG-powered buses as they thunder past. I think a few small wires here and there is a small price compared to the much quieter operation of the streetcars, from a nature-loving perspective (not to mention the other positives of the streetcars).
EDIT: Not to mention that the streetcars emit no local emissions as they ply the streets. The buses may run on CNG, but they do still emit exhaust.