We are approaching July 2009 (I know we have a while yet), for me personally it couldn’t come fast enough. Certainly you don’t want to wish your life away, but I am really excited for Link. The Seattle Times had a nice article today describing the design of the Tukwila light rail station, which I thought was really cool. The V shape apparently is supposed to represent where the two wings meet the fuselage of a real jet. I have a hard time seeing this, but hey, what a unique way to represent Jet City! I admit, some art I just don’t see! In my fascination with the work of Sound Transit, I didn’t realize this station was the only one with a park and ride facility. I thought at first that it was in a weird spot, but after seeing the graphics on this article, I am convinced otherwise, it actually will be in a good spot for commuters. One reason to check the link is there are lots of pictures of the station, which is nice, because everytime I pass by I am always preoccupied on the bus getting my stuff/luggage ready to enter/leave SeaTac. Being on the freeway makes it hard to stop and look as well! I hear there are some awesome views off the platforms of the Tukwila station too. Pretty cool bonus for the commuter! However the real tingly feeling will come when you wisk by the traffic on I-5 as you cross over the freeway!
4 Replies to “Tukwila Station Resembling Jet City”
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The only issue with that location is the fact the neither the state, county, city or federal government has understood that that place is already clogged. With the Airport Freeway and it’s traffic, with 518 connecting 405 and I-5 less than a mile away and 509 2 miles away, Burien and Southcenter traffic, Federal Way and Seatac Hwy 99 traffic, it’s going to get clogged up even more.
They’ll realize this in about 2011 and then start construction in 2013 and then it’ll be worse. Unfortunately, that may make a bad stain on the public’s mind about the Link.
I drove by the station just the other day. It is looking very nice. I can’t wait to see it finished and up and running.
I do wonder though if the 600 park and ride spots will be enough. I guess that is pretty large by park and ride standards, but considering this is the longest distance station, people in Burien, Tukwila, Des Moines, and Federal Way will all have a decent incentive to try this out for commuting. 600 spots doesn’t seem like much to support all of the potential commuters.
Troy, the whole point of light rail is to get people out of their cars, ergo, putting it in a place that’s already clogged would be a good thing… right?
Wendolen-
The problem is, a P&R is going to draw more traffic in. A lot of the current traffic is to and from the airport, Burien and Southcenter Mall. These areas are not serviced by the light rail, so any draw to the P&R will be mostly ontop of the current traffic. It may cut off some of the traffic to I-5 North from SR518, but most of the traffic on SR518 is headed to 405 or I-5 South.
This is just adding, even more traffic to a very specific area already past capacity. I fear that this traffic bottleneck will deter folks from taking the light-rail. That’s my concern. Putting the P&R somewhere outside of a congested area is the norm. Look at the Metro’s Tukwila P&R on Interurban, or in Kent or in Federal Way.