In October, CHS reported that the City of Seattle had secured the $3 million needed to plan an extension of the streetcar route to north Broadway — and, perhaps, beyond. Next week, the city’s transportation planners are holding an open house to tell you more about the plan that could push the streetcar line — and its associated bicycle components — all the way to Volunteer Park. The announcement for Thursday’s event and a fact sheet on the $25 million extension are below. We’lll have an update on the project prior to the open house.
Speaking of the streetcar, there are also a few street closures to be aware of this weekend as the line’s construction continues. You’ll also find details on those.
BX Stcar Fact Sheet Letter Size
Street Closures
Streetcar construction will require closures this weekend where work is underway near the Boren/Broadway intersection.
Additionally, from Friday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. until Sunday Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. the Broadway/Boren intersection will be closed to all through traffic with the exception of a single northbound lane on Broadway maintained through the intersection. Northwestbound traffic on Boren will be required to turn right on Broadway. Detours will be posted.
OK, now I’m confused. I thought the extension was to go to E Prospect St, and the “fact sheet” map shows this to be the case. But the fact sheet also states that the extension is only to E Roy St.
What gives?
I thought is was only me who was confused. Somewhere along the line “mission creep” has wiggled in. First the streetcar goes to Roy, now to Volunteer Park. I suppose this is the time to discuss these things, but this is also why it takes so long to get anything done. Now we will see a year of arguing how far to build the extension if it gets built at all. Personally, I am agnostic on this one.
It’s not that confusing. Roy, Prospect, and Aloha are all marked on the map as terminus options. Obviously, the end point will be which ever stop is chosen as the terminus. They probably could have said extension to Roy street area for more clarity.
While a Roy Street terminus would be easier for me personally, my vote is to push it north to either Aloha or Prospect. The distance between Harrison and Roy is not that far a walk – it won’t be a big burden to push it north another block or so. Much better to push the terminus North and expand the reach of the streetcar and pull in a larger walkshed. Terminating at Volunteer Park is a natural fit, and makes one of the larger parks in Seattle accessible to more people.
However, I fully expect my whiny neighbors to object, as 10th Ave north of Roy is narrower than Broadway and I’d expect building it on 10th might require some loss of on-street parking.
I was involved with the community group that advocated for the Broadway alignment and bikeway a few years ago. SDOT considered extending the streetcar further north at that time provided there were sufficient funds, but instead opted to extend the streetcar on the south end.
Roy St was the first thought regarding the northern terminus—the north end of the commercial strip along Broadway. But Roy Street is not exactly a good spot to turnaround. Aloha was considered since the train could loop around the block (up 10th, down Broadway) and eliminate an awkward turnaround. So in essence, the extension to Aloha was only considered initially as a way to solve the Roy St terminus.
Our group felt that the streetcar should capitalize on the proximity to Volunteer Park, save money by not splitting the tracks and think of Roy/Aloha as stops not the ultimate terminus. The Prospect terminus certainly strengthens the argument for extension as it increases access to the Park. It also sets the line up for a continued expansion north (to Roanoke some day and potentially looping to connect with an expanded SLUT?).
Anyway, it’s great to see a timeline established for the extension and an anticipated construction date set. My hope now is for some movement on the Central Streetcar line to actually begin to establish a network by linking the First Hill and SLU streetcars through downtown so there’s more reason to ride and the individual maintenance facilities can be better utilized.
doesn’t seem logical that it would cost this much.