(Image: Sound Transit)
Damage from work to remove a clock above Westlake Station will mean delays for light rail service through Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
Sound Transit said it expects two weeks of delays starting Thursday night as repairs take place:
During this period, passengers traveling southbound will need to transfer at Capitol Hill station to another train to continue their trips, while passengers traveling northbound will need to transfer at Stadium station. Trains through the tunnel will run in each direction every 30 minutes. Trains between Northgate and Capitol Hill stations and between Stadium and Angle Lake stations will run every 10 minutes. Because trains will be single tracking through the tunnel, the northbound platforms at Westlake, University Street, Pioneer Square, and International District stations are closed. Only the southbound platforms at those stations will be open for trains traveling in either direction.
“During this time, passengers should pay extra attention while they travel so they don’t get on the train going in the wrong direction and don’t stay on the train when they need to transfer,” the Sound Transit bulletin reads.
Sound Transit says the the downtown closure is necessary to allow time to investigate the damage caused last Tuesday “when a construction crew attempting to remove a clock at street level broke through the roof of the tunnel.”
While no one was injured at the time, subsequent examination of the damage showed that it was more significant than originally thought, necessitating the emergency service disruption for the safety of passengers. The closure of the northbound platform will allow Sound Transit personnel to more closely examine the damage and determine what repairs will be necessary.
Passengers traveling through the area should allow for additional time for their trip. Sound Transit says, and possibly should consider alternative modes of getting through the city until the repairs are completed.
UPDATE 5/1/2023: In a bulletin, King County Metro says the delays remain significant but are down to trains operating “every 15-20 minutes in the DSTT.”
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
Today was such a mess using the capitol hill station. The train drivers didn’t even know if they were continuing on or turning around. We got on the train and off the train before they decided which direction they were going. Sound Transit is such garbage, what a complete shit show. 30-40 minute wait times.
Absolutely incredible to me that the tunnels were designed such that a surface interruption like a dropped clock could not just affect but completely impinge on their function. Why even dig a tunnel at that point, if someone walking heavily down the street might bust through the ceiling?
The lowest bidder!!
Oh it gets better:
Why the f*ck is this not spurring a discussion on how to ramp up the new tunnel that is needed for the Ballard-W. Seattle line?
Why is this line not being fast tracked?
We already know the preferred route and station locations.
We already know that when crossing the water in Ballard we’ll need to go under, not over. So why is the tunnel boring machine not going brrrrrr right now, as I type?
What the f*ck is going on here? All of this is just moves at a snail’s pace and it is completely unacceptable.
Also, on another tack: the downtown stations, in particular Westlake, need some serious cleaning and refurbishment. And in particular the entrances to Westlake station have stairs covered in bird poop — largely a design flaw as the design allows for the perfect places for pigeons to roost and poo everywhere.
Why is this not being addressed?
And don’t get me going on the escalator situation.
We need a regional transit agency, but ST is a **complete** joke.
To be entirely fair to ST, bird poop is a hallmark of nearly all transit stations across the country.