@typewriteralley recently posted about the now infamous Capitol Hill Station vacuum — “The detritus at Capitol Hill Station has gotten to the level of small appliances”
After seven years accumulation of grime and grit, a discarded vacuum cleaner didn’t push things over the edge but its recent removal along with the rest of the trash that had piled up below the escalator down to the subway platform was a sign of things to come.
It is time to clean up Capitol Hill Station.
John Gallagher, a spokesperson for Sound Transit, tells CHS that the station is generally cleaned on a daily basis, as the custodial staff operates on three shifts throughout the week while also being tasked to respond to urgent cleaning requests from all stations.
But something changed below Broadway in recent months. And the junk — and complaints — have piled up at the seven-year-old facility.
According to Gallagher, Sound Transit has seen an increase in hygiene complaints at the station the possible factors including bold graffiti drawings on the escalators and walls. In addition, riders noticed piles of garbage thrown around the entrances and accumulating in the station’s nooks and crannies.
“We have attempted to make efforts to fix the situation,” Gallagher said. “Last week, we sent a specialized graffiti removal crew to work on the escalators, and cleared out most debris from the elevated areas as well.”
But riders have expressed frustration with the lack of effort taken by Sound Transit to ensure the upkeep of the station, complaining of trash on the overhead lights and the lack of dustbins near the platforms. There was also concern raised about dirt on the floors, and foul smell in most elevators.
Sound Transit says it is also taking on tagging and graffiti in the station (Image: Sound Transit)
Gallagher said Sound Transit is very aware of the issues. And there are some new resources coming to help. Earlier this month, Sound Transit hammered out a one-year specialized contract with Rise To The Top Escalator Cleaning Service developed to introduce deep cleaning services for all Sound Transit vertical conveyance equipment, namely escalators and elevators.
With a budget of $2,714,893, the services are hoped to ensure the maintenance of escalator steps and elevator interiors, using advanced cleaning equipment. Gallagher said that the services would be provided if Sound Transit reported a sanitation issue outside of its normal cleaning schedule, which would then be addressed through deep cleaning. The effort also includes on-call removal and cleaning of bio-hazardous substances near elevators and escalators in the link station.
The agreement still needs to be finalized and signed-off on before service begins in coming months.
Not only will the deal help the station stay cleaner, it might also help with another annoyance most light rail riders have learned to live with. The cleaning could help Capitol Hill Station’s fragile escalators from breaking down so often.
As for the real-time arrival and departure information boards, no cleaning is going to help those. The system remains unreliable after a “soft launch” earlier this year.
Another issue hasn’t exactly been solved but they’re trying. You might notice the presence of strategically placed cages in the station. CHS is told those were initially placed as a sanitation measure to reduce pigeon droppings in the station.
The cleanliness concerns at Capitol Hill Station come as light rail ridership has surged back to pre-pandemic levels. Along with more riders, the system has also experienced an increase in safety concerns and service issues along with staffing challenges. Sound Transit has promised initiatives to bring an improved “rider experience” including new and increased security, better outreach through station agents, continued efforts to try to keep overworked escalators moving until they can be upgraded or replaced, and simple improvements like station trash cans.
“We will keep a close eye on things to maintain the cleanliness of the station, and alert security to monitor activity within the station, to reduce such situations,” Gallagher said.
As for grime and trash, Sound Transit says to keep the complaints — and praise? — coming.
“We definitely encourage folks to constantly alert us of such issues, and we are making several efforts to ensure that riders have a pleasant experience while using the trains,” Gallagher said. “We have identified this as a safety concern, and we’ve been addressing this by taking action.”
You can find Sound Transit contact information here.
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The pigeon droppings have gotten worse because all of the devices that were initially installed are gone- so now the station fills with bird shit and sound transit adds cages instead of fixing the problem. Worthless agency.
I was amazed how quickly the station got trashed. It seems like we as a city build nice things but dont spend the money to keep them up. The bike lanes are another example they are full of debris and garbage and scooters and bikes are forced to ride on the sidewalks or streets.
Actually it seems like we are a city full of people who like to destroy things. Yes, Sound Transit should do a better job of cleaning the stations and other infrastructure, but what do we do with people who think it is ok to graffiti, trash, and otherwise desecrate public infrastructure? It is truly sad that so many think this is just normal.
Sad but true. I feel like we have a lot of people who’ve never lived in city and have no clue how the commons works. We all share these amenities and we all have a responsibility to clean up our own messes.
I get the complaints about the lack of trash receptacles at the stations but this is true in many parts of the world due to threats of terrorism. (London’s underground and the attack at the Boston Marathon are two situations that come to mind.
I admit I find the Capitol Hill station as a prime example of why we can’t get nice things in this city.
Just 7 years later, it’s turned into an underground dumpster. The Denny elevator has had every inch of glass carved out by loser vandals, without consequences.
Either maintain it — or at least use your damned cameras and prosecute the people who vandalize it aggressively enough to stop the vandalism.
In Singapore, people who tried this kind of cr*p would get their butt caned hard enough that they wouldn’t be sitting on a toilet for a week.
If they’d spend the money for freaking turnstiles (like every. single. subway. in the world), they’d cut down on trash and graffiti. Turnstiles wouldn’t solve the problem but it would make it much more manageable– and Sound Transit might finally make a profit!
Just like in Vancouver!
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/translink-still-losing-millions-to-fare-evaders-but-its-not-tracking-numbers
Actually, I’m not aware of any subway system in Germany having turnstiles…and still, while you definitely can’t eat off the floor, I don’t recall seeing a similar amount of garbage littering the stations as it seems to be the norm here (and I lived there und used public transit for 20+ years). Unfortunately, the “someone will clean up after me” mentality seems pretty widespread around here.
The difference is that we have light rail, not a subway. It’s impossible to stop people from getting around turnstiles at the surface stations… they’d just walk in on the tracks, causing delays and accidents. No light rail systems have turnstiles.
it’s not the mode, it’s the design – you could have light rail exclusively elevated/underground and have turnstiles. It was the decision to go at-grade in multiple spots, that’s what is the problem. Light rail’s “flexibility” to run at-grade makes sense in some environments, but not when it’s the “regional spine” for the entire central Puget Sound.
No one is going to realistically walk into the Capitol Hill station via the tracks and the number of stations where someone could accomplish this without a lot of effort is in the minority.
There are some valid reasons as to why turnstiles would not add up to a positive outcome, but evasion via the tricks?
You might as well argue that turnstiles are useless since the BASE jumpers would just parachute their way to the platform.
“Something changed,” indeed. That pizza box was on the grate adjacent to the north escalator for literal weeks (not sure if that and the other trash has since been cleaned up).
Why don’t they erect some sort of barrier next to the grates to prevent assholes from throwing stuff on them?
Capitol Hill and U-District are probably the dirtiest stations in the entire system at the moment
Great article
Daily and Three times a week cleaning?
This Mr. Gallagher sounds like another state Bureaucrat.
I took the light rail for a month and no cleaning was done on the ledges, elevators, escalators. artwork, etc.
The followup question for Mr Gallagher should be along the lines of “when was the last time you personally visited the station?”
Amazingly badly designed station – from the lack of stairs to the lack of trash bins and this obvious place people will throw junk, to the poor and inconsistent signage. I am a happy rider of the light rail but the stations (and trains for that matter) are just thoughtlessly thrown together and the trash grille is just one aspect of that.
Then there’s Sound Transit keeping the ten minute intervals during rush when there is a Mariners or Seahawks game instead of adding a few more trains so that you can’t even board any train at Capitol Hill because all the park and ride people up north have filled the train already.
It’s sad, it’s gross, that we allow this. I am a remote customer service worker for an employer in King County. (Thanks covid!) I had to go into the work place the week of the all-star game and kept hearing how the City was cleaning up the area. On July 10th, I took the link from the Capitol Hill Station at 10:30 am and actually took pictures as to how bad the station looked. I posted them so that family can see, that when I say it’s gross and that am not exaggerating, can now document it and back it up. It was a disaster, puke all over places, sticky, and garbage everywhere. It was disgusting. I really hoped tourists would see it and say what an armpit of a gross city Seattle had become. Vegas, anywhere near a Casio with people being idiots in tourist areas is cleaner than we are. I don’t care if we ‘aren’t ‘Chicago or Baltimore’ .. have some pride in your new (likely adopted) hometown.
This is just so old Seattle crap…let’s virtue signal we want mass transit, but then let mass transit be so disgusting and dangerous no one actually wants to use it. If you spend the money to make it: SPEND THE MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF IT!! How F-ing hard is that to understand?!!
23 years in this town.
I zealously defended it for 10, from a perch on Capitol Hill. In 2005, the condos started to roll in. In 2008 the pace picked up. The new money, attention and increased reputation for progressive policies sorta all hit at once, and we were not prepared, nor were we forward thinking at all with codified self-preservation. We gave the keys to the city to big developers, tech-bros and the loudest, angriest, most progressive politicians we could find, all at once. I get why we did it, but we were wrong.
We should have limited development to what our roads can handle until establishing functional transit. We should have let Paul Allen turn South Lake Union into a park like he wanted, not a silicon dream. We should have thought a lot harder about the implications of policies that crush small business, civic functionality, local culture and equity, and we should have sought a reputation for balance and thoughtfulness, like the highly educated city we were. We are now known for immaturity and spitfire, trash and addiction.
We deserve what we have, and it won’t be solved anytime soon. That solution will likely be incredibly divisive. I, for one, am exhausted. I poured the last 10 years of my life into creating something for my neighborhood that brought richness and opportunity. The neighborhood I loved and wanted to share with is one that I now loathe and feel like I need to hide from. I am selling my business and leaving the city. I’m going to go somewhere that feels reasonable and measured, or at least has the potential to be so. Good luck, Seattle. Perhaps one day you’ll figure it out.
Started living on Capitol Hill in 1993. I agree with everything you say. I wonder every day why are we still here, are we just dumb to stay.
Yall are histrionic and self pitying, not dumb.
Your response to a measured and thoughtful comment is to chime in with insults. Nice one.
Theres nothing measured or thoughtful about someone who was here when a unit could be had for 30k because CH was not a sizzle neighborhood showing signs of dementia and feeling the sads about it. Why do you think Im basically your rude neighborhood nogoodnik barnacle that isnt going anywhere? its that locked in cost of living from the 90s.
Spoken like a callow know-it-all who doesn’t know nearly as much as they think they do, per usual.
I feel like you hit on a lot of important points but your assessment that it’s the progressives that are to blame for the rapid explosion in growth and corresponding overpriced “luxury” apartments, rather than pro-developer neoliberal politicians that welcomed the growth and curtailed efforts to make the businesses that benefited from this growth to pay their share towards the impact it would have on the whole city.
Its absolutely bonkers how so many are like “we should have been even more slothfully negelctful to preserve things as they were when I liked it here”, like a significant portion of why things are janky in Seattle is this reluctant halfassing of delaying the inevitable and obviously invalidated theory that itll stop the inevitable.
Part of the issue is that most people treat the city like an amusement park and assume someone is going to get paid to take care of all the issues they see around them. It takes a few minutes to pick up a few things or find someone to report an issue, but most carry on.
Sound Transit and the station designs have contributed to the issue. At train platforms around the world you typically see bins for trash and recycling, but they are completely absent from the platforms here. Also, most train stations double as markets and public areas with small shops and stalls for people to gather and wait or pick up something before or after their work commute. There are areas where it seems like this was planned, but it’s a shame it’s not implemented.