Quote:
Originally Posted by zilfondel
Re: the ridership graph.
HOLY ****, batman! The Portland streetcar ridership is greater than 50% that of Seattle's entire light rail system(!)*. Its doin' pretty damned good - I guess they are doing something right, proving there is a need for a central-city circulator.
*Seattle's link light rail has barely 30,000 weekday boardings compared to the streetcars ~18,000 riders/day.
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Oh yeah, Seattle's light rail and streetcar system is still a very expensive joke compared to Portland, but then again Portland has been at it much longer so Seattle has a long way to go playing catch up.
But I have confidence in Seattle that they will one day have a very good rail system.
I know the northwest streetcar line is always packed during rush hours. I think the only real mistake they did was too many stops downtown, they could have shaved 3-4 of them off, but if you are commuting from northwest to PSU, it is still faster on the streetcar than walking....though biking is more fun and about the same amount of time, but that is me.
I definitely agree with you, I think one of the next light rail lines they look at is something to connect to SW Portland to help with I-5 congestion. That route is only going to get worse and there is a need for alternative transportation.