Since a majority of us approved Prop 1, Mercer Island will get a light rail station by 2020. Per the Reporter, light rail will replace the express lanes on the center of the three roadways. The system map:
Green line, you’re looking good. From MassTransitNow.
Before You Make Any Firm Plans
Before light rail can come here, HOV lanes need to be added to I-90’s outer roadways. According to the WSDOT’s website, that’s not going to happen til 2023 (end of Phase 3). So either the HOV lanes get sped up, or move out your commute planning a few years. You may retire before your light-rail-enabled commuting plans see any action. Or maybe the world will end in 2012.
I wonder if we’ll get new parking for the train? Mercer Island’s P&R parking is already full, as you know if you read this blog or try to park there.
News From Our Green-Line Friends
Slog, the Stranger’s blog, reports the planned Capitol Hill light rail station is meeting some resistance on the grounds that about 70 trees will be cut down for the station. Really, the best thing about this post is the comments that refer to the slanted photos of trees. “Isn’t it a bigger deal that gravity has somehow warped atop Capitol Hill? …. I’m worried about all the hipsters sliding across Broadway.” Heh.
Mercer Island, being a respectable neighborhood, has a blog that gives you level photos of trees. More or less.
Bonus Link
In celebration of a new rail system for Seattle, here’s a photo of Seattle’s 1929 rail depot from one of my favorites local blogs, Vintage Seattle.
2 responses so far ↓
Express Lanes or Light Rail? Your Thoughts Please « Surrounded By Water: A Mercer Island Blog // April 8, 2009 at 7:42 pm
[...] across I-90 (the express lanes are to be used for the light rail). Of course, if you’ve seen the system map, you know that I-90 is the critical link in the regional light rail plan, connecting Seattle and [...]
Bridge Closures and Phantom Trains « Surrounded By Water: A Mercer Island Blog // April 16, 2009 at 6:54 pm
[...] In other transportation news, the Seattle Times speculates that Seattle will get some of the $8bn that Obama set aside in the Stimulus Plan for high-speed rail. There’s no indication that this area will be a big focus of that spending (or that it won’t), but everyone likes to hear about spending these days. This could create another phantom train– much talked about, much planned and a little less-than-much budgeted for train system engenders so much debate that it almost seems real before its even built. Light rail over Mercer Island by 2023! [...]