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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Pioneer Square to Get Its Streetcar; Aloha Extension Still Up In the Air

City Hall   December 12, 2011 at 3:00 pm Erica C. Barnett

At tomorrow morning’s meeting of the city council transportation committee, council members will discuss a proposal to extend the route of the proposed Capitol Hill/First Hill streetcar into Pioneer Square, a response to Pioneer Square businesses and residents who argued that the neighborhood would benefit from the extra transportation option, especially during construction of the Alaskan Way tunnel. (Sound Transit will pay for the streetcar, but the city will operate it).

Although the initial proposal showed the streetcar running along a “turnback loop”  from the International District tunnel station at Fifth and Jackson to Second and Main and back, planners subsequently proposed truncating the line at Fifth and Jackson, noting that the city couldn’t meet its contractual obligation to Sound Transit to keep trains on ten-minute headways (the amount of time between arrivals) on the longer route.

However, the compromise proposal the council will consider this week would solve the headway problem, by lengthening the route one block west to First Ave. S. and eliminating the turnback loop.

The new proposal would use up all of the $132.8 million Sound Transit said it was willing to spend to build the streetcar, meaning that there will be no money left to fund the proposed northern streetcar extension to Aloha, on north Capitol Hill. (Seattle Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Sheridan attributed the higher cost to the cost of the streetcar vehicles themselves, not the Pioneer Square extension). In theory, if the city doesn’t spend the entire $132.8 million on the streetcar to Pioneer Square, it could use the surplus to pay for the Aloha extension—if, and only if, Sound Transit agrees to give the city the money.

Under the original proposal, about $7 million would have been left over to fund the Aloha extension, which the Seattle Department of Transportation estimates would cost a total of about $20 million. The extension would have also gotten funding from the $60 car-tab fee, which flopped at the polls in November.

As for how the city plans to pay for the extension now, Sheridan would say only that “the Aloha extension is not currently funded, and that “decisions about whether and how to fund it would be made at the council and executive level.”


  • Ryan on Summit

    Thankfully the Aloha extension is not something that needs to be in place at time of construction, but can be very easily added later.

  • Jamesmi

    Running the Streetcar tourist busses to Pioneer Square will not help traffic after the viaduct. They will just take up more space in the gridlock. To help the boondoggle construction plan congestion, they need to remove vehicles from Downtown, not move them across the blighted landscape.

    Best to admit the tourist busses are for visitors and the track to Pioneer Square is just a plan to share visitor dollars. It does not really have much to do with transportation for the “locals” – they are just the funding source for “technocrat dreams” of city splendor.

  • Clint

    I am a sample size of one, but I for one would benefit from the streetcar reaching to Pioneer Square. I live in Capitol Hill and work in Pioneer Square, and as-is I have no direct option to get home. I’m not saying it’s the worst thing in the world (my commute is still 20-40 minutes depending on luck at the transfer), but having a no-transfer, comfortable commute from Pioneer Square to Cap Hill is definitely something I would appreciate.

  • Eddiew

    Clint’s commute will be very easy in 2016 via Link: fast, frequent, and reliable.  The streetcar will be slow.

  • Anonymous

    It’ll be a great option for the huge number of people who work on First Hill. Those coming from the south will be able to transfer from Sounder or Link trains to the streetcar to get to work, and those coming from the north will be able to transfer at Capitol Hill Station. It’ll also benefit all the residents of First Hill and of the forthcoming Yesler Terrace development. And it’ll be the best way to get between Pioneer Square and Capitol Hill until Link opens. Future extensions will make it even more useful.

  • Transit Rider

    The Aloha Extension doesn’t need to go all the way to Aloha St. The last stop/terminal should be at Roy St., the north end of the Broadway business district. That should save a few million $$ at little inconvenience to riders (the Rt. 49 bus will always be there going north on 10th Ave. to the U. District).

  • Clint

    Correct. But 5 years is a long ways away. 1.5 is much more bearable.

  • No Chin

    1. The extra four blocks wouldn’t change your commute time by more than five minutes, if you’re able-bodied, and the $7 million would arguably have been better spent as part of a longer $20 million extension to Aloha.

    2. You’ll have a subway from Pioneer Square in 2016 that will be way faster than the stupid streetcar anyway. The best part of the streetcar is that from Yesler to Denny. The Jackson St part is a waste of money  — a lot of money.

  • Long Wang

    Why waste $132 million on something that’ll make your commute better for 3.5 years?

  • Hung Well

    Riders at Virginia Mason and Harborview are better off taking the buses that go straight downtown from their workplaces to 3rd Ave where they can get on Link anyway. All riders north of Madison will be better off going to the Capitol Hill station if they want to go to Link — by the time the streetcar has swung out to 14th Ave and struggled down Jackson, they’d have been better off going north and taking the slightly longer Link trip.

  • Grover

    How much are you willing to pay for it, per trip?

  • Grover

    How much are you willing to pay for it?

  • Guest

    Go back to watching MASH reruns, you doddering old coot.