Neighborhood Service Comparison

Rainier Beach


Select View: PRT or  "Link" Light Rail

 Back

 Library Index




Superior service by Personal Rapid Transit

      This example shows three PRT stations, placed so that most locations are within convenient walking distance of PRT service. Service capacity for three 3-berth stations is about 2,160 arrivals or departures per hour. The total cost for the three stations is $600,000 - $750,000.  See light rail





 Back

 Library Index




Neighborhood Service Comparison

Rainier Beach
Light rail at its most inconvenient

      This shows the neighborhood as it is to be served by Sound Transit's proposed light rail station on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Light rail stations are expensive, as much as $5-6 million even when not elevated.
       Sound Transit projects only 2,000 boardings per day at this station. Here's why: most origins and destinations are too far away. The station site is in a north-south swath dominated by open space and greenbelt, and thus low residential density.
       Main travel destinations are shown here, along with walking distances from the light rail station. "Convenient walking distance" that is supposed to be used by transit planners is one-quarter mile, or 1,320 feet. But Dunlap Elementary School, center, is nearly a third of a mile by foot from the Link station. Rainier Beach High School is two thirds of a mile away.  See PRT