South Lake Union Streetcar
Two South Lake Union Streetcars at the maintenance facility before the line opened
Overview
Type	Streetcar
Termini	South Lake Union Westlake Center, Downtown Seattle
Stations	11
Operation
Opened	December 12, 2007
Owner	City of Seattle
Operator(s)	King County Metro (Route #98)
Character	At grade, in mixed traffic
Technical
Line length	1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Electrification	Overhead lines, 750 V DC
Route map Legend Fairview & Campus Drive Lake Union Park Westlake & Mercer Terry & Mercer Westlake & Thomas Terry & Thomas Westlake & Denny northbound only Westlake & 9th southbound only Westlake & 7th Westlake Hub connection to Seattle Center Monorail connection to Central Link light rail

The Seattle Streetcar—South Lake Union Line (colloquially the South Lake Union Streetcar, South Lake Union Trolley, or S.L.U.T.) is a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to Downtown Seattle, United States. Service began on December 12, 2007. Currently it is the only operational line of the developing Seattle Streetcar Network.

History

The Seattle Electric Railway and Power Company laid streetcar tracks on Westlake Avenue, along which the present service primarily runs, in 1890.^[1] In April 1941, the Seattle Municipal Street Railway converted its last two streetcar routes - 19 Eighth Avenue Northwest and 21 Phinney Avenue - to buses (now numbered 28 and 5, respectively);^[2] both used Westlake Avenue to reach the Fremont Bridge from downtown.^[3]

Restoration of rail service on Westlake Avenue was originally envisioned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to help improve the South Lake Union neighborhood, in which his venture capital company, Vulcan Inc., is heavily invested.^[4] Allen's main supporter from the beginning was Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, but he was not universally supported by the Seattle City Council, which was concerned about the lack of public support for the line and questioned if it should be moved ahead of Seattle's other transportation needs.^[5]

After heavy lobbying by South Lake Union businesses, including Vulcan, the Seattle City Council approved the development of the neighborhood into a biotechnology and bio-medical research center. Included in that plan was funding to investigate a 2.6-mile (4.2 km), US$45 million streetcar line. The line was approved in 2005 at a cost of $50.5 million, with $25 million paid by property owners along the streetcar's route and the remainder paid by federal, state, and local funds.^[6] The majority of property owners along the alignment supported the project, despite being asked to pay increased taxes to fund its construction. Only 12 of 750 affected property owners formally objected to the proposed "Local Improvement District" tax.^[7] The project was modeled after the Portland Streetcar, a similar modern-streetcar system that had opened in Portland, Oregon, in 2001.^[8] Construction began in July 2006.^[8]

Local residents claim that during construction it was originally known as the South Lake Union Trolley, which abbreviates to S.L.U.T. While there is no evidence that this name was ever used as an official name, the acronym's popularity has caused it to become an unofficial one.^[9]

Service was inaugurated on December 12, 2007, and all rides were free until the end of the month.^[10] Streetcars run every fifteen minutes, seven days a week. The line uses three Inekon 12 Trio three-section articulated streetcars: one red, one purple, and another orange. There were minor collisions with motor vehicles and several service stoppages when the Seattle Streetcar first began service.^[11][12][13] The system is owned by the City of Seattle, but currently is operated by King County Metro (Metro Transit) under a contract with the city government.^[14]

In 2008, $371,594 was collected in fares for just over 500,000 riders, working out to about 75 cents per rider; transit pass revenue from employers such as Group Health Cooperative and the University of Washington was also estimated at 75 cents per rider.^[15] Ridership is widely expected to increase dramatically as Amazon.com moves into its new campus beginning in 2010.^[16][17]

In 2009, election candidates in local Seattle politics, including almost all for city council and both candidates for mayor, said the streetcar was a bad idea.^[18] The City Council President, Richard Conlin, was an exception, and wants to expand the line through Fremont to Ballard and use stronger traffic-signal preemption (as is used with Central Link) to allow the streetcar to move quickly through traffic.^[19]

Ridership

After an initial free ride period, the city predicted 950 riders per day, or only 7.5% of the system's capacity of about 12,600 per day.^[20] On its one year anniversary, the city announced that 507,000 people had ridden the streetcar,^[21] or 428,675 after the free ride period. That is 1,283 per day and 10.2% of capacity.

During its inaugural period, December 12, 2007 to December 31, the streetcar was free to ride. The fare was then increased to US$1.50, was later increased to $1.75, and is $2.25 per trip as of March 2010^[22]. When the streetcar was free to ride ridership was 78,325, but once a fare was charged, ridership dropped to 12,369 for the first half of January. Other factors that may account for the difference are that the December period was during the holiday shopping season and that the streetcar was more of a novelty. The streetcar was again free to ride in the latter half of December 2008.^[20]

Stops

See also

• Seattle Streetcar Network
• First Hill Streetcar
• Waterfront Streetcar
• List of town tramway systems in the United States
• List of town tramway systems in North America
• Streetcars in North America

References

External links

• Seattle Streetcar, official site
• Build the Streetcar
• Seattle Streetcar Alliance
• Inekon Trio, official site