Light Rail Timelapse

[sanluisskywatch]

Even though 9/11 was an inside job, great video, and thumbs up.

[thebuilderddd]

I would be dangerous if this train went that fast. #LOL

[mailxxxxxx]

They should have build the Seattle Monorail instead of this.

[baskethooper14]

seattle needs one of these light rail in there asses beacause all the people in seattle are gay

[jpx08]

About damn time they built something like this! But to concur with other posters, they should have built this years ago. It's pathetic to think that for a long period Seattle was the only West Coast city without a light rail system. Even Portland had Seattle beat and they are light years ahead of where Seattle is. The powers that be have handled our transportation issues very poorly up to this point.

[sherwelthlangley]

It has nothing to do with the "powers that be." Rail transit has shown up on regional ballots multiple times. It's that the voters failed to approve these measures until 1996.

[framptonorchablis]

Look at the video. This thing is running in the middle of sparsely populated suburbs. No wonder the ridership is only 16,000. It's amazing that you guys got an FTA grant for this.

There are bus lines in LA that have 5 times that ridership, and yet the FTA deems our planned light rail and subway expansions "not cost effective."

[Rickyrab]

@jpx08

Um, during many of the years Seattle was supposedly without a light rail system, it was running waterfront streetcars.... if that's not light rail, what is?

[jpx08]

@Rickyrab That was something done mainly for tourism just like the Monorail. I was talking about something substantial and long distant. 

[TheEvilOyo]

waste of money and time. they could have started this in 94

[jpx08]

They could have started in '62 when they had the monorail!

[krizvasa]

Great think this LRT. It will encourage people to use public transport. There will be less congestion!

[Sreewtyui]

I heard some contractor used sub-standard steel in the reinforcments but it was deemed "ok" for use..

[seatrainlink]

The sub-standard steel does not affect the rebar that is inside the concrete which is important for structural strength. Rather, the steel was used in the casing around it and that doesn't affect the structure.

[sideslide23]

now thats what I call this a high speed rail.

[mikeg9696]

how it rolls right next to your car when your driving by the track scares the hell outta me.lol

[JuraszekJ]

How did they build it ?

[leonel1982]

It's beautiful! I rode on it and the whole trip was very quick and great.

It's a shame we're only starting to build this now instead of 40 years ago when not only could we have gotten the federal government to foot the bill, but construction and labor costs were ridiculously cheaper back then compared to today.

Oh well! Better now than never! At least we're doing this now instead of in another 40 years when the costs would multiply by 8 times and we'll REALLY need it!

[NBow37]

how fast does it go?

[juicysuit]

what are the two stops?

[Electrancemusic]

This is the light rail which opens July 18, 2009. It goes from the airport to downtown Seattle. In November of 2008 voters approved an expansion to the system which will be completed in the next 10 years or so.

The monorail was created for the World's Fair and only has two stops. One in downtown Seattle and one at the Seattle Center

[LackThere0f]

@Chromaphileblog

The Seattle Monorail is not a maglev. It uses rubber tires on 3 sides of a concrete rail. The (canceled) monorail expansion was going to be the same, rubber tires on a concrete rail.

Central Link (the light rail line in the video) is a single line that connects Seattle with a couple of other cities to the south; the canceled Monorail expansion was going to be a X shaped system entirely within the city limits.

[InfinityDose]

and it will be 11 years before we get this in toronto... omg.

[Apollo580]

Yea it sucks. We waited almost 20 years for ours here in Seattle.

[ihsanadfinda]

whoaaaww!!!.... like riding jet coaster in the city!!! i like it!

[LEXPIX]

Very cool.

[Lukelr]

quite very cool. so this is different from the Monorail then?

[chromaphileblog]

Let's think about this one. Mono = single. Light rail has regular railroad tracks and is powered by the electric power lines. Monorails are maglevs that use electric magnets instead of rails.

[romulusnr]

ha! the monorail goes one mile and has two stops -- a shopping mall on one end and... an outdoor history museum on the other.

[PatrickG07]

I hate how it will take until the 2020s to get it up to Everett, oh well I will probably be living in a better developed city by then haha =)

[BrandonSeattle]

seattle can finally join the 21 century with a train. were the last west coast city to have one. even though the tunnel in down town was built in 1990.

[Apollo580]

Great job Sound Transit. :) BTW watching the cop trying to keep up made me laught. XD

[abamfici]

I hope it wasn't going full speed because the traffic on I-5 southbound was going faster. I wonder if there's a freeze frame with the 194 in it...

[smokingkittens]

It wasn't, if I remember it was going 45 or so.. But they said it won't go much faster than 60.. It'll seem awfully fast when traffic is bad. Seeing it fly by when you're going nowhere in traffic will be a pretty good advertisement for light rail I bet..

[wawonas]

Those trains have a top speed of 55 mph for revenue service. I never actually heard of a light rail train going 60 mph in revenue service.

[rdwrertaiwan24]

cool!

[comatusfilms]

How long was the ride one way?

[smokingkittens]

about 15 minutes each way.. It's just a portion of the entire line though, just the part that's finished.

[gtasandman]

@smokingkittens 0:31 roller coaster