The June 7th Seattle Times, Traffic Lab, front page article, “Sound Transit’s daily light rail ridership jumps to No. 1 in U.S.” heralded that “light rail connection over Lake Washington has unleashed a tsunami of new passengers between Bellevue and Seattle, boosting the regional total to 155,000 daily boardings”. The article assuming the boarding increase from 3.11 million in March to 4.59 million, ~ 50,000 daily, was primarily the result of Sound Transit routing the 2 Line’s two-car trains from South Bellevue P&R across I-90 Bridge to Seattle.
The article acknowledged Sound Transit hadn’t released data on light rail station boarding after February. However, even when available, Sound Transit’s decision for a flat $3.00 fee on entry and nothing on exit makes it impossible to determine how many of the Downtown Redmond-to-South Bellevue P&R Station boardings were cross Lake Washington commuters. While any increase could be assumed to reflect cross-lake access effect, the best indication would be 2 Line boardings from Westlake stations southbound in Seattle.
However, Sound Transit’s schedule of 2-car trains every 8 minutes limits light rail capacity. Assuming each 74-seat car can accommodate 148 sitting and standing riders, limits cross Lake Washington capacity to 2220 riders per hour. Thus it’s “unlikely” 50,000 boarders used the 2 Line for their commute into and out of Seattle.
The bottom line is assessing the benefits of 2 Line-cross-Lake Washington access awaits Sound Transit releasing April and May station boarding data. The Traffic Lab should update their Ridership Jump assessment then.
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