[continued from previous message]   
      
   service more reliable, such as replacing old power lines, substations   
   and dispatch gear, during a multiyear $80 million program. His new   
   service delivery director, Ed Cobean, formerly at San Francisco Muni,   
   will close stations early sometimes, to enable more rail and wire   
   maintenance.   
      
   Those kicked off three nights last week, when service ended at 11 p.m.   
   between Rainier Beach and Angle Lake stations, followed by a scheduled   
   all-day shutdown of the Beacon Hill tunnel Sunday, to replace old   
   ventilation-fan switches.   
      
   “This is one of the ways we’re going to ensure we’re going to have fewer   
   and fewer [surprise] interruptions,” Constantine told the board last week.   
      
   The Eastside’s 2 Line, less than two years old, has been afflicted with   
   power losses that closed some stations. Constantine said that’s largely   
   a growing pain with new wires, as crews learn how to maintain them at   
   proper tightness. (Slack downtown Seattle wires, about 17 years old,   
   were re-examined and adjusted in recent months.) Theft of copper   
   electric wires caused a 2 Line shutdown in June.   
      
   To be sure, highway trips can suddenly be thwarted by a crash, rain, or   
   unexpectedly bad snarls caused by roadwork.   
      
   The Washington State Department of Transportation publishes “reliable   
   95th percentile travel times” that help commuters plan. For instance, if   
   an average 29-mile commute on I-5 from Everett to Seattle takes 51   
   minutes, you should allow 79 minutes to arrive on time 19 out of 20   
   trips, or 95% of commute trips.   
      
   Most Read Local Stories   
   Fort Colvile: A part of WA history you may have never even heard of   
   Homeless man accidentally killed by garbage truck in Eastlake   
   WA to direct $2.2 million a week to food banks as SNAP cutoff nears   
   Maple Valley man charged in $2M West Seattle jewelry store robbery   
   Seattle homicide suspect mistakenly released from jail in California   
   “Just like anyone who would be driving, I’m planning ahead and thinking   
   ahead, but I don’t think of transit as a less reliable system than a   
   car,” said Tacoma Councilmember Kristina Walker, who chairs the board’s   
   ridership and operations committee, and rides ST Express buses.   
      
   Train reliability is a challenge elsewhere, notably Bay Area Rapid   
   Transit, where an equipment problem on the underwater rail tunnel Monday   
   caused 20-minute delays in several directions and a temporary two-line   
   blockage. BART averaged 85% on-time trips in June, and lost several   
   hours systemwide the morning of Sept 5, due to computer problems.   
      
   Minneapolis-St. Paul METRO launched a reliability initiative and says   
   its two lines ran 91% and 87% on time earlier this month. Besides fixing   
   rail defects and signals, officials discourage passengers from holding   
   open train doors, which prevents trains from leaving. In polite   
   Minneapolis, more than half the train delays, or 80 hours a week, are   
   caused by people holding doors.   
      
   Portland MAX light rail, hamstrung by downtown surface tracks, operated   
   81% on time in September, worse than buses at 84%. Vancouver SkyTrain,   
   an automated line, reported 94% on-time arrivals first quarter 2025.   
      
   Walker said a national comparison would be interesting but not   
   essential. “We’re trying to stay focused on our system, right? It   
   doesn’t help a rider, if we say we’re better than all the other systems   
   in the country. We want to make the system work for our riders.”   
      
   Constantine brought up downtown escalators, that used to fail half the   
   time in 2020. After Sound Transit invested tens of millions of dollars   
   and changed maintenance contractors, escalators are working 94% of the   
   time downtown, and 97% systemwide as of this week, “which I think shows   
   the agency when presented with these challenges, will respond with   
   energy and resources to fix it,” he said.   
      
   When the 2 Line’s overdue I-90 train crossing opens, sometime next year,   
   that should help. Trains from Bellevue will cross Lake Washington and   
   turn north at International District/Chinatown, toward UW and Lynnwood.   
   Once that happens, a steady flow of 2 Line trains can serve the north   
   end, even if some collision or outage stymies the 1 Line between Sodo   
   and Federal Way.   
      
   Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com. Mike Lindblom   
   is a transportation reporter at The Seattle Times.   
     View 177 Comments / 177 New   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)