A Streetcar Called Jan Drago

Jan Drago, chair of the Seattle city council's transportation committee, oversaw a 4-2 committtee vote yesterday that came down in favor of more streetcars, a whopping $600 million network of them. Licata and McIver voted nay. Now we wait to see if the full council will contract streetcar fever. The proposed First Hill line would run from Capitol Hill to the ID, while the Central line would fill in for the old waterfront streetcar, running from Seattle Center to King Street Station. The Fremont-Ballard and U-District lines would meet up with the SLUT. This is all well and good, but where's our cable cars running up James, Denny, and Queen Anne Hill? Cable cars or gondolas, we're open to discussion.

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By MvB in News on December 2, 2008 4:40 PM

Comments [rss]

Weazul

before they put up the no trespassing signs and chains it was sad to see tourist standing there waiting. Even though you know there paved over parts of the track and grass gowning in it.

Troy Morris

Last time I heard, it was shelved indefinitely due to the viaduct garbage.

Weazul

whats about the status of the waterfront trolley these days?

Troy Morris

You know I'm down to lay down some muscles for the cause of transit.

MvB

I'm for this, Matt. Let's make it happen. I can totally borrow a sledgehammer and start busting up the road, you know, as needed. A little unofficial groundbreaking.

Matt G1

The Queen Anne car was actually just a streetcar, but with a counterbalance-pulley system that it hooked into (this is why Queen Anne Avenue is called the Counterbalance between Roy and Galer).

The Central streetcar line could be extended to the Counterbalance (the current plan is to bring it within a few blocks), and it would be fairly inexpensive to build a counterbalance system again. Imagine the tourist draw that would bring, with such a line connecting between Pike's Market and Queen Anne.