Sound Transit train and car collide in Seattle According to local transportation policy expert, John Niles, Sound Transit's EIS,,, ...forecast a collision with a vehicle, bike, or pedestrian averaging every 12 days. Most are expected to be minor, but serious injuries and fatalities are not unheard of in other light rail cities, at a rate per passenger mile that exceeds urban car and bus driving/riding. John has portions of the EIS showing Sound Transit's analysis posted on his website here. Interestingly, yesterday's collision was caused by a driver crossing the tracks after turning left against a red light. ...

Sound Transit train and car collide in Seattle Seattle Times A man was injured late this afternoon when a Sound Transit light-rail train and a car collided at Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Myrtle Street. ... and more »

The Puget Sound Regional Council (the metropolitan planning organization for the Seattle-Tacoma area) is seeking comments on its draft 2040 transportation plan. The Antiplanner has long been critical of long-range transportation planning, and this plan is, if anything, even more repulsive than previous efforts. For one thing, even though it is supposed to be a draft [...]

Motorist injured in crash with Light Rail train KING5.com Sound Transit has added many additional signals for drivers along the Light Rail path. Sound Transit Light Rail will start passenger service in 19 days. and more »

KOMO News

Tukwila residents: Light rail gives us earache KOMO News "The train is louder, a lot louder than we expected and a lot louder than Sound Transit said it would be," said David Shumate. ... and more »

WA motorist injured in crash with light-rail train TheNewsTribune.com ; AP A Sound Transit light-rail train has collided with a car in Seattle's Rainier Valley neighborhood, sending a motorist to a hospital with ... and more »

Car hits Sound Transit train, one injured Seattle Post Intelligencer Will Sound Transit file a claim with the at fault driver's insurance company? The learning curve begins for driving around light rail trains. ... and more »

Well, here we go again… Apparently there has been another accident between a light rail train, and a car in the Rainier Valley with Sound Transit’s at-grade light rail alignment.

This should not surprise anyone who has been following light rail projects across the nation. One alignment has even been dubbed the “Wham-Bam-Tram” because of the numerous accidents it has been involved in. Most of them were caused by the same movement by the driver- a left hand turn taken IN FRONT of the train. Is that legal or wise? NO. Is that predictable? YES.

Some Draconian posters on other blogs have  made comments about Darwin, natural selection, and the intelligence levels of the folks who get into these accidents, but the fact is that utilizing an at grade alignment sets up the conditions for terrible accidents and very possibly, deaths.

We hope not. And we hope that Sound Transit will learn from their mistakes going forward on ST2 from the mistakes made by the other light rail systems throughout the country, and  do a better job of making the ST2 alignments safe…

See our posts on  previous Sound Transit light rail accidents HERE and HERE…

Light Rail Trail Collides With Car In Seattle KIROtv.com SEATTLE -- A Sound Transit light-rail train and a vehicle collided Monday afternoon in Seattle. The car was T-boned in the intersection of Martin Luther ... and more »

The tunnel boring machine pictured below was built by Herrenknecht AG (which has an office in Tacoma), for a tunneling job in Madrid, Spain. Below the picture are links to three companies that are in the business of building these huge machines (they're about 55-60 feet in diameter) and which are likely to be interested in getting the job to build a "drill bit" for the 1.7-mile deep-bore tunnel under First Avenue in Seattle to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Here is a link to Herrenknecht AG. This is a German firm with ...