Streetcar coming to Ballard, Fremont?

Posted by Geeky Swedes on January 29th, 2008

The Seattle City Council is considering a plan to expand the South Lake Union streetcar to Ballard, Fremont, West Seattle and the University District, among other neighborhoods. “Ballard and West Seattle have felt somewhat abandoned after the monorail went away and we’ve been looking for a way to get transportation there,” said Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican. The planning is still in the preliminary phase, and as Seattleites know, this means no decisions are coming anytime soon.

Tags: Ballard · Fremont Facebook

Ben

In short I support a streetcar in Ballard wholeheartedly.

Ben

Ballard to downtown might not be that bad because it could just breeze through interbay (two stops maybe...) but I agree with Mark that perhaps streetcar technology is not the best for this route. The most useful streetcar routes for me would be one from Ballard's various residential areas to downtown Ballard or from Ballard to the University District. The University district route could replace the 44 bus that is very popular and is sure to be a successful streetcar line which would allow metro to reroute those resources (perhaps to better service within Ballard), however those buses are electric trolly busses and so new overhead wires may need to be put in.