This July, Seattle will be rolling out its starter light rail line between downtown and Tukwila, which is just north of Sea-Tac airport. The line is scheduled to reach Sea-Tac in December, and the city is eager to have it operating before the 2010 Winter Olympics, which will be held just to the north in Vancouver.
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports that the line will not feature an express ride, and travelers will have to just deal with the 11 stops and a 36 minute ride between the airport and the Westlake Center downtown.
While Sound Transit claims the line can't handle express trains, can't really fault them for not accommodating. The ride from O'Hare to the Loop on CTA's Blue Line takes nearly 50 minutes, and expected ridership on the Seattle line is just 40,000, hardly enough to justify express trains that could run with any reasonable frequency.
Seattle's light rail is not getting to 40,000 riders per day anytime soon. http://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/ lead story.
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