Getting There: Sounder trains are designed to carry bicycles along with people

By KERY MURAKAMI
P-I REPORTER

Question: Laurence DeShields doesn't like all the people bringing their bicycles on to the Sounder train. There was a problem with too many people bringing on bikes and taking up space before the Interstate 5 lane closure, but since then it's gotten worse, especially during the afternoon ride south, he says.

"Why does the Sound Transit system give priority to these inanimate objects over people?" he asks.

Answer: Sound Transit spokeswoman Linda Robson says seven-car trains have two cab cars and five coach cars.

The cab cars can hold six bicycles each; the coach cars can hold two each with tie-downs.

"That makes our total bike capacity for a seven-car train 22. To date, the most bikes we have had on any one train has been 21 and that was only once. The average high is only 13 bikes per train. Just as with buses, our Sounder trains are used by a lot of different people with a lot of different needs, including bicyclists," she says.

As for allowing bikes at all on trains, she says, "Unlike buses, Sounder bike racks can't be mounted on the outside, so each car has a space that pulls double duty and can be used as either more seating or a place for bicycles to be safely stored."

Question: Martin Gombert says that when he goes to Los Angeles, he sees Sounder cars being used as part of the Metrolink system. He recalls that Sound Transit leased its cars to other agencies when the light rail system here was delayed.

He wonders why Sound Transit hasn't "pulled this equipment back from lease so your citizens don't have to stand?"

Answer: Robson says Sound Transit has one locomotive and 12 coach cars still leased to Metrolink.

In the long-term, as track are improved, Sound Transit plans to expand service in September 2008 to nine round-trip trains between Tacoma and Seattle, and four round-trip trains daily between Seattle and Everett. Sounder now runs four round-trips from the south and two round-trips from the north.

Sound Transit recently got back equipment it leased to a transit authority in Virginia, and was able to add an extra run with a five-car train during the I-5 construction. However, it does not have additional cars to add to that train.

Sound can't add more cars because the seven-car trains already run the length of the platform.

Getting the leased cars back from Los Angeles would take time and they might not have arrive in time to help during construction. Plus, Sound Transit would lose money from not leasing the equipment.

Sound Transit plans to bring the leased equipment back from Los Angeles during summer 2008 to expand service in the fall.

Question: E.A. Russell, of West Seattle, wants to know if the Alaskan Way Viaduct might fall down if more drivers use it during the I-5 lane closure. "Has WSDOT done any evaluations on the safety of the projected load increases during the I-5 closures?" she asks.

Answer: State DOT spokeswoman Erin Bogenschutz says don't worry, the viaduct won't fall down -- at least not from the additional traffic. "We've looked at it and it's safe," she says.

Question: Another reader wanted to know why the state couldn't have done the I-5 work at night, sparing commuters.

Answer: Bogenschutz says crews are working 24 hours a day. Since they only can work during good weather, if they worked only at night, construction would have taken months, if not years.

"We didn't want to put people through that," she says. In addition, she says, the department is trying to cram the work into a small window between major summer festivals.