September 2007 - Posts

Talgo Back?

Supposedly, per the Oregonian, one of the Talgo sets will be back today!!!!ROCK ON!Not sure which schedule slot it will roll through or anything, but I sure hope I get to ride it on my next two weeks of travel to and from Seattle.  I was getting Read More
posted Saturday, September 29, 2007 3:44 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Cascades #1001 - Departing to Tacoma

Since I wanted a little more sleep I took the 7:00am Amtrak Cascades instead of the 6:10am Sound Transit Sounder Train.  It paid off, With an extra 45 minutes of sleep being well felt I walked patiently to the station this morning.  I arrived, Read More
posted Friday, September 28, 2007 8:43 AM by adron | 1 Comments
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Sounder #1510 - Thursday North Bound

As the day before, I took the 4 blocks up to the streetcar and rode over to Tacoma Dome Station for Sounder #1510.  The streetcar, as usual at this time, was packed with activity.  People where heading to Tacoma Dome or 25th street to jump in Read More
posted Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:33 PM by adron | 3 Comments
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Ride the SLUT

While staying in Seattle I made a search to find some coffee shops that where open late to check out.  While searching I stumbled upon the South Lake Union Trolley's newly famous t-shirts.  I also dug up another article talking about how the Read More
posted Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:35 PM by adron | 2 Comments

Sounder #1501 - Thursday Morning's Declining Exuberance

I arrived at the station about 4 minutes later than I had the last two days.  The morning #1500 having already arrived and ready to depart south as #1501.  The surge of people where already heading up the steps, across the King Street Station Read More
posted Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:47 AM by adron | 1 Comments
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Kicker of the Day, Metro Transit #16 Trip

I boarded at 1st and Yesler for the trip north.  My mission to explore and find a coffee shop I'd just looked up earlier.  On the way back to the hotel from my Sounder trip I decided to stop in at the Zeitgeist Coffee shop.  While sipping Read More
posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:02 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Sounder #1510 North Bound for the First Time

Today I made the train with 4 minutes to spare!  I had left work at 4:15pm, trying to make sure I left myself plenty of time to get to the streetcar in case I missed a frequency.  For future reference I need to be out the door by 4:00pm for Read More
posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007 5:35 PM by adron | 1 Comments
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Sounder #1501 - Wednesday's Trip Number One

I think I did a bit of a rant yesterday about laptop usage on buses versus the train.  Now that I'm back on the train, and a solid night of sleep is behind me, it doesn't seem to really matter all that much. Today I departed the hotel at 5:47am, Read More
posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007 8:42 AM by adron | 1 Comments

Tri-met TV?

You gotta be kidding me.  Eh, I can't really complain though.  It looks like it could be interesting. Check out Trimet TV.  See what ya think.  Please comment, because I'm curious what others think too. Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 9:07 PM by adron | 4 Comments
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Sounder #1510 Becomes Express #594

I wasn't going to write anything, but then I was, and then I wasn't going to again, and then I decided I might as well since I'm on the ole bus for 45+ minutes.  I walked up to 10th and Commerce to board the #594 and met a coworker.  We both Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 9:07 PM by adron | 1 Comments
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Sounder #1510 - Tuesday North Bound

My north bound trip started off horribly, simply put, it didn't.  Per work requirement I got stuck staying past departure time.  So I'm now relegated to riding the express bus.  I don't particularly see any reason for writing about the Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 5:13 PM by adron | 1 Comments
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Sounder #1501 - Trip One on Tuesday

The First Morning My day has started at a alarm beeping 5:25am.  The band Down playing on my Windows Media Player in the background I leapt up to shower and deal with the necessities of the morning.  I departed into the eerie morning streets Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 7:05 AM by adron | 1 Comments
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The Current Irrelevancy of Fares

I was just thinking, people often argue, fuss, and bitch about "no one ever checks fares" in speaking of Tri-met.  This of course is a fallacy.  Tri-met has at least two dozen people that check fares.  Sometimes they even have transit security Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 6:25 AM by adron | 0 Comments
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Cascades #1008

The Week Begins (Departure Waiting) North bound, 7:00pm on time departure, with a setting sun in the western hills.  The blue sky is abundant with a few white puffs of cresting clouds over the western mountains and above the rail yard.  Train Read More
posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:30 AM by adron | 1 Comments
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A Week of Sounder Commuting

The Departure Waiting Begins 3:00pm, Coffee Plant on Washington Street in Portland, I'm sitting with Joleen waiting for the afternoon to roll by for my 7:00pm Cascades Departure.  After a good dose of cappuccino I'm almost ready for my departure.  Read More
posted Monday, September 24, 2007 3:16 PM by adron | 1 Comments
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The New Sound Transit Sounder Schedule

The Sound Transit Sounder Commuter Train will be starting a new frequency heading in a new direction next week. The Sounder will have a reverse commute heading from Seattle to Tacoma in the morning and a trip back from Tacoma in the evening. Next week Read More
posted Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:15 PM by adron | 2 Comments

Tacoma Rail Port Tour

Per my recent entry at Dogcaught Aaron Hockley, Joleen, my 'rents, and I all headed to Tacoma today on Cascades #1000 to catch a glimpse of the Maritime Festival and more importantly a Port of Tacoma tour on Tacoma Rail. At a bright a scratchy Read More
posted Saturday, September 15, 2007 11:22 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Expanded Sounder

Reverse commuting trips on the Sounder rail system are starting the 24th of September.  This will make staying in Seattle and working in Tacoma a feasible venture.  I'm stoked! Read More
posted Friday, September 14, 2007 2:52 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Transit 4.8x More Cost Effective than Auto Based Transportation, For Me...

Yeah, I am in the upper income brackets - which means I pay approximately 1.8x more for road and transit costs and maintenance than the average American, and yeah, I drive a 350Z which also puts me at about 1.4-1.6x the average cost of a new automobile Read More
posted Monday, September 10, 2007 11:00 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Wondering About Portland Again, and Out To Washington Square

I left the apartment at exactly 10:50am, timing my trip was one of my intentions for the day.  I wanted to see how close the trip was going to be to the estimated trip on Trimet's site and on Google's site.  So at 10:50 I began my walk toward Read More
posted Sunday, September 09, 2007 10:14 PM by adron | 2 Comments
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Aspiration to Blog, The Dog Caught Me! :)

As many regular readers would know, I obviously like writing, and more specifically I like writing about transportation and the other facets of my interests.  In the last few weeks Mr. Aaron Hockley mentioned the idea of me adding to the Dogcaught blog.  Read More
posted Saturday, September 08, 2007 10:53 AM by adron | 0 Comments
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Amtrak Ridership Rocks!

One more entry before I'm off to a few books and bits for the night.  As reported recently in Railway Age, "Amtrak reports that its June ridership of 2.29 million was 5% over June last year and 2% over budget. Continued strong Acela Express demand Read More
posted Wednesday, September 05, 2007 8:29 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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A Bicycle Ride, An Overturned 27 Footer, and Stopped MAX and Streetcar Service!

What an adventure my short 40 minute bicycle ride became after I got home from work today.  Just about 6:30"ish" I up and decided to do some bicycle riding to get back in the swing of things.  I had been riding almost everyday since I bought Read More
posted Wednesday, September 05, 2007 8:16 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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Rail and Airline News That Matters

As reported, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway now owns a whopping 25% of BNSF.  Of course the article calls BNSF the wrong name, labeling them only Burlington Northern.  Going along with rail news CN is purchasing DM&E for 1.5 Billion Read More
posted Wednesday, September 05, 2007 7:52 PM by adron | 0 Comments
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