Seattle's Link Light Rail waiting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
For those of you in many other parts of the world, talking about public transportation options from the airport is not news. For us in Seattle, finally getting a public transportation option, other than the bus, is huge. In many regards Seattle (my home town) is a very progressive city, except when it comes to public transportation. We have tried many different times, but seem to get blocked at every turn.
A monorail was built for the 1962 World’s Fair and it has run almost the same 1.2 mile route with two stations since then. In 2002 Seattle voters approved expanding the monorail 14 miles in the first of five new lines running through the Seattle area. This was a real attempt to give Seattle another public transportation option other than buses. Unfortunately in 2005, voters wanted the project terminated. The monorail still runs on its same 1.2 mile path, but definitely does not provide the public transportation that Seattle needs.
Seattle’s light rail has had a difficult history as well, but luckily they were able to work out the problems. Link Light Rail started in 1996 when voters approved an increase in taxes for a 25 mile light rail system. Dogged by environmental and financial issues as well as people from the communities affected complaining, the first part of the system was not opened until July 2009 and even then, it didn’t connect to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
Seeing the planes while leaving the airport is always fun.
In December 2009, Link Light Rail finally connected SEA to downtown Seattle and provided a new, environmentally friendly and cheap option for passengers. During my recently flight with Virgin America I decided to check out getting from the airport to my house in north Seattle using only public transportation (ok, I didn’t really decide, but no one could pick me up, so I “decided” to take the light rail). I have never done this before and was excited to see how it works.
When doing research on my trip, I noticed was how cheap it was. Only $2.50 to get from SEA to downtown Seattle. To compare, it would cost $32.00 to ride in a shared airport shuttle and over $50 to take a taxi (and of course returning the favor if a friend gets you). Not bad. The whole ride from SEA to downtown only took me 36 minutes, which it takes about 20 minutes in a car (saying there is no traffic, which is very rare). Even to get all the way to my house on the light rail and bus it cost $6, where it would be $45 with shuttle van and $80 for a cab, what a deal!
Finding the train at the airport was easy with the signs, but it was quite the walk to get there. Paying was a little complex at first, but there are machines you can use cash or credit card, choose what stop you want to go to and pay the proper amount. There is no one to check your ticket to enter the train, but about half way to downtown, three fare enforcement officers came on board to confirm we were all paid up.
The outside of the Link Light Rail.
The trains are new and comfortable to ride in. I was surprised not to see any ads in side the car I was in and asked Bruce Gray, a spokes person for Sound Transit (who runs the Link Light Rail), about the ads. He told me via email that many trains do have ads inside and they will have their, “first wrapped train with advertising on the outside should be rolling this week.”
One thing I was hoping for was a park and ride lot for airport use, where I could park my car, maybe pay a cheap fee and take the train to the airport. They have one station with 600 parking spots, but a maximum of parking for 24 hours. Gray told me that in May the light rail saw 21,700 boardings per day and has been steadily growing since the start of its operation.
Since I haven’t had too much experience riding the new train system, I talked to a Seattle native, Shannon (@SEAsundodger) who has ridden the train about once per month since it opened and she loves it. “I love everything about the light rail, I live in Seattle proper (Interbay/Magnolia to be exact) and I don’t own a car. So public transportation is near and dear to my heart,” she told me. She hasn’t had any issues with riding the light rail and is very much looking forward to the expansion. When I asked how it feels flying by people stuck in Seattle traffic while going to the airport, she said, “It is sweet when it’s rush hour while you’re headed to the airport, and there you are, zipping along on the train.” I could easily see it being quicker taking the train when traffic really gets backed up.
I love Seattle and the majority of people in Seattle, but there have always been people complaining anytime we have tried to move forward with public transportation and the light rail is no exception. But this time, I think the positives are outweighing the negatives and the light rail will continue to grow to the north and to the east. Hopefully some day it will reach where I live and I can easily hop on the light rail to the airport. Until then I have a feeling I might be taking the bus and train more often!
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has been flying for quite some time now and Boeing is excited to have finalized the configuration for the Boeing 787-9. The 787-9 is 20 feel longer, which might seem easy, but takes a lot of additional changes. To learn more, check out the video and Boeing’s website.
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July. For those of you not in the United States, I still hope you have a great 4th of July, even if it is just a “normal” day for you!
Twitter follower @DavidMSaga pointed out that two airline liveries look very similar. A Pacific Flyer Airbus A310-300 seemed to have copied the livery of Omar Air.
Some airlines will have similar, simple liveries, but these two were too similar. Some research shows that this Airbus A310 was leased to Omar Air. When the lease ran out, it was leased out to a few different carriers, keeping the Omar livery.
Looking at photos on Airliners.net, I am pretty sure the name and logo on the A310 on Pacific Flier’s website is just photo-shopped on.
Pacific Flier was created in 2008 and is based in The Republic of Palau and flies to Manila in The Philippines, Guam, and Brisbane Australia. They only have the one Airbus A310 on lease.
Oman Air is a bit bigger, having a fleet of about 21 aircraft and it flies to 36 destinations. It was founded in 1981 and is based out of Muscat International Airport in (wait for it) Oman. Its claim to fame, in March 2010 it became the first airline to offer phone calling, text messaging and Wi-Fi internet on select routes.
Virgin America Airbus A320 on the Tarmac in Toronto (N631VA)
Normally airlines do something special when they open up a new route. Maybe a few balloons, some cake and a get together. Well, Sir Richard Branson pulled out all the stops to celebrate Virgin America’s new route from San Fransisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX) to Toronto (YYZ) and I was lucky enough to go along for the ride. So what is it like to party like a billionaire? I didn’t know, but I sure as heck wanted to find out.
The whole event started for me at SFO, however, Virgin America (I am going to go with VA for short) started the flight at LAX and stopped in SFO to pick us up. The gate area had a party atmosphere to it. There were fancy cupcakes, champagne and nice decorations, and everyone there was waiting for the flight to come in from LAX with Sir Richard Branson, CEO David Cush and Govenator Schwarzenegger on-board.
Party time! People up in the aisle during the flight! I love the VA lighting.
Branson might be the world’s most famous entrepreneur(or at the very least, he’s the most famous in the airline industry), and Schwarzenegger is easily one of America’s most notable politicians. Seeing them exit the plane together was pretty exciting. I didn’t realize the govenator was going to be there, but I was clued in when I started asking questions about the obvious police and body guard presence. Yes, he does look bad-ass in person and I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with him.
There have been very few flights in my life where I get to know the people around me; this flight was one of them, which seemed like we were all friends going to a celebration together. Because of the comradery, it took quite a long time to get the near-full flight boarded and seated.
City of Toronto from the rooftop!
During the whole five hour flight (except takeoff/landing), the aisles were filled with people. There were a few camera crews on-board trying to do interviews, which is difficult to do in an Airbus A320. There were a lot of people to walk around and talk to. I think I was in my seat for a whole 30 minutes of the flight, which you normally don’t do on a regular flight. The flight attendants did an amazing job. Not only did they have to deal with everyone in the aisles, they were constantly working and all their bosses (and boss’ bosses) were on the plane.
There were more than VA employees, guests, press and the five actual (and shocked) customers on board; a few famous people were on the plane as well. Unfortunately I am not really into the whole celebrity thing, so I didn’t find out who was there. I knew Drake (musician) was on-board since there was a photo of him on the side of the plane, which was also renamed, “Air Drake.” I talked with Eric Roberts for a bit, before realizing who he was (if you care to know the whole guest list, Jaunted seems to have it). I did get a little star-struck and made sure I got a photo of Sir Richard Branson and me, which I am very excited about.
Bunch of people having a good time on the roof of the Thompson Toronto Hotel
The five hour flight went extremely quickly and the head honchos were put to work. VA CEO David Cush was handing out customs forms (yes remember, Canada is another country) to people on the flight and Sir Branson was making announcements. When we landed I was sorry that the flight was over, but the real fun was just about to begin.
At Toronto we were greeted by a very friendly flag waving welcome party and a couple of mounties. I had to wave and pretend I was someone they would care about. We were bussed over to customs before getting on a shuttle to the hotel, Thompson Toronto. The hotel was brand new, very nice and very trendy. We had 45 minutes to get freshened up and head to the roof pool deck for a pre-party.
Almost everything VA does has a sexual innuendo. This sign was in the elevator at the hotel
I have never been to Toronto before and being on top of a 16 story hotel right in downtown was pretty amazing. Add to it great food, nice drinks, sunny weather and in the company of some pretty awesome people…I felt like I was somebody.
Once it started to get cold, the party moved downstairs in the hotel where music was playing. There was a VIP section where the famous people were, but again I didn’t know who they were (more came from around Toronto I guess). I was more interested in talking to the pilot who landed our plane and Christian who is in charge of the Toronto base. To me (the airline nerd) they are the real celebrities.
The shuttle to go back to the airport was leaving at 5:00am, meaning I had to get up at 4:00am. With lack of sleep on the trip already, I was only able to make it until midnight before getting my precious four hours of sleep before that annoying alarm went off. I didn’t hear any amazing stories of things that happened after I left, so I am going to assume I didn’t miss anything.
Even though the party was amazing, we did hit a little snag trying to fly out of Toronto. When an airline starts at a new city and new country, it is common for things to go wrong. A few things happened at about the same time that caused a lot of stress for the VA staff working in Toronto. The self check-in podiums weren’t working (people were trying to fix them) and VA’s computer system kept going out. This meant it took a long time to get everyone checked in and actually caused the flight to be delayed. However, passengers were constantly informed of what was going on and there really wasn’t anything anyone could do, but wait.
The flight from YYZ to SFO was very short, because I slept. There were a lot of VA employees on that flight, but no one up in the aisles, no more celebration and a lot of sleeping. It was a lot of travel for only 15 hours in Toronto, but totally worth it. It was fun to step in the world of a Billionaire and see how they party. Although, inviting some friends over to my house for some beers is pretty cool too.
