12:08 pm update: According to an announcement on Sound Transit’s website, the station has reopened. However, you should be aware that the ticket machines at the station are currently not accepting credit and debit cards — cash only. (This problem predates the station closure.)
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The Link light rail station at 2700 Beacon Ave S is closed. bhnw.org scanner logs indicate it is closed until Monday. Metro is running shuttle buses from in front of the station to Mount Baker Station on the east side of the hill. Sound Transit and Metro customer information lines make no mention of this closure as of 10am, but there is a posting on the Sound Transit website.
KIRO noted the closure at about 1am on Twitter: “ST: Beacon Hill Station is out of service, closed. They are experiencing some sort of signal issues. Back up bus service is available.”
Security personnel at the station do not have any information regarding the reason for the closure or when it will re-open.
10:10 update: After multiple attempts and a lengthy wait on hold, a Metro customer service agent says the only information they have is that “The tunnel between stations closed, shuttles until further notice on Saturday.”
The Sound Transit Rider Alerts page says:
Central Link Light Rail – Beacon Hill Station — out of service
Posted Date: 02/19/10 – 12:05 a.m.
Starting immediately and until further notice, Central Link light rail will not serve the Beacon Hill light rail station due to signal issues.
Back up bus service will be available at the Beacon Hill station to replace light rail service until the issues are fixed.
Updates will be provided as they become available. We apologize for the inconvenience
Updating… Come back for more as we get it.
Did anybody here ride Link during this station closure? Were there announcements on the train that BH Station was closed? Announcements that to reach Beacon Hill, you had to get off at Mount Baker Station and take a shuttle bus? I want to know how well riders were served during this event. Thank you.
I rode the train on Friday and as we were walking up to the station we noticed a lot of police activity. Apparently someone got stuck in one of the elevators (far left one). I wonder if the closure was related to the elevators being on the fritz.
I think there was a problem with the elevators earlier than Friday. I sent the following out to the listserv on Wednesday afternoon after trying to take the train downtown Wednesday morning.
“I got to the station just before 11 AM today. The button for the elevator was already pressed as there was a lady there who arrived ahead of me. We waited several minutes and no elevator showed up. More people arrived and the Security guy walked over and started pressing the button. None of the elevators arrived. At this point, the 36 pulled up and I hopped on it since I was going to be late for my meeting if I stood around any longer. I think I waited for about 5 minutes before the bus arrived.”
The elevator didn’t arrive for at least five minutes. When I took the train back later that evening, the door to the area behind the elevators on the platform area was open and there were a bunch of workers in there. It looked like they were working on the elevators from what I could tell.
Does anyone know if ST has issued a warning or information about this?