Originally Posted by
Toshbaf
The route may go where people live but it condemns the success of the train later on when it is extended towards Federal Way and Tacoma.
The train isn't optimized for airport traffic. It happens to end up at the airport. But the route wanders through disparate neighborhoods, sprawling across the landscape like untidy coils of garden hose across your lawn. It crosses I-5 at least twice; I-5 is straight; the rail right of way is anything but. Route determination was of course heavily political and had everything to do with servicing hyperlocal access demands, nothing to do with speed or efficiency, or getting to SEA faster than driving, or outdoing old, now-cancelled transit alternatives (the old Gray Line Airporter express coach was MUCH better).
The few times I tried it (before moving away from the area) I found it tedious and slow. You know you are dealing with transit rubes when they build something non-competitive and expect you to rally around it anyway, just because it's the only mass transit available.