Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 32, 2019

The South Lake Union Line is a streetcar route in Seattle, Washington, United States, forming part of the Seattle Streetcar system. It travels 1.3 mi and connects Downtown Seattle to the South Lake Union neighborhood. The South Lake Union Streetcar was the first modern line to operate in Seattle, beginning service on December 12, 2007. The streetcar line was conceived as part of the redevelopment of South Lake Union into a technology hub, with support from Paul Allen and his venture capital firm Vulcan Inc. Construction began in July 2006 and was completed in December 2007 by the Seattle Department of Transportation. The line is popularly known by its nickname, the South Lake Union Trolley (abbreviated as "SLUT"), which is used on unofficial merchandise sold by local businesses. The streetcar was controversial in its first few years due to its slow speed, low ridership, public funding, and connections to real estate development. Improvements to the streetcar's corridor since 2011 have increased service and improved schedule reliability, but ridership has declined since peaking in 2014. A planned streetcar project to connect the South Lake Union Line with the First Hill Line via Downtown Seattle was placed on hold by the city government in 2018.