As described in a previous post, SacRT light rail will NOT be level boarding, SacRT is intending on created a low-floor with step-up railcar and platform system throughout the network. The floor of the new Siemens S700 railcars will be six inches above platform height, requiring riders to make a small step up to board. Riders with mobility devices will have to deploy a ramp to overcome the six inch difference.

STAR proposes that SacRT instead create a mixed platform system, where all light rail stations that are not in the street will use a fourteen inches above top of rail platform height, or level boarding, and stations which are partially or entirely in the street will uses the lower eight inch platform height. For dedicated stations, it is easy to design them so that the area is safe. For street stations, that is harder. In the long run, the street stations should be redesigned to have dedicated space protected from the street and errant vehicles.

Wikipedia has a list of the light rail stations.

Using higher level platforms does end the current practice of riders wandering across the platform from one side to the other. For stations which have the tracks together and platforms on the outside, which is most (33 of 53), a fence would be placed between the two tracks, and riders would then entered from one or both ends of the station. Either the perpendicular street sidewalk or a level path would offer an ADA sloped ramp up to the platforms. (green)

There are seven stations which have only one track, with a platform on one side, which makes the setting easier. (light blue)

Alkalai Flat/La Valentina and Globe Ave stations are unique in the system in that they are center boarding stations, with tracks on both sides of the platform. The southbound track at Alkalai Flat/La Valentina is in a travel lane, while the northbound is separate from traffic. (light green)

There are a number of street stations. 12th & I has boarding for southbound passengers fully in a travel lane, and northbound at the curb. It is the least usable station of all. It was intended to be replaced when light rail was realigned to H Street, but that realignment never took place. The southbound railcars are completely inaccessible for ADA. (red)

The rest of the street stations have boarding from the curb, without dedicated space. For the five stations on 7th St (southbound) and 8th St (northbound), it would be easy to create dedicated space for light rail stations because these two three-lane one-way streets have an excess capacity that could easily be reduced to two. Even before the pandemic, these streets had excess capacity, and now they are almost empty compared to other nearby streets. (orange)

The two stations on K Street, which are actually a pair, with Cathedral Square for westbound and St Rose of Lima Park for eastbound, but K Street is a low volume, low speed street. (orange)

The two stations on O Street are separated from one-way travel lanes. (light blue)

Several infill stations, within the current light rail system, have been proposed. The Dos Rios station is the only one funded. (yellow)

The two maps below show the distribution of stations throughout the network, and some indication of what the station is like. Each station is actually unique, and so to some degree requires unique designs, but 42 of the 53 stations can be designed to allow level boarding. Since some stations will have level boarding and some step-up, requiring ramps, the platform door locations will need to be clearly marked in visible and detectable manner to let riders know. (network pdf, downtown focus pdf)

The legend:

• red – street – the station is mostly in the street, 12th & I station
• orange – street single – the station is at the curb but within a travel lane
• light blue – protected single – the station is protected (separated from traffic), and has a single track
• light green – center – station has a center boarding platform (Alkalai Flat/La Valentina and Globe Ave)
• green – protected double – the station is protected (separated from traffic), and has center double tracks with platforms on the outside
• yellow – potential infill stations within the current system, not including extensions

STAR is requesting the SacRT pause the contract for design of stations on the Gold Line, and the contract to reconstruct station platforms, and then revise the specification to use 14 inch above top of rail platforms for the 42 stations which have protected (separate from traffic) space, both the double track stations and the single track stations. The other seven stations would use 8 inch above top of rail platforms.

• SacRT light rail modernization