Waterfront Streetcar

Waterfront Streetcar
Car 272 eastbound on Main Street,
at the Occidental Park stop
Overview
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleSeattle
Termini
  • Broad Street at Alaskan Way
  • Jackson Street at 5th Avenue
Stations9
Service
TypeHeritage streetcar
Services1
Operator(s)King County Metro
Rolling stock5 Melbourne W2 trams
History
OpenedMay 29, 1982
ClosedNovember 18, 2005
Technical
Line length1.6 mi (2.57 km)
CharacterAt-grade
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
ElectrificationOverhead wires, 600 V DC
Route map

Maintenance Shed
Broad Street
Vine Street
Bell Street
Pike Street
University Street
Madison Street
Washington Street
Occidental Park
Jackson Street

The Waterfront Streetcar, officially the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line, was a heritage streetcar line run by King County Metro in Seattle, Washington, United States. It traveled for 1.6-mile (2.6 km) along Alaskan Way on the city's waterfront facing Elliott Bay, under the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The Waterfront Streetcar used a fleet of five W2 trams from Melbourne, Australia.

Service began on May 29, 1982, the first streetcars to run in Seattle since the closure of the Seattle Municipal Street Railway on April 13, 1941. It initially terminated at Occidental Park in Pioneer Square until the line was extended to International District/Chinatown station in 1990. Service was officially suspended on November 18, 2005, when the maintenance barn and Broad Street station were demolished to make room for the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. A large portion of the trackage and four stations were demolished in 2012 as part of the reconstruction of Alaskan Way.

Streetcar service was replaced by King County Metro Route 99, which operated along Alaskan Way until February 2011 when construction forced Metro to reroute the line to 1st Avenue. King County Metro announced in January 2016 that a private venture would launch a fundraising effort to retrofit two of the historic Waterfront Streetcar vehicles to run alongside modern Seattle Streetcar vehicles on the Center City Connector along 1st Avenue.