Q&A | Waterfront streetcars | The bus tunnel | Discarding old license plates

Q: Everett Weller, of Auburn, is wondering what, if anything, is being done about the waterfront streetcars that rode the rails between the International District and Pier 70. "I found [them] to be very convenient in getting around that part of the city," he said. "The replacement bus is neither convenient nor classic."

A: Metro Transit spokeswoman Rochelle Ogershok says those vintage Australian streetcars are in storage while the transit agency, the city of Seattle and a private developer work out a plan for a new streetcar-maintenance facility to replace the one torn down in 2005 to make way for the Seattle Art Museum's outdoor Olympic Sculpture Park in Belltown.

She says one vision is that the replacement could be part of a new mixed-use development in Pioneer Square.

The thinking is that the streetcars will return. But besides the maintenance-yard issue, that could be dependent on decisions yet to be made about the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

"While the planning process has been complex and time-consuming, Metro still believes being a part of this new development is currently the best alternative for bringing back the waterfront streetcar," said Ogershok.

In the meantime, Route 99 bus service runs a similar route and serves the same districts as the streetcar — but obviously not on the rails. Bus routing and stop locations differ. Metro has tried to ease the loss by "wrapping" the buses in green and gold — the colors of the old streetcars. Rides on the replacement buses are free.

Q: It probably sickens Ben Schroeter, of Seattle, to recall being sickened a few days ago by what he suspects were diesel fumes inside Seattle's downtown bus tunnel. "There are always one or two buses that fail to switch to whisper and run their diesel engines inside," he said. "It's not that bad on the platform [at the Westlake station], but on the mezzanine it gets real bad."

A: Since the tunnel reopened in September, Metro has kept a close eye on the buses, and supervisors have not noticed many cases where hybrid buses were not in hush mode, running off battery power instead of diesel power, said Metro Transit spokeswoman Linda Thielke. Tunnel control-center staff monitor buses throughout the day by cameras inside the tunnel, she said. Those strobe lights on the bus mirrors flash when the coach is in hush mode.

But even in hush mode, hybrid buses still make some noise. They are not completely silent.

"Occasionally, Metro will run a diesel coach through the tunnel because a hybrid is not available," said Thielke. "We try to limit that to infrequent one-way trips." Also, if a hybrid bus experiences problems running off battery power, it is permitted to travel through the tunnel for one trip before heading to the base for a coach change, she said.

"The diesel fumes generated by these trips should not be a serious problem because ventilation fans are always running in the tunnel," she reasoned. "Fan filters are changed on a regular basis."

Bumper recap

A good answer may not always be the best answer. In an item in last Monday's column, state Department of Licensing spokesman Brad Benfield answered a reader's inquiry about discarding old vehicle-license plates by saying old plates can simply be tossed in the trash without worry or legal liability because once new license plates are assigned to a vehicle, state records are changed and the old plates become obsolete.

Maybe so. But readers responded during the week with some observations:

• One reader said she tossed her old plates into the garbage. Three months later, she received a parking ticket in the mail. "Sure, it was easy enough to remedy the situation [with a phone call]," she said, "but I was advised, after the fact, that I should have destroyed the plates before disposing of them."

• A caller said he was advised two weeks ago by a contracted licensing agency to bend his old plates in half before tossing them in a recycling bin.

• Cheryl Fontaine of Lake Stevens said she mailed her old plates to the governor with a letter expressing her "extreme displeasure" at having to replace perfectly good plates. "Not only is this ... a financial hardship on me," she said, "it dumps more garbage in landfills that does not need to be there."

So, here's the latest word: King County's Solid Waste Division encourages recycling of anything that can be recycled, including aluminum, says division spokeswoman Sharon Aller. But the state Department of Licensing has regulations about what to do with old license plates. They can be mailed to the department in Olympia, or dropped off at any local vehicle-licensing office to be recycled.

It is not necessary to bend them before you throw them away, says department spokeswoman Selena Davis. But, she noted, old plates should first be invalidated, if you're going to toss them yourself, by removing the month and year tabs.