Jerry Johnson, foreground, and Don Clifton model the “Ride the S.L.U.T.” t-shirts
at the Kapow! coffee shop in the Seattle neighborhood
of South Lake Union.
Credit: Andy Rogers/Seattle
Post-Intelligencer
This is unrelated to anything in Los Angeles, but MetroRiderLA readers could use a laugh once in a while.
Dateline: Seattle.
The unofficial name of a neighborhood streetcar has stuck, and it’s a most unfortunate acronym. The Trolley line is the South Lake Union Trolley. Yes, SLUT.
This is one of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s most read and e-mailed stories.
In reality, the official name of the service is the South Lake Union Streetcar. SLUS. But that’s not nearly as funny. The funnier acronym was just an urban legend, but one that’s enduring. One coffeehouse — how Seattle – is even printing up t-shirts saying “Ride the SLUT,” with a picture of a streetcar to give wearers a point of reference.
South Lake Union Trolley Streetcar Map
See also:
Perhaps if we could get a fun name for the some new lines, we might find more funding and support?
I am drawing a blank…. any noms?
Comment by raphaelmazor — September 22, 2007 @ 11:50 pm
If you look through some past Years in Transit, you’d find some clever acronyms for Ventura County transit systems. Of course, no city up there is ready for streetcars.
Comment by Wad — September 23, 2007 @ 3:44 am
Ventura County’s Gold Coast Transit was just recently renamed from the South Coast Area Transit. Interestingly currently there is still the South County Area Transit for the Five Cities area of south San Luis Obispo County. You guys can put together the acronyms for those.
Comment by Tony — September 23, 2007 @ 5:49 am
Thank you, Wad for getting the story correct.
The S.L.U.T. acronym was NEVER seriously proposed, or even thought of, by the transit agency in Seattle.
But I’ve read many articles and heard people say on the radio that the agency actually officially adopted South Lake Union Trolley as the line’s name, for like a minute, until they realized what it spelled out, then hurriedly changed it to South Lake Union Streetcar. That never happened.
S.L.U.T. was always an unofficial nickname, made up by who knows who, somebody in the public, but obviously promoted by the guys selling the t-shirts.
Thanks for having more journalistic smarts than many mainstream publications. And they say blogs are unreliable.
Comment by Scott Mercer — September 23, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
The credit cannot go to me, Scott. The P-I and a few other blogs pointed out the correct name (SLU Streetcar), and that the SLUT acronym was an urban legend.
That being said, SLUT may actually be a plus for the streetcar. As this meme is being fed, there are going to be a lot of people visiting Seattle and asking the locals where or how they can ride the SLUT.
The joke will get old quick, but it would also bring many more people into the neighborhood. Who knows, this might be a gaffe that becomes an unintentional payoff.
By the way, in other Seattle transit news, the Tunnel is reopened. It’s pretty cool that Seattle built a subway for buses. Now, though, the buses will share tracks with the light rail.
Comment by Wad — September 23, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
if only they had a catchy acronym for that moronic monorail they built
Comment by tykejohnson — September 24, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
tykejohnson: The monorail was really just built for the World’s Fair (most World’s Fairs in the past 40+ years had monorails) and was only meant to be temporary. Fairs, amusement parks and airports are places where monorails DO work, urban transit is where it doesn’t. So building it wasn’t moronic, but retaining it probably was.
Comment by Militant Angeleno — September 24, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
Perhaps they can get the funding to build SLUT from Paris Hilton.
Comment by Militant Angeleno — September 24, 2007 @ 6:15 pm
well maybe LA can host a worlds fair and finish the subway in its honor. just think how truly blown away the world will be when they see a “subway to the sea”!
Comment by tykejohnson — September 25, 2007 @ 10:46 am
The monorail in Seattle isn’t all that big, it’s only 1.2 miles long; compared to our local monorail (lest we forgot), the Disneyland monorail is 2.5 miles long by comparison. Now only if Disney could extend their monorail to the Anaheim Metrolink station. As for our “Subway to the Sea”, it’s inevitable that it will be built someday. Metro is holding four meetings next month (listed in their news release on their homepage) to discuss options to going west on their rail system, not just from Wilshire/Western, but also from Hollywood/Highland.
Comment by Tony — September 26, 2007 @ 1:39 am