Times Transparency Concerns: Too Little and Too Late

The Sept 28^th Seattle Times Opinion page editorial urged “Washington lawmakers and regulators bring more transparency and accountability to the powerful forces raising billions for transit projects in the Seattle area.” While knowing who is providing Sound Transit support may be relevant, it’s far more important to provide “transparency” about what those policies will cost residents and what their benefits will be.  Times “transparency” concerns on those issues has been far “too little and too late”.

For example the Times has yet to provide “transparency” concerning the increased taxes residents have to pay for ST3.  GOP legislators alleged in a Sept 27^th B1 article , “Sound Transit misled the legislature, and voters, in the way it calculates car-tab taxes”. 

Sound Transit Director of Media Relations and Public Information Communications & External Affairs, Geoff Patrick had responded earlier to the issue with the following:

Sound Transit's interactions with the legislature and all of the extensive public materials related to the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure included clear and accurate information.   That the legislative language allowing regional voters to consider the Sound Transit 3 measure was extensively debated and covered by news media.

Yet Sound Transit referred to their own website ST3tax.com, “How much tax per year will you pay for Sound Transit if ST3 passes” in their 7/8/2016 post voters, “ST3 plan would cost typical adult $169 annually or $14 per month”.  The Seattle Times parroted those numbers in a 7/13/16 article.  

A newspaper concerned with “transparency” would have revealed Sound Transit removed the ST3tax.com website later that July.   That the Sound Transit approach to providing “clear and accurate information” was to eliminate the website they used to mislead voters.   The Times either ignored or were unaware of Sound Transit’s duplicity.  Their failure to mention how the discontinued ST3tax.com “might have” mislead voters even in the recent article suggests the former.

The Times is also very late in providing “transparency” concerning what readers will get from the increased ST3 taxes.  They will get a light rail “spine”  routed through a Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) that severely limits its capacity.  The Puget Sound Regional Council concluded in an August 2004 “High-Capacity Transit Corridor Assessment” that DSTT station lengths limited trains to 4-cars and that safe operation required 4 minute “headways” between trains. They chose to assume 148 riders in each of the 74-seat cars limiting light rail capacity through Seattle to 8880 riders per hour (rph). (The 2004 PSRC report, like the ST3tax.com website, is no longer available on the internet.)

The billions spent extending light rail beyond UW to Everett will do absolutely nothing to increase that capacity. Tacoma and Redmond extensions will presumably each be limited to 4440 rph.  All the ST3 extensions would surely fail any rational cost/benefit analysis.   The increased operating costs with longer route lengths, with no increase in ridership will also require either a large increase in fares or a huge increase in subsidies to cover the fare box revenue shortfall. 

The Times fails to provide transparency regarding light rails limited capacity, high cost/benefit, and likely financial black hole.  Instead they allow Sound Transit to claim ST3 extension riderships that are sheer fantasy.  For example claiming the extension to Lynnwood and beyond to Everett would add up to 118,000 daily riders.  Even a fraction of that ridership would fill the extension’s limited capacity before the trains reach UW.  It would take more than 21 hours for the Central Link extension to Tacoma to accommodate the up to 95,000 additional riders Sound Transit’s claimed for the ST3 extension to Tacoma.   

Light rail operation along I-5 extension will, at least during peak commute, end access for those currently using Central Link.  Sound Transit’s confiscation of the I-90 Bridge center roadway for East Link’s share of DSTT capacity will force the vast majority of cross-lake commuters to choose between expensive HOT fees on HOV lanes or gridlock on GP lanes. 

The Seattle Times needs to provide more “transparency” for those commuters.