The previous post on this blog concluded the Seattle Times Traffic Lab should not abide Sound Transit getting billions in 75-year bonds to fund the ST3 light rail spine along the I-5 corridor. This post concludes the video of the April 10th System Expansion Committee exposes why they shouldn’t increase funding for West Seattle and Ballard portions of ST3 with Resolution No. R2025-10,
The meeting agenda included increasing the budget to advance West Seattle extension from Preliminary Engineering to Final Design Phase from $270,340,862 to $331,740,863 and the adopted 2025 budget from $94,926,236 to $99,998,561. The Ballard Link budget was increased from $806,619,999 to $814,019.999 and the adopted 2025 budget from $96,298,561 to 99,998,561.
The money funded Project Management Support Services (PMSS) and Engineering Design Support (Eds) for light rail from West Seattle across 2nd Duwamish Waterway bridge to SODO and from Ballard though 2nd tunnel also to SODO. They were Sound Transit’s attempts to reduce the eventual cost of both extensions and were unanimously approved by the System Expansion Committee.
While the funding for Eds to reduce the costs seemed normal, it wasn’t clear why the PMSS. However, no one on the committee questioned why the costs had increased nearly $49 million from the 2025 Sound Transit “Adopted Budget and Financial Plan” they ‘d just adopted in March.
One PMSS function could have been reviewing the justification for implementing the light rail extensions from Ballard and West Seattle to SODO. While they had been included in Prop 1 approval, the ST3 costs had increased from $54 billion in 2016 to $150 billion, surely merited some review.
The 2024 debut of the Starter Line and Lynnwood extension demonstrated another ST3 problem: access to light rail trains doesn’t assure ridership. 70,000 residents live within a mile of Starter Line stations and 80,000 within a mile of the Lynnwood Link stations. Yet, in March only 1238 average inbound and outbound riders rode Starter Line and 6643 riders used Lynnwood stations for access to light rail. Most of the Lynnwood boarders were former bus riders whose routes were terminated at one of the stations.
Thus, any PMSS spending should consider whether riders added by light rail from Ballard to SODO or Alaska Junction in West Seattle to SODO would justify the cost of boring a second tunnel or second Duwamish Waterway bridge. Especially since both areas already have excellent service from RapidRide, or other King or Snohomish County bus routes. Bus routes have the advantage of having far more stops for access on the route into Seattle with far more convenient stops in the city.
The bottom line is the increasing cost of Ballard and West Seattle light rail to SODO and the lack of Lynnwood Link and Starter Line riders justify the need for a PMSS study of those ST3 projects that could really cut costs. The April 10th System Expansion Committee approval of Resolution No. R2025-10 without it typifies their incompetence.
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