Neither County Executive Candidate Gets ST Problem

The October 9^th Traffic Lab article detailing where King County executive candidates stood on light rail epitomizes the Sound Transit debacle.  Neither candidate recognizes Sound Transit’s real problem.  The ST3 light rail extensions voters approved with Prop 1 in 2016 won’t reduce the area’s congestion. 4-car trains don’t have the capacity to attract the riders needed to reduce multi lane freeway peak hour congestion and cost too much to operate off peak. That providing commuters with access to light rail trains doesn’t assure they’ll ride them.

Sound Transit compounds the light-rail-train-capacity problem by using trains to replace bus routes, reducing transit capacity into Seattle. The more the extensions, the more the lost transit capacity, and the less access for current riders during peak hour commutes.  The longer the extensions, the greater the light rail trains operating costs off-peak. Thus, Sound Transit should have never extended light rail beyond University Stadium, across I-90 bridge, or beyond SeaTac.

Boardings from Sound Transit’s 2024 Starter Line and Lynnwood Link debuts demonstrated having access to light rail trains doesn’t assure ridership.  The 1400 stall Marymoor Village Parking garage had fewer than 100 cars.  The 9 Starter Line stations attracted 9500 boardings in July. However, since the boardings presumably reflected inbound and return trips, only 4750 riders, less than half the 11,000 daily passengers in Traffic Lab article, rode the Starter Line. 

The question remains as to how many commuters will be attracted by having access to 2 Line route across I-90 Bridge and beyond to Lynnwood. Those using the Starter Line for the commute into and out of downtown Bellevue won’t. Thus, how many Starter Line boardings will the cross-lake extension add?

Sound Transit will use the 2 Line extension to replace Express Bus 550 Route into and out of Seattle, forcing commuters to find access at Bellevue T/C or East Main Station. All those riding I-90 corridor cross-lake bus routes will be forced to transfer to 2 Line trains on Mercer Island. (Neither candidate  recognizes the once over-crowded parking garages in Issaquah, Eastgate, and South Bellevue are largely empty.) The lack of access for 550 Route riders and the need to transfer for those using the parking along with the hassle of finding access in DSTT for the return ride will likely dissuade many commuters from using transit.

Again, Sound Transit’s other problem is that providing commuters with access to light rail doesn’t assure riders. 80,000 residents living within a mile of Lynnwood stations resulted in only 8462 daily riders in July, a fraction of the 24,400-35,000 predicted. The transit options already available for Federal Way area commuters will "likely" limit 1 Line boardings for  Federal Way Link in December to far less than the 20,000 projected.

The bottom line is neither King County Executive Candidate recognizes Sound Transit problems.  That a staff of 1600 with a budget over $1billion is spending hundreds of millions on “outside” help to better implement ST3 extensions that won’t reduce congestion. 

The December debut of Federal Way extension and next year’s 2 Llne I-90 debut route will demonstrate both candidates lack transit system competence