Looking Back On 2025

Looking back on 2025 was another year of Sound Transit failing to recognize the folly of extending light rail for 4-car trains for ST3.  That 4-car trains won’t provide the capacity needed to reduce peak hour roadway congestion and cost too much to operate off peak.  Thus, light rail tracks, limited to 4-car trains, should have never been extended past UW Stadium, across I-90 Bridge and beyond SeaTac airport.  

Those areas already had King County Metro, Snohomish Community and Pierce County Transit service that could have been increased to meet future needs. Funds used extending tracks could have been better used to provide parking for increased access. Instead, Sound Transit continued to provide riders by using light rail trains to replace the buses. Reducing  the transit capacity into Seattle, nothing to reduce freeway GP lane congestion, and reducing access to transit for those nearer the city.

 

2025 was a full year of routes demonstrating providing access to light rail trains doesn’t assure ridership.  Riders for the extension from UW Stadium Station to Northgate and beyond to Lynnwood were far less than Sound Transit predicted and should have ended plans for extensions to Everett.  Ridership for the  2 Line Starter Line from Redmond to South Bellevue was also less than predicted, 

Plans to use 2 Line trains for half  the routes to Lynnwood will result in problems for safely merging the two return routes.  Increasing 2 Line trains from two to four cars will double the operating cost but add few riders. Plans to use the 2 Line to replace ST550 will reduce access for many current commuters.

2025 was also the year of the Multiple Award Task Order Contracts (MATOC) when 22 companies were authorized to spend up to $1B and 7 years providing “Project management/construction services” purportedly to reduce costs.  Yet Sound Transit’s approved 2026 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan apparently included $382 million and 1321 positions  for system expansion, something they’ve been doing for more than a decade.  Spending up to $1B reducing the cost of additional track extensions could be far better spent improving reliability of trains on existing extensions.

The bottom line is 2025 was another year of a Sound Transit  Board spending more money attempting to reduce costs on light rail extensions that won’t reduce the area’s congestion.

.