Sound Transit Ignores Link Ridership

Earlier blog posts concluded the Federal Way extension’s  December 6th debut, like the earlier Lynnwood extension debut, would “Benefit the area” by demonstrating Sound Transit’s light rail trains' failure to attract the ridership needed to reduce congestion. That CEO Dow Constantine’s claim for 200,000 light rail riders to and from the Super Bowl would have taken more than 20 hours.

Light rail ridership should be readily available as riders are tallied by laser devices over the train doors. Yet, Sound Transit continues to delay releasing the results. Their latest data available, the December 2025 “Ridership-Ridership”report showed the three Federal Way Link stations had 4929 average daily boardings. The four Lynnwood extension stations had 8539 average weekday boardings. Both small fractions of Sound Transit pre-debut projections.

 

This lack of ridership would seem to be worthy of discussion. Yet neither the February 12th Sound Transit Systems Expansion Committee meeting video nor the agenda of the February 26 Board meeting included any mention of light rail ridership.

For example, how much did the extensions cost Sound Transit to operate? They currently budget light rail vehicles at ~ $30 per mile. Thus, a 4-car round trip on the 8 mile extension from Angle Lake to Federal Way costs $1920  The 8.5 mile extension from Northgate to Lynnwood costs $2040 per round trip.  Assuming the current schedule requires 120 trips, the Federal Way extension costs  $230,400 daily, the Lynnwood Link, $244,800.

 

Again, the December ridership reports reflect the seasonal variations.  However, the report results in Federal Way’s 4929 riders costing  $49.75 per rider.  The Lynnwood Link’s 8539 riders, $28.67per rider. Those  costs per rider will presumably drop with later ridership data. 

 

The bottom line is the lack of riders on both extensions would seem to merit Sound Transit Board attention, especially regarding additional ST3 extensions  Their continued plans  for extensions beyond Federal Way and Lynnwood indicates they’ve chosen to ignore this harbinger of future problems.

 

Sound Transit’s Dubious Ridership.Data

 The Friday 13th Seattle Times ,Traffic Lab article, “Light rail carried over 200,000 riders on Seahawks Super  Bowl parade day” began with Sound Transit CEO claiming it set  “a local ridership record”.  That “light rail riders are tallied by laser devices over the train doors.”  That “ neither fare income nor ORCA fare card taps figure into the ridership count”. The likely reason, “almost nobody bought tickets or flashed ORCA cards around noon when crowds poured into Stadium Station, the first wave of people heading home”. Presumably reflecting the lack of fare revenue from the “ridership record”.  

Dow Constantine's “ridership record” was another example of a Sound Transit more concerned with the appearance of success during special occasions rather than day-to-day results. The lazer-device results should be readily available. However, the claim for 200,000 riders seems rather “optimistic”.

 

Sound Transit claims their 74-seat light rail car can accommodate up to 200 riders.  Assuming 1 Line train’s normal schedule of 10 minutes between trains, 4-car trains, 6  per hour can accommodate 4800 riders.  If half the 200,000 riders were  inbound and outbound from north of Seattle and half from the south, it would take 20.8  hours to accommodate the 100,000 riders in the two directions.

 

One can only speculate on why Sound Transit “doesn’t typically share ridership  data so quickly”. (Again the lazer results should be readily available.) Their latest “Ridership-Ridership” data available, December, 2025, for the four Federal Way Link and Lynnwood extensions was 7096 and 8539 average weekday riders respectively. Both small fractions of Sound Transit pre-debut projections.  While both are influenced by seasonal conditions, the results should influence any future ST3 decision.

 

The bottom line is future Sound Transit ST3 decisions should be based on available ridership data, not on clearly dubious assumptions.

 

New ST Board Members, Same Incompetence

The video of the February 5th Sound Transit Executive Council followed by that of the Rider Experience and Operations Committee continues to portray the results of a board made up of well-meaning elected officials, several of whom were new, still have no idea what constitutes effective public transit.

The executive council "For Recommendation to the Board" portion of the meeting dealt with the 2026-2030 Sustainability Plan.  Their action plan to "Strengthen fleet decarbonation" was to “Sunset purchases of  fossil fuel-powered revenue fleet vehicles by 2030 and achieve GFG-neutral Link light rail service" and “Update Climate Resilience plan for the existing system”. The presentation concluded with the executive council approving Motion No. M2026-06 directing CEO to implement decarbonization goals and fleet management commitments

 

All the concern about the need to reduce Sound Transit CO2 emissions seemingly ignored the benefit of reducing emissions by reducing the emissions from cars..  The WSDOT 8:00 a.m. average travel times for the 26.86-mile  Everetts to Bellevue took 63 minutes and.the 24.13 miles from Federal Way to Bellevue took 61 minutes. Reducing those travel times for fossil-fueled cars would reduce their emissions.  Reducing  travel times and congestion requires reducing the number of cars on the road.  Thus, adding a bus route, even fossil-fueled, could reduce cars and emissions far more than any Sound Transit fleet reductions.

 

The "Reports to the Committee" portion dealt with the Enterprise Initiative, Economic Development, and 2026 Executive Committee Work Plan.  All detailing plans to spend millions attempting to reduce the costs of implementing ST3 extensions. As usual, the executive committee unanimously approved them, ignoring the possibility of saving billions by simply terminating them instead. 

 

The Rider Experience and Operations Committee meeting raised questions involving the following motion.

 

Motion No. M2026-07: Authorizing the chief executive officer to execute a contract modification with Insight Public Sector, Inc.to provide additional Microsoft software, support, and related maintenance services in the amount of $8,400,000, for a new total authorized contract amount not to exceed $18,255,000 plus applicable taxes.

 

Why was the committee allowed to authorize spending more than $18 million rather than just recommend the spending to the board?  Last year the board passed Motion No. M2025 approving Multiple Award Task Order Contracts (MATOC) with 22 companies for up to seven years and $1,000 million. It stipulated orders exceeding $10 million required Executive Committee or Board approval.  Why was  Insight Public Sector Inc, a Business management consultant in Chantilly, Virginia, approved to spend up to more than $18 million this year by the Rider Experience and Operations Committee?

 

The bottom line is the new Sound Transit Board attempts to reduce carbon emissions and  their Enterprise Initiative attempts to reduce costs for ST3 extensions continue to reflect their failure to recognize what’s needed to reduce emissions snd area’s transit system cost and congestion.

JTC Should Just Say "No"

An August 28th Seattle Times Traffic Lab front page article, “Sound Transit’s expansion plans balloon by up to $35 billion” raised concern the 30-year financial plan could grow by $22 billion to $30 billion, from about $150.5 billion to up to $180 billion. (More recently to $190 billion) The result of the following from a chart in  the August 27th Sound Transit Board meeting:

In total this represents a 20%-25% increase above the current Fall 2024 Long Range Financial Plan before any cost savings opportunities are applied

 

Cost growth on the capital program is approximately $14B-$20B more in 2025 dollars, or $22B-$30B more in year of expenditure

 

With the additional costs included in this plan, the Financial Plan forecasts the need to issue $86.7 billion in debt during 2017–2046.

 

One would think the need to increase lending from $27.9B (2024 Budget) to $86.7B in a single year would be worthy of comment. Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine's response was“everything is on the table,” and he hopes a fresh look will improve future transit. 

 

Rather than propose potential cuts  they passed Motion No. M2025-5, a Sound Transit 2026 State Legislative Program authorizing  Sound Transit staff and consultants in Olympia to: Seek state funding to support delivery of Sound Transit projects and services.

 

Any legislation would presumably be under the purview of the Joint Transportation Committee (JTC). It was the JTC who more than a decade ago raised concerns about light rail/floating bridge compatibility. It led them to commission an independent review team that concluded in a Sept 2008 report, as did the FHWA in a Feb 2009 letter, more needed to be done.    The result was a July 2013 presentation to the board detailing their plans to test their design at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado during August and September and subsequent installation.

 

Since then the JTC has seemed to ignore any concerns with  a Sound Transit.Board made up of elected officials that have demonstrated  a decade of failure to understand what constitutes effective public transit.  That any rational JTC cost/benefit analysis of Sound Traniit’s ST3 extensions would recognize the folly of attempting to use 4-car light rail trains to reduce congestion into the city during peak congestion and costs too much to operate off-peak.  That providing access to light rail doesn’t assure ridership, especially since providing access at light rail stations dwarfs the cost of bus stops.

 

The bottom line is the JTC is currently being asked to provide funds for ST3 extensions that will do nothing to reduce congestion.  It’s time they say "No",