Sound Transit Board’s Funding Approval?

The August 10^th Sound Transit System Expansion Committee meeting agenda included the following: 

 For recommendation to the Board  

Motion No. M2023-67: Authorizing the chief executive officer to increase the agreement contingency for the construction agreement with the Washington State Department of Transportation for the design-build delivery of the I-405/NE 85th Street Interchange and In-line Freeway Station for the I-405 Bus Rapid Transit Project, in the amount of $16,259,000, for a new total authorized agreement amount not to exceed $303,519,000. 

4.   Motion No. M2023-68: Authorizing the chief executive officer to execute a modification to the contract with Jacobs Project Management Co. for on-call general engineering consultant services for the Stride Bus Rapid Transit program, in the amount of $81,000,000, with a 10 percent contingency of $8,000,000, totaling $89,000,000 for a new total authorized amount not to exceed $193,000,000, all within the approved Stride baseline budgets. 

Thus, the System Expansion Committee meeting which previously approved spending $500M on a Bus Base North that wasn’t included in ST3 for servicing 48 Stride buses just approved paying WSDOT $303.5M to “design-build delivery” of a 1-405/NE 85^th Street station that doesn’t have parking for access to buses.  They also approved increasing funding from $104M to $193M for “on-call general engineering services” for Stride Bus Rapid Transit program without any questions as to why cost nearly doubled. 

 

All this increased funding raised questions regarding as to what gave the Board the ability to increase “approved baseline budgets”.  Again, authorizing spending $500M for a Bus Base north not in ST3 and $300 million on a station without parking. Yet no longer funding parking at Kingsgate, 44^th St in Renton, and South Renton that was included in the ST3 map.

 

Even more important is what gave Sound Transit Board the authority to use light rail to replace bus routes into Seattle.  In 2016, voters approved Prop 1  ST3, funding a $54B transit system expansion between 2017 and 2041.  That approval was surely based on the assumption that a transit system expansion would add the capacity needed to reduce roadway congestion into Seattle.  

 

Instead, the Sound Transit Board is now planning to spend $145B between 2017 and 2046 on light rail extensions to replace bus routes.  The Northgate link was used to replace ST511-513, ST522 and KCM41 into Seattle.  The Lynnwood Link extension will replace ST510 and all the Snohomish Community Transit 400 series buses.  The Starter line will replace bus routes from South Bellevue P&R into Bellevue.  When East Link debuts, it will replace all I-90 corridor bus routes into and out of Seattle.  Reducing the number of buses reduces transit capacity and little to reduce congestion into the city

 

The bottom line is the Sound Transit Board plan to use ST3 funded “voter approved” light rail extensions to replace bus routes won’t increase transit capacity.  It will increase costs and reduce transit flexibility.  The question remains what gave them the authority to spend so much for so little.