Limited Benefits of TAG and Consultant Advice

The September 14, 2023, Sound Transit Board’s System Expansion Committee agenda included an update on their response to recommendations from a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and private consultant at the March 2^nd Executive Committee Meeting.  The recommendations had included the need for better relations between staff and board, allow lower-level decision making, align key procedures with industry best practices, strengthen and enforce an agency betterment policy, and engage the FTA as a delivery partner. 

The ST Staff’s update included a pie chart with the status of 22 actions in response to the recommendations.   Two were complete, four hadn’t started, seven needed board guidance and the rest were in progress.  All the actions dealt with how to improve the process for implementing the product, voter approved extensions. No one questioned whether the voter approved extensions would reduce congestion into Seattle.  Instead, the Board decided to continue funding the TAG and private consultant next year.

 

 A competent transit TAG and consultant would recognize the problems with the voter approved extensions.  For example, the October 2021 Northgate Link debut demonstrated the lack of access limited the ridership added by the Link's three stations.  While Sound Transit refuses to release quarterly “Service Provided Performance Report” they still don’t “get it” that lack of access limited riders added by Link to a fraction of 41,000 to 49,000 they’d projected.  The East Link debut, which would have confirmed the problem, has been delayed by the need to redo track attachments.   

 

The Lynnwood Link debut in late 2024 will demonstrate 4-car light rail trains on the "voter approved" extension lacked both the access and capacity needed to replace bus routes into Seattle.  They don’t have the capacity to accommodate the number of transit riders needed to reduce multilane freeway peak hour congestion and cost too much to operate off peak.  Replacing bus routes reduces transit capacity into Seattle and nothing to reduce I-5 congestion.  

 

Riders the extensions do add during peak commute will severely limit, potentially end access for current riders. Costs during off-peak operation will necessitate an increase in tolls or costs that dwarf farebox revenue.

 

The bottom line is, whatever improvements in the process of implementing the voter approved extension to Lynnwood will be dwarfed by the fact ridership was far less than predicted, costs were far higher, current riders lost access, and I-5 congestion into Seattle wasn’t reduced.