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 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 this design at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado during August and September.
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. That providing access to light rail doesn’t assure ridership, especially since providing access at light rail stations dwarfs that 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,
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