Sound Transit’s Cost Cutting Priorities

The video of Sound Transit’s Executive Committee 4/02/2026 meeting covered discussions about their recent retreat and their capital program approach.  Three illustrative approaches were proposed to “save cost or increase financial capacity” by “deferring” projects that “weren’t in planning or design phase”.  

All three proposed different approaches to extending current 1, 2, and 3 Line routes as well as future 4 Line from Issaquah to Kirkland.  The board could use the three capital program proposals for a modified capital program that delivers as much of ST3 as possible. Charts showed the Sound Transit staff's decision as to  projects to be “maintained” and “deferred”. 

The “maintained” included OMFs North and South that won’t be available until  2032 despite having an existing OMF east. All three included routes through a second tunnel with extensions beyond Lynnwood and Federal Way. Ballard lost access in all three proposals.  West Seattle extension lost Avalon station in 1st approach,  lost access when extension was truncated in 2nd, and was further truncated to eliminate Duwamish bridge in 3rd. 

The problem is all three Sound Transit approaches reflect a refusal to recognize  ST3 extensions won’t reduce the area’s congestion. That  4 car light rail trains don’t have the capacity needed to reduce peak hour congestion on the roads into Seattle and cost too much to operate off peak. That light rail should have never been extended beyond UW stadium, across I-90 bridge, or beyond SeaTac,  That light rail from Ballard and West Seattle won’t have the stations needed for access or the convenient stops in Seattle for egress.

The bottom line is Sound Transit has spent hundreds of millions on light rail extensions, additional light rail cars, and maintenance facilities for those cars.  They are currently planning to spend additional billions as part of their Enterprise Initiative to reduce the cost of continuing to do so,  

They need to recognize public transit priority should be increasing the system’s ridership, not providing additional access to light rail via further ST3 extensions.  That using light rail trains to replace current or future bus routes just adds to the cost of providing that service.