Money Strapped Sound Transit??

The May 8^th Seattle Times front page Traffic Lab article, “Don’t axe future light rail stations, residents urge money-strapped Sound Transit” details concerns about Sound Transit’s approach to an “unaffordable” $23 billion budget.  The result of Sound Transit’s using voter 2016 approval to spend $54 billion on ST3 between 2017-2041 to increase to $195 billion with debt requiring bond payments currently scheduled to end in 2061. Sound Transit’s funding had increased to where the 2026 budget had a staff with 1635 positions with a $1,138,903,000 budget and an 18-member board, each director receiving more than $200,000 in compensation. Thus, Sound Transit gives a whole new meaning to being “money strapped”. 

However, the concern prompted a May 14^th Executive Committee Special Meeting with the following “Recommendation to the Board”

A.   Resolution No. R2026-11: Updating the Sound Transit 3 System Plan to be affordable within available and projected financial capacity 

 

The goal being.to use the available resources to fund the most necessary projects and services that best achieve the objectives of ST3.  The resolution included what the Sound Transit staff thought were projects that were affordable within existing resources, those fully funded and those partially funded, those they considered were not currently affordable, and those that should be deferred. 

Sound Transit’s Quarterly Financial Performance Report Q1 2026 details the latest result.  That Year to Date (YTD) Link ridership, 10,270,000 had paid $12,927,000 in fares for service that cost Sound Transit $122,282,000 to provide.  Subtracting the fares and some additional funding from the cost resulted in light rail already costing $108,679,000 to provide for three months. 

 

A major reason for the high cost is the daily cost of providing service from Lynnwood to Northgate $218,000, from Federal Way to Angle Lake $238,240 and $38,400 from Downtown Redmond to Redmond Technology Station. February boardings for the three, 8948 on Lynnwood Link, 7702 on Federal Way link, and 1023 on Downtown Redmond Link, all far less than Sound Transit predictions.

Yet “Money Strapped” Sound Transit has no problem with approving Resolution No. R2026-11 funding link extensions, boring a second tunnel for light rail to Seattle Center, building a second Duwamish waterway bridge over the Duwamish or the hundreds of millions on maintenance facilities for the light rail train cars that will use them. The Everett Link gets phase 1 and phase 2 funding, whatever that means. They partially fund projects through planning and final design. What gets deferred is parking with access to links.

The bottom line is Sound Transit should have never extended light rail beyond UW Stadium, across I-90 bridge, or beyond SeaTac airport. A fraction of the money spent extending tracks could have been used to add parking for access to transit. 4-car trains don’t have the capacity needed for peak hour commutes and cost too much to operate off peak. 

Buses could have provided transit service to those areas with schedules adjusted to meet peak hour and off peak demand. Instead Sound Transit compounds the problem with plans to use the 4-car trains to replace bus routes into Seattle, reducing capacity into the city. However, they wait to do so until August 29th, after the World Cup, clearly concerned about light rail train capacity. 

Again, the light rail boardings should be a clear warning that ST3 extensions won’t attract the riders needed to justify their cost. That Sound Transit Staff and Board and the Enterprise Initiative spending millions to reduce their cost doesn’t change that fact, it only continues their futile attempt to avoid being  “money strapped.’