Where Sound Transit Should Go

A recent Seattle Times included a front page Traffic Lab article asking, “Where does light rail go from here?’.  Residents who have waited decades for their promised light rail stops and paid Sound Transit taxes since 1997 are beside themselves.  The paper reported Sound Transit was “weighing postponing and cutting stations to reduce cost,” as well as “chasing money to close $35B gap”. 

The article typifies the  Traffic Lab failure to recognize Sound Transit’s ST3 extensions won’t reduce the area’s congestion.  4-car light rail trains don’t have the capacity to reduce peak hour congestion on routes into Seattle and cost too much to operate off peak. Light rail extensions beyond UW stadium, across I-90 Bridge or beyond SeaTac airport don’t increase that capacity, they only increase  train operating costs. Yet Sound Transit is spending hundreds of millions extending the tracks, millions more attempting to reduce their cost, buying light rail cars to run on the tracks, and adding maintenance facilities to service the train cars that do.

Even more absurd, Sound Transit is using those  trains to replace bus routes into Seattle, reducing transit capacity into the city and nothing to reduce GP lane congestion. The more the extensions, the more the lost capacity, and more transferring riders reducing access for current riders 

Sound Transit should  recognize that providing access to light rail at stations doesn’t assure riders.  Boardings on light rail trains from Lynnwood,  Federal Way and Redmond were far less than predicted, yet Sound Transit continues to insist on light rail beyond Lynnwood, Federal Way, and light rail from Kirkland to Issaquah.  

They don’t acknowledge potential future Ballard and West Seattle-to-SODO riders already have better access to bus routes into downtown Seattle with more convenient options for egress into and access out of the city.  The benefits of bus stops costing a tiny fraction of a light rail station and ending the need for boring a second tunnel under Seattle or constructing a second Duwamish Bridge.

The bottom line is light rail could go to a far better place if Sound Transit would recognize the folly of ST3 extensions.