VIDEO: Sound Transit gets going on West Seattle light rail, and the rest of its expansion plan

Five months after voters passed Sound Transit 3 – a $54 billion package including a promise of light rail to West Seattle by 2030 – agency leaders declared today that they are “pushing the ‘go’ button” on that and other parts of the system expansion. We went downtown this afternoon for a media briefing preceding the Sound Transit board‘s afternoon meeting at which the draft System Expansion Implementation Plan was officially unveiled.

The speakers in our video of the 21-minute briefing were, in order, ST board chair Dave Somers (Snohomish County Executive), CEO Peter Rogoff, and board vice chairs Marilyn Strickland (Tacoma Mayor) and John Marchione (Redmond Mayor).

Though much of what they said involved generalities about the overall plan, we did get some specifics, particularly as they discussed the importance of “collaboration” with the jurisdictions in which they’ll be building. So, we asked, what kind of collaboration is required with/in the city of Seattle? Rogoff offered one example: A single environmental review for West Seattle to Ballard – even though the two segments will not be completed together; Ballard has a five-years-longer timetable (and will require a new tunnel through downtown). Toward that end, ST has already issued a Request For Qualifications for a key role in the West Seattle to Ballard planning – described in the news release accompanying the briefing as “a consultant (who) later this year will support kicking off planning for light rail between West Seattle, Downtown Seattle, and Ballard.” That solicitation is summarized here; bids are due May 17th.

Overall, ST3 will quintuple the size of the transit network, and Rogoff said they are figuring out everything they can do to facilitate and accelerate it – such as co-locating project teams who might otherwise have been spread out between multiple buildings.

36 Replies to "VIDEO: Sound Transit gets going on West Seattle light rail, and the rest of its expansion plan"

  • ernieusafret April 27, 2017 (6:40 pm)

    WOW, 14 years for West Seattle light rail. I can hardly wait. I’ll be outta here by then.

    Will the last middle class person leaving Seattle turn off the lights.


    • MSW April 27, 2017 (9:27 pm)

      I guess somebody is getting rich on this largest transportation pig trough. And then come the city income tax next. 

      • dawsonct April 27, 2017 (10:27 pm)

        Hopefully the sanity of a statewide income tax, coupled with a DRASTICLY reduced sales tax, will render anything like that unnecessary.

    • Bored in WS April 28, 2017 (10:59 am)

      Seeing as how you have to make $72k/year to be considered middle class in King County, I’m not so worried about them. It’s the people who think they’re still middle class and are actually living below our local poverty line. What good is $15/hour when it still won’t get you even half the way to middle class for working a full-time job?

    • Meyer April 28, 2017 (6:58 pm)

      A big part of the reason is that WA state isn’t contributing funds to this project. Most cities get some kind of funding from the state they are in, we don’t. We also can’t borrow money over a certain amount which further limits our ability to build quickly. I know its a long time but it will be worth it for most people.

  • H April 27, 2017 (8:27 pm)

    I know this kind of infrastructure takes time but I cannot help but be resentful that Everett, Puyallup and Redmond will all have light rail into Seattle YEARS BEFORE West Seattle. And 14 years? Are you kidding me?

    • Dana April 28, 2017 (8:42 am)

      Looking at the timeline Tracy posted from Scribed, I think only Redmond and Federal Way will have lightrail before we do in West Seattle. And from what I remember from the election materials, that is because ST2 funded the early work on those projects.

      Everett doesn’t get light rail on the schedule until 2036, after Ballard. Puyallup is getting some kind of Sounder station improvement work. 

      I agree, it would be nice to get it sooner rather than later. Unfortunately I wasn’t even alive when the good folks of Seattle voted down a mostly federally funded system in the late 60s and 70s. If that had passed then, we’d already have it.

      These are pretty big scale projects, unfortunately there’s probably not much that can be done to shorten the timeline. I’m sure there’s probably plenty of environmental requirements, permits, right of way, etc that have to be looked at and slow it down. At least Sound Transit is building it, not WSDOT (look at how behind schedule the tunnel for 99 is)

  • K8 April 27, 2017 (9:21 pm)

    The increase in density and planning for the light rail station should happen con-currently. We shouldn’t increase the density in West Seattle until there are more concrete plans for the light rail. What I see here is the plan to make the plan for something that will happen in 14 years (depending on funding)

  • Celeste17 April 27, 2017 (9:39 pm)

    Great!  A new tunnel under downtown.  And 14 years and another 5 for Ballard.  I will be 67 and probably not in the state any more.  I voted no on this because of the time frame and the money.  What are they doing with the money they have already gotten?

    • Bored in WS April 28, 2017 (10:50 am)

      They don’t have to anything. We’ve given them a fully-funded mandate to be as useless as they feel like until long after everyone at Sound Transit has collected big fat paychecks and retired.

      My guess is they’ve given themselves raises, hired more staff, and moved into fancier office space. You know, the important things you need to do to be able to plan to think about planning to make plans to build something that will be obsolete before it’s built.

    • Steven Lorenza April 28, 2017 (1:55 pm)

      The next generation thanks you for your selfishness.

  • Dave April 27, 2017 (9:44 pm)

    Well another example of not getting what you paid for

    2030 really, and of course we know they will run ahead of schedule and right on budget.  I am also confident that the won’t ask me in the near future  to open my wallet yet again for additional taxes.  This use to be such a great place to live….very sad for this native son

  • dawsonct April 27, 2017 (10:24 pm)

    This is great! Hope I’m still around and kicking when it’s running (no plans, but you never know…).
    Sure wish enough of my parent’s generation had done their due diligence (Forward Thrust, anyone?), and it would have been up and running and more comprehensive for FAR less money for a few decades now, but the second best time to start a modern mass transit system is today.

    • H April 28, 2017 (8:49 am)

      Ditto that.

    • West Seattle since 1979 April 28, 2017 (9:54 am)

      Yes, this!

    • Meyer April 28, 2017 (6:51 pm)

      I agree completely! Yes this is expensive and will take waaaay longer than I would have hoped but I am excited. Every world class city (except for us) has a strong railway system. This transportation infrastructure will be utilized by many more generations to come who will be thankful we voted for this and stuck it out by paying some extra taxes.

      And yes, even when self driving cars arrive, this will still be necessary simply because a road can not handle enough cars for our growing population.

  • JeffK April 27, 2017 (10:29 pm)

    We’ve won World Wars in half the time it’s gonna take for this.

    • Mike April 28, 2017 (8:16 am)

      We rebuilt parts of Iraq in a fourth the time.

  • Rb April 27, 2017 (11:27 pm)

    It seems like that most people are complaining about the length of time that it takes to build it rather than the necessity of it. I wish there was something that could be done to speed up the building process. Even if people are still paying for it for 30 years but if they get to use it they would complain less. Just my two cents.

  • WS Guy April 28, 2017 (7:28 am)

    An idea that I’ve heard is to build the new ST3 bridge immediately, to carry buses.  Then add the rail over it later.  That way we get more capacity to downtown years earlier.

    I like that idea.

  • Swede. April 28, 2017 (7:34 am)

    Would been smarter to never gotten rid of the old trolleys that already where running over here. 

    And they will not have money by then. The gross overestimated values of vehicles they are doing to fund it is already being taken to court and will likely be voted away with well before they even but a shovel in the ground. 

    @ MSW, You know someone will make a killing on this. Like the 520 bridge, the tunnel etc. the contractors that gets it will make massive profits. 

    • Bored in WS April 28, 2017 (10:57 am)

      Don’t worry, our out-of-touch Mayor Tax Everyone Out of Town will just mandate new taxes on coffee beans, hops, bottled water, internet connections, event tickets, sporting goods, gym memberships, and, oh I don’t know, Costco memberships to make up the difference. He doesn’t have to run them by a vote of his constituents, so problem solved!

      • West Seattle since 1979 April 28, 2017 (11:14 am)

        This is Sound Transit, not City of Seattle.  Hopefully he’ll be voted out in November anyway.

  • rpo April 28, 2017 (8:05 am)

    I just hope they build the light rail into the junction underground instead of on an elevated rail.  That would be quite ugly!

  • wetone April 28, 2017 (10:43 am)

     By time system is built it will serve small amount of population and be outdated. Better bus service with dedicated lanes would be quicker,  much cheaper, able to change routes where service is needed, service areas quicker such as WS with huge population increases, not require hub area and parking for access.

       Washington and Seattle government need to improve I-5 traffic through area, until that happens traffic in city will continue to get worse. That should be #1 concern and where tax dollars are spent, not on ST3. For WS once 99 tunnel opens traffic in and out of area will get much worse as tolls along with the tunnel design issues, a big one being ingress/egress will push traffic to surface streets. Then add new T5 build increasing truck/container traffic in/out of area along with added train traffic to move containers from area which will block east/west surface streets longer. The new overpass at Lander will do nothing if area surface streets are gridlock. Leading to the biggest issue I see for people wanting access to WS and that is WS only has 1 lane access ramp ( 1st ave.) to WSfwy.  Getting back to WS options are I-5, 1st ave, tunnel $, low bridge having more truck traffic soon (T5) and openings. 

     

    • WS Guy April 28, 2017 (11:57 am)

      +1.  We need your voice at the planning meetings.  We are entering an era of innovation in transit and yes, rail could be obsolete in 30 years.  That’s another reason to design flexibility into this – i.e. by building the Duwamish bridge so that it can carry other types of transit and not just a rail line. 

    • Swede. April 28, 2017 (2:18 pm)

      I-5 can’t get expanded or made ‘flow’ more/better by initial design. There is no point of expanding it elsewhere when the two lanes underneath downtown can’t be expanded. 

      • wetone April 28, 2017 (4:42 pm)

        Convention Center should of been moved instead of investing more money into. CC could of been incorporated into waterfront rebuild. Having 99 run on top or thru, or just moved to better location that would allow I-5 to be doubled up. Small vehicles on top big stuff down. Would of been much better investment than tunnel. Now city is doing study for capping I-5 through downtown. Expect traffic in Seattle to exceed LA’s within 10years ;(

  • Fnarkle April 28, 2017 (10:51 am)

     Any suggestions as to when the exact location of the Junction Station will be announced and right-of-way? Will public hearings influence those decisions?  Thanks, WSB, for all you do.

    • WSB April 28, 2017 (11:29 am)

      Getting the alignment and station locations set sooner rather than later was one aspect of the explanation of how they’ll work to keep this on track or even accelerate if possible – so we will be following up. No sooner than 2023 is what we’d heard previously from city planners in response to the question but the chart above shows the “design” phase launching in mid-2022. We’ll ask. – TR

  • Denis April 28, 2017 (2:52 pm)

     Right now sound transit is planning for an elevated station 70 feet in the air at the corner of 41st and Alaska where the small bank is, and I don’t mean the bank of California, the Little bank on the north next to the Jiffy Lube. They are not planning for any underground stations. In the Avalon area the rails will be at least 70 feet  in the air, and it will look like something out of the Jetsons perhaps. The rail run over for the Alaska Junction station extends above Alaska Avenue and ends over California above Alaska Avenue. Won’t that be appealing? 

    • WS Guy April 28, 2017 (9:43 pm)

      Yep that is the “representative alignment” that they used for cost estimation.  No matter how silly or unrealistic it sounds, it’s the cheapest thing they could imagine that could get some YES votes from West Seattle.

      We will have to be pretty vocal in order to get a solution that makes sense here, because it’s starting point is already off track (pun intended).

  • zark00 April 28, 2017 (4:03 pm)

    Liars, crooks and fools.

    They lied about why Microsoft launched shuttle service.

    They lied about ‘Voting No making it take longer”

    They just lie, insult you, lie some more, pat themselves on the back, insult you a few more times.

    Don’t watch that video – it’s very insulting if you live in Seattle, pay taxes and vote.

  • Meyer April 28, 2017 (6:53 pm)

    It looks like I’m in the minority but I am very excited about this. I am proud and happy this area voted yes to such a big and important mass transportation project. Yes it is taking longer than I would have hoped and yes it is very expensive but it is absolutely necessary to serve our growing region – especially since West Seattle basically has one way in and one way out.

  • Al April 29, 2017 (7:54 am)

    I’m psyched for this project to get rolling. Instead of whining about the timeline maybe we could work on finding state or federal funding to speed things up. You always hear a lot about investments in infrastructure from both parties during elections and I’ve yet to see any evidence of that.

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