WEEKEND PREVIEW: Here’s what Rethink the Link plans at Saturday forum

As previously reported here, tomorrow (Saturday, January 25) is the day the light-rail skeptics of Rethink the Link are planning a public forum at the Center for Active Living. We asked organizers for updated details of the planned 10 am-noon event – here’s their summary:

The purpose of this town hall is to host a community discussion of Sound Transit’s West Seattle light rail plans. A gallery will display maps of the route segments, station maps, and charts of properties impacted from the Alaska Junction to SODO. This will give people an integrated look at what the West Seattle Link Extension light rail project entails.

Our group discussion will be framed by five topics will be posted on display boards; Cost escalation, Ridership changes, What voters approved, Environmental disaster, and Better, More Workable Transit Alternatives. Neighbors are invited to write their questions on those topics (on sticky notes). Each topic will be given a 15-minute time block to help maintain focus. All comments will be tallied and posted on rethinkthelink.org website.

We have invited Mayor Harrell, King County Executive Constantine and our other elected representatives to join us. As we did not ask them to RSVP we do not know if any (or all) will be attending.

The center is at 4217 SW Oregon. Meantime, exactly three months after the Sound Transit Board approved routing and station locations for the West Seattle Link Extension, the agency continues to await the formal federal Record of Decision, most recently estimated as likely to come out next month. The current estimated opening timeline remains late 2032.

CarDriver January 24, 2025 (5:22 pm)

While valid concerns will be raised here the reality is that the pro light rail people have happily signed a blank check and DO NOT care what it costs or who gets displaced.

Reed January 24, 2025 (8:38 pm)

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Similar to the continuing blank checks for car infrastructure?
- CarDriver January 25, 2025 (11:59 am)
  
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  Reed. No. Worse than.

Justin January 24, 2025 (5:44 pm)

10:00 am this Saturday? I’d rather spend that time doing something productive – like folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom, or staring at a blank wall.

Pete January 24, 2025 (7:04 pm)

So can someone explain to me the purpose of this event? I do not see anything new to be presented that this group has not already regurgitated repeatedly. I am also curious to what happened to their planned panel of experts that were going to discuss this project. Sounds like the same type of open house that Sound Transit has held on several occasions with displays and explanations.

WSB January 24, 2025 (7:39 pm)

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The first line of the quote from organizers is exactly their answer to that question, which I had asked. (“The purpose is …”) I don’t have their speaker list nor the exact format for the 2 hours.
Foop January 24, 2025 (8:47 pm)

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It seems like an event for them to spread more lies about the light rail in an attempt to hamstring the project
Martin January 25, 2025 (8:35 am)

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Pete, it’s one thing to listen to Sound Transit’s vision of the future with light rail zipping downtown and to the UW in a few decades, it’s another thing to discuss what they actually plan to do short term: a stub from the Junction to SODO. You have spent quite some time with the plans, but I’m not sure how many people had the same opportunity to understand what will get built, the impact to our neighborhoods, cost, trade-offs, and actual timeline. I’m looking forward to have some real discussion about any of those aspects at the forum.
- Platypus January 25, 2025 (10:01 pm)
  
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  It is a little disingenuous to call it a “little spur to SODO”. It’s going to SODO to connect to the existing, and already amazing Link system. When someone gets off the little spur at SODO, they will get off one train, and walk across the platform to then actually go to UW, not in decades but when the west seattle system is working in 2032. AND then then it will only get better from there. The connection to the massive existing Link network is what we are paying for.

Griff January 24, 2025 (8:01 pm)

These people are exhausting. The purpose of this committee is to wear down a community that has overwhelmingly supported the project and continues to do so. They are here to delay delay delay and offer no legitimate solutions to the transit woes that befall our isolated peninsula. Enough.

Sam January 25, 2025 (10:46 am)

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Before building something exotic and untested like a train, we must first stop and study common sense solutions like shooting commuters out of a cannon and into a large net downtown.
Lauren January 25, 2025 (3:00 pm)

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100%.

Derek January 24, 2025 (8:15 pm)

I promise I’m not being cynical or mean here but why do these people get attention over pro transit groups? I truly don’t get it. They’ve been lying and disengenuous every step of the way. The gaslighting must stop. And I don’t know a single person on my block or friend group in west Seattle that thinks these people aren’t a joke.

WSB January 24, 2025 (8:54 pm)

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They’re not getting attention “over” anyone. If/when a “pro-transit group” has a meeting/forum/walking tour/whatever in West Seattle, we’ll of course cover it too. So far, none lately. We’ve covered EVERY West Seattle meeting and issue related to this project, whether Sound Transit, advocacy groups, community coalitions … archived: https://westseattleblog.com/category/sound-transit

and that doesn’t capture all the early stuff (I created the category tag at some point after ST3 and have never had time to go back and add it to absolutely everything in the early years).
anonyme January 25, 2025 (6:23 am)

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Derek, if you truly care about information that is “lying and disingenuous” or “gaslighting” you should take a look at the original proposal sent to voters. Almost everything about it has been proven false, from climate benefits and traffic reduction to cost. Most riders will still have to bus, bike, or drive to the station, so it will make no sense for them to transfer rather than just staying on one bus to go downtown. WS already has adequate transportation to downtown; what we don’t have is adequate public transport within WS. If anything, this could increase vehicles on the road as well as parking requirements. A practical solution would have been to place the station either at the east or west end of the bridge, with frequent shuttles. Jen, below, has it right.
- Platypus January 25, 2025 (10:05 pm)
  
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  What about going to UW, the airport, up to Northgate, or now as far as Lynnwood. The east link will be open this year so someone could work at Microsoft and live in West seattle and get there at the same time every day regardless of traffic. The Link system works today, really really well. This build out connects us all to that great system

WSBReader January 24, 2025 (9:15 pm)

Bring on the light rail!

Jen January 24, 2025 (10:01 pm)

What does the light rail give is in WS that we don’t already get from riding the bus? I really don’t understand. It just goes from here to SODO. It seems like a lot of money and time to spend on something that just goes a short distance. I think the other light rail routes are great. What am I missing? I really want to understand.

A future January 24, 2025 (11:29 pm)

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What light rail gives us that buses don’t is “a future”. Seattle is a growing thriving city and the fires in LA only make this more true. We have great tech jobs, no income tax and a much better climate when considering global warming. That trend isn’t going to change. And we need to grow for affordability, sustainability and equity. Buses broke our bridge and they congest our over stressed roads. We need to grow for all of the above reasons. I do think we deserve a better plan (we could probably save $4 billion running the route down Fauntleroy – and closing Fauntleroy not Alaska to cars – by not building the tunnel to the Junction and not buying, only to tear down Jefferson Square). We need this train to grow the way we need to. You can’t build the city of the future without a major investment in infrastructure. And the city of the future isn’t built for the people who occupy it now. It’s built by people who want to leave the next generation set up to thrive. We need this infrastructure. Please don’t ruin this for our children and grandchildren.
- Ivan Weiss January 25, 2025 (9:32 am)
  
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  @ A Future: Do you know what grows like you want Seattle to grow? Cancer.
  - Bbron January 25, 2025 (5:46 pm)
    
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    couldn’t be me equating fellow citizens with cancer…
Bill January 25, 2025 (12:07 am)

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Yeah i kind of agree. I’ve been/lived in some slightly to hugely bigger cities with “normal” subway systems. They cost a LOT but in the end they certainly deliver on ridership, reliability and long term economic mass transit. (NYC, San Francisco, Atlanta, DC, Sydney Australia, Istanbul Turkey). What the economically timid but transit-enthusiastic electorate has here in Seattle is Portland-style cheap electric buses on rails. Link will NEVER economically move people or make any dent in car traffic. I believe light rail is timid, cheap ill-advised and ultimately just a novelty. Not a transit solution. So yeah, not a lot different than our current “free range” bus system, other than being electric powered, harnessed to rails, and more “cutesy”. Any subway, and even our politician-doomed monorail, would have been a far better transit solution – monorail of course killed by greedy elected officials who had already bought into (literally with their own money invested in) Sound Transit. What a waste of OUR time and money.
- Martin January 25, 2025 (6:42 am)
  
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  Good point, Bill. You don’t even need to travel far to find such solution: Vancouver’s SkyTrain has been running at high frequency for decades moving a ton of people. Instead of light rail, we could build one connecting Ballard and SLU and ultimately to First Hill. It could connect with the existing light rail at Westlake and Mt Baker. Sound Transit estimates 57,000 riders daily on such line, if it serves First Hill it might be even more. That would make a lot more sense than a light rail stub connecting the Junction to SODO which (internal records show) is estimated to have 5400 riders. I’m looking forward to some good discussion at the Forum.
  - Jacob January 25, 2025 (9:35 am)
    
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    No one would ever take swinging Gondolas across the Bay with ship traffic we have. And when it gets stuck like everything does, you want to be in a tiny area with strangers suspended over the sky? No. Build the train.
  - KM January 25, 2025 (9:39 am)
    
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    Gondola! Everyone take a drink.
- Bbron January 25, 2025 (8:53 am)
  
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  “Link will NEVER economically move people or make any dent in car traffic.” you got any numbers for that, or do you operate like most anti-transit folks and base everything in feelings rather than reality?
  - CarDriver January 25, 2025 (1:53 pm)
    
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    BBRON. Please share YOUR numbers(not feelings) that prove light rail will economically move people and make road traffic less.
- BlairJ January 25, 2025 (9:27 am)
  
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  Bill,What makes the biggest difference is grade separation. The ST3 system, when built out, will be largely grade separated. Grade separation is what gives people a way to get around the traffic congestion. Surface transit performs less effectively is those areas and times where traffic congestion is the worst. The West Seattle Link Extension will eventually provide (with the exception of two grade crossings in SODO where Link will have the right of way) grade separated transit from West Seattle to at least Lynnwood, with easy connections to other grade separated lines.Yeah, I wish the short sighted voters in 1968 would have approved the Forward Thrust proposal which would have built a heavy rail subway system. And I wish the fist Link light rail line had been built fully grade separated from the airport to downtown. This is our best bet at this time to continue building a network of grade separated transit lines for future generations in our area.
  - Scarlett January 25, 2025 (12:02 pm)
    
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    Yes, as has been discussed, better planning decades ago along with the commitment to put it into action might have given up either a subway system or a direct, grade-separated rail to the airport, but it’s too late. Implementing light rail at this point with its somewhat limited capacity and restricted ability to cavass a large area, is not mass transportation infrastructure. It’s an “option” but the question is whether it’s worth it.
- Platypus January 25, 2025 (10:11 pm)
  
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  @Bill, “Link will NEVER economically move people or make any dent in car traffic.” Here is a link to the Sound Transit Ridership numbers. Link moved 1.7 millions people in December, and 2.4 million in October. These number are growing. If that’s not putting a dent in traffic, I don’t think you would want that many more cars.
  
  https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/system-performance-tracker/ridership

Prosperity Now January 25, 2025 (6:12 am)

These undemocratic pressure groups should not stop the onward march of light rail construction. If anything the project is not bold enough. Build it already.

Scarlett January 25, 2025 (7:19 am)

Light rail is not a transit solution, it isn’t and it won’t be in the future. It hasn’t ameliorated traffic congestion on any of the highways or roadways in Seattle and it certainly won’t have any signficant effect on traffic bottlenecks in and out of West Seattle. Individually, yes, but we don’t spend billions of dollars for a subset of public transportation riders and then stick a “mass transportation” label on it. This is a classic example where the emotional appeal and novelty of a concept – a train – overwhelmed sober, critical analysis of it to deliver real results. Other factors are going to far, far more important in determining density and how we deal with it, and in the interim is better to improve our bus transit system.

Crowski January 25, 2025 (8:00 am)

I’m looking forward to this event, which is hosted by a pro-transit group focused on doing what’s right for West Seattle with an environmentally friendly, lower-cost transit system rather than a $7 billion light rail system.

Aaron G January 25, 2025 (8:33 am)

West Seattle light rail couldn’t come soon enough. Buses get stuck in traffic, are expensive to maintain, are slower, aren’t integrated into the light rail network, have a heavier carbon footprint, and have way less capacity.

Kristian Kicinski January 25, 2025 (8:53 am)

Just get it built. I don’t care if it’s not perfect. It’s close enough. I thought the 99 tunnel was an expensive boondoggle and that there were better options. But in the end, SOMETHING needed to get built and in the end the tunnel mostly works.There’s always another option for how to solve problems but you can’t debate the pros and cons of every single possibility for ever and ever. You have to just build something.

Jacob January 25, 2025 (9:33 am)

These are the Gondola people and not at all honest in how the system is going to eventually shape out and keep this silly “only goes to SoDo” nonsense as if transferring is hard or something people can’t do. It also eventually goes further when it shares with 1 line.

Scarlett January 25, 2025 (12:12 pm)

This piece of spendy infrastructure pork is already D.O.A. in mind, and I’m looking forward to the next boondogle, with attached glowing promises, that is coming down the track. The older I get the more I realize that that extraction of money from people’s pockets to go into other pockets is the same on both sides of the aisle, and accompanied by the same “public good” pitch.

Derek January 25, 2025 (1:39 pm)

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Amazing how much you hate housing and density all for what? A view? Hatred of change? What is truly driving your weekly asinine rants on this topic Scarlett? The boondoggle is how much is spent without oversight on car infrastructure, but you’ll remain silent on that.
- Scarlett January 25, 2025 (9:17 pm)
  
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  You’re offering a false choice, Derek. Get back to me when you have an actual argument. Cheers.
- Car driver January 26, 2025 (1:46 pm)
  
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  What car infrastructure? Whatever we have was built decades ago. Everything new being built of only for transit, bikes, buses and vanity waterfront projects

Chad January 25, 2025 (8:14 pm)

Maybe we should look at the current Link metrics, then decide what to do. As a daily user, I can say that I get to work on time about 70 percent of commutes. 20 percent of the time, I’m an hour late, minimum. 10 percent of the time, I don’t get there at all, end up on a bus to nowhere, then call in sick. Plus, 5 percent of the time, I step in human excrement. Only once did someone pull out a gun, so that’s good. I’d love it if we got the current system running at least as good as a south American dictatorship. After that, we can talk about expansion.