25 Replies to "Will West Seattle light rail move forward? Key decision possible tomorrow at special Sound Transit Board Executive Committee meeting"

• CarDriver May 13, 2026 (1:24 pm)

  I have yet to hear anyone state that there will be no more cost overruns. Nobodies concerned?? We do need light rail. Question is: are people so desperate that they will saddle all of us, our kids, our grandkids with a mountain of debt that will probably still be there when light rail wears out and needs to be replaced??? Just remember: The ST board that got us the overruns aren’t paying anything out of their pockets.

  • Kyle May 14, 2026 (7:33 am)

    It’s actually quite simple, they’ll need to cut miles and stations from their plans. They can’t add more debt without another public levy, so they will try to cut what they promised first and see if there is backlash. This is all political grandstanding to see who gets cut. Pierce county residents are mad they’ve been paying the same tax rates as King county for years with little to show for it. Hope West Seattle makes the cut, otherwise we’ll just be subsidizing transit options elsewhere in the region. “Indefinitely deferred” is political speak for cut. The other option will be some fanciful “Sound Transit Sustainability and Modernization” named levy to pay for what they promised under previous levies but couldn’t deliver.

  • KEEP THE RAIL May 14, 2026 (8:35 am)

    Why worry about something that doesn’t exist yet? Debt in infrastructure is better than personal debt to car and oil companies. Public works is self-fulfilling and pays for itself. FDR/New Deal proves this. We need these projects in a dark economic period like now. The taxes are so minimum compared to the extremely high benefits. Stop the Seattle Process meetings already, and build NOW. Building NOW saves costs.

• THOMAS May 13, 2026 (1:48 pm)

  I hope not we dont need it,it is also a waste of money our side streets in Seattle need work they are in terrible shape besides that the cost overruns are going to get worse leaving us to pay the bill again 

  • THOM LANGLEY May 14, 2026 (9:16 am)

    THOMAS, you clearly don’t understand government.  Any and all tax money allocated for Sound Transit and not spent won’t go to the City of Seattle to fix potholes!  If you want potholes fixed, contact your city councilperson or get a petition started to raise money by a ballot measure.  Sound Transitvmoney is a dedicated funding source; you are mixing apples with oranges!  

• David Haines May 13, 2026 (3:29 pm)

  No mention dow Constantine is totally UNQUALIFIED to build rail or keep unions, inspectors, and sound transit honest. no mention that sound transit wants to go to the exact same location as the 140 million rapid ride that goes to Alaska junction while only wanting to stop off in delridge home with a gun toting criminals who are going to be bringing guns onto the trains.
  and no mention of the fact that the rapid right d to Ballard goes to the same location the transit train wants to go yet no effort to create Transit signal priority to provide green light priority for buses to get people to and from West Seattle and Ballard without even needing a train or to Seattle center without sitting on traffic lights on third ave

  • Burgerman May 14, 2026 (9:21 am)

    What a barely veiled classist and maybe even racist comment. That is not what Delridge is all about. It’s a mixed-race, mixed-class neighborhood, that is slowly gentrifying. Gun-toting criminals can be found in all parts of the city and Delridge isn’t specifically a hot zone for that. Many, many people of all economic classes and walks of life will be using light rail from Delridge Station. You propose eliminating the stop to avoid criminals? How do we determine who is a criminal and who isn’t? What makes you better than everyone else? Are you saying only rich law abiding people should get to use light rail? I can’t believe you and your comment haven’t been thoroughly excoriated yet. Unacceptable thought process.

• Build the rail May 13, 2026 (3:31 pm)

  Build it and build it quick. 

• Scrap the Rail May 13, 2026 (10:47 pm)

  I have my fingers crossed that the West Seattle section never gets built. This insane project has gone on for WAY too long. #StopTheMadness

  • Pookie May 14, 2026 (9:11 am)

    You’re already paying for it.. DERP

    • Scrap the Rail May 14, 2026 (7:06 pm)

      Derp, I hope you’re not so naive to realize that they’ll come back for more money 2 or 3 more times before it’s ever done. There’s been so much bleeding already and it’s time to cut our losses.

• Ab May 14, 2026 (6:23 am)

  For political reasons I think full build out to Tacoma and Everett are gauranteed.   Anything else beyond the required maintenance I think will be on the chopping block depending on how costs for those pan out.

• Noko Marie May 14, 2026 (6:23 am)

  Please send your comments  to EmailTheBoard@soundtransit.org,  and meetingcomments@soundtransit.org   Many of the people on the Sound Transit board are new to the job!  Many were appointed by CEO Constantine, and most of them get information  solely from Sound Transit staff, and from Transportation Choices Coalition, Sound Transit’s paid lobbyists (with our own tax dollars).  If you want to avoid paying for West Seattle light rail for the next 75 years you must speak up. $5 billion for 4 miles of track that will take only 5400 riders a day only to SODO is outrageous, but it is in the works – unless you speak up,

• KEEP THE RAIL May 14, 2026 (8:34 am)

  PLEASE for the love of god and the future of Seattle in this high gas price times we live in, just BUILD WHAT WE VOTED FOR!

  • CarDriver May 14, 2026 (9:06 am)

    Signing a blank check and saying “I’ll pay anything. It doesn’t matter what it costs” is a politician’s dream.  Just because you’re glad to pay any amount doesn’t give you the right to saddle everyone else with a mountain of debt of unknown final amount.

  • helpermonkey May 14, 2026 (9:07 am)

    we also voted for the Monorail. I’d rather see that than this boondoggle. 

• Gary May 14, 2026 (9:06 am)

  As a rail fan who hates driving, I don’t see how this is practical for West Seattle.

  Assuming the West Seattle extension is built by 2032, the best-case scenario is we have a well functioning stub line with two stations that ends at Sodo–not downtown–for 7 years, until 2039, when it is projected to go through downtown. (Given ST’s track record of delivering years late, likely closer to 2034 completion with it going through downtown in 2040-something.)

  This enhanced busway plan makes much more sense to me because it’s cheaper, faster, and better serves different West Seattle neighborhoods: https://seattletransitblog.com/2026/05/04/west-seattle-downtown-via-sodo-busway/

  I get how people think the stub line will make our city feel more cosmopolitan, and we want to promote any and all mass-transit projects, but it’s important to take a step back and really look at what we’re trying to achieve. Our population isn’t growing the way it was in the 2010s. While the ST decision-makers want this to be their legacy, they won’t be the ones paying for it (or making two- or three-seat commutes).

  • DC May 14, 2026 (12:04 pm)

    The entire board lives in the taxed areas. They and their families are paying for it in exactly the same way you are. And a number of them even live in West Seattle. They may well be making the same two seat commutes.

• Derrick May 14, 2026 (9:34 am)

  Build it already. Include Avalon. We need density and access to rapid transit. Gas prices will continue going up and if we invest now the future will be even brighter.  

• Ron Osborne May 14, 2026 (10:09 am)

  Let’s give up on Light Rail to West Seattle & focus on workd class flexible mass transit that envelopes with changing demographics.  At well 8 billion dollars its simply not worth it, especially given how much more effective & flexible different sized bus transport can be.

  • Foop May 14, 2026 (11:19 am)

    How flexible is a bus stick in traffic backed up on the Delridge bridge ramp?

    • WS Guy May 14, 2026 (12:47 pm)

      Build the new bridge as a bus-only bridge instead of a rail bridge.  Problem solved. 

      • K May 14, 2026 (3:38 pm)

        The buses already have their own lane on the bridge.  The bridge is not where the buses get stuck, it’s when they merge back with regular traffic to get downtown.  Which your bridge idea does nothing to resolve (and would likely exacerbate).

        • WS Guy May 14, 2026 (8:17 pm)

          Are you aware of the SODO busway?   The off-ramp for a dedicated bus bridge should go directly there, not merged into traffic and then unmerged.  That route would go directly past the existing ST station.

• Dysfunction May 14, 2026 (10:15 am)

  Sure, build it. Just with the budget they promised. Do what they need to do to cut it to the bone to keep it in budget. Nobody voted for a blank check for it, although Sound Transit pitched this in ST3 with no set plan to get over the river and an exact route. The curtain is finally pulled back and Sound Transit has shown its complete incompetence to most voters in the district so that there won’t be anymore future extensions 

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