July 10, 2008 – Seattle Transit Blog

The 15 Year Plan That Will Knock Your Socks Off

July 10, 2008July 10, 2008 by Ben Schiendelman

As Martin scooped, Sound Transit has announced their 15 year plan. I’ll let the map and dates speak for themselves:

That’s Link to Bellevue, Highline and Northgate four years after U Link, Microsoft a year later, Federal Way and Lynnwood two years after that. This package also includes more and longer Sounder South trains, bus investments for 545 service to coincide with the new 520 bridge, and the First Hill streetcar.

ST Express hours would be increased 12%, and East Link exactly duplicates the 550, so those hours can go to other routes (which adds several percent, effectively, to that 12%).

Jackpot, folks. This is what we’ve been waiting for. Now we have to get it on the ballot.

Bus Chick on the Bus

July 10, 2008 by Martin H. Duke

I see that the P-I’s own transit blogger, “Bus Chick” (a.k.a. Carla Saulter) is now gracing the side of selected metro buses. I noticed it on the 42 this morning, but didn’t have a camera handy. Luckily Flickr pool superstar Oranviri had my back:

Those of you have been to our meetups will agree that it’s far better that Metro go with Carla’s face than any of the STB guys. :-)

Sound Transit Details Out

July 10, 2008July 10, 2008 by Martin H. Duke

Erica C. Barnett breaks the story — first to a somewhat detailed draft of the plan that will be voted on July 24.

It’s a little smaller and a little faster than Sound Transit 2. In bad news for Seattle, it looks like Northgate slides from 2018 to 2020. The overall cost – $10.4 billion in 2007 dollars – is about the same as ST2.

I won’t steal the rest of her thunder, so go read her reporting. I will concede, however, that if this measure goes to the ballot and passes (big ‘if’s), this plan is good enough to have made the defeat of Proposition 1 and 1-year delay worth it, making me wrong, wrong, wrong.

There should be slides, and so on, at the Finance Committee meeting on July 17.

15-Year Plan Moving Forward While ETA Volleys

July 10, 2008 by John Jensen

The 15-year plan that has long been rumored to go north to Lynnwood and south to Federal Way seems as if it’ll be the one to move forward according to a report from The Stranger:

Sound Transit’s board has just over two weeks to decide whether it wants to move forward with an $8 billion, 15-year plan to extend light rail to Lynnwood, Federal Way, and Bellevue this November. The plan, still in the works, is a volley to board members from Pierce and Snohomish Counties, who were unhappy with an earlier 12-year plan that included less light rail and are still debating whether to support it.

The odd thing about this 15-year plan is that there is no public information about it — it is definitely being worked on behind the scenes. Hopefully at the board meeting later today we’ll see some discussion about it. There’s an political risk here if that 15-year plan goes to the ballot, it would have to be approved by the board before Sound Transit takes has public comment period. The opposition could claim that Sound Transit hadn’t listened to voters — however a smart response would be to say that any new plan is based on feedback during the public review meetings. However, as we’ve discussed here Sound Transit is an odd position of being both a transit advocacy group and a public agency — the latter of which makes running a political campaign impossible.

One unfortunate bit of recent news is that anti-rail ads have begun airing even though Sound Transit hasn’t decided whether to go to the ballot, or what to go to the ballot with:

The Eastside Transportation Association (ETA), funded in part by Bellevue Square developer Kemper Freeman Jr., criticizes light rail in the ads, saying the money would be better spent on roads, bridges and bus service throughout the suburbs. Sound Transit’s governing board, composed mainly of elected officials from urban Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, is split over how many projects to propose.

[…]

The group spent about $50,000 on a two-week blitz, covering 16 to 20 ads a week on four or five stations, including KIRO, KOMO and KWJZ, said treasurer Bruce Nurse, who is also vice president of Kemper Development. He said Freeman is the ETA’s largest funder, but another person donated $25,000 last year. Freeman is a longtime advocate of freeway expansion to reduce congestion.

So I guess that makes us the underdogs, for now.