Of course it wouldn’t be cheaper. The idea is to defer the tunnel until it is clear that it’s needed.

But really, if one only spent a modest amount on a BTC style station, the at grade part (not the retained cut and elevated parts) would probably be only about $40 million. That would be all that would be wasted with a two stage plan.

Cindy,

If the ST option is selected, 110th NE is far from a major street and there is no “neighborhood” through which it passes between Main and NE 6th. South of NE 4th it’s a small business neighborhood which will probably be swept away by high rises over the coming decades whether Link runs down the street or not.

Honestly, I’m not trying to sound “snarky”, but what’s to impact negatively. Well, yes the cross traffic on NE 2nd and NE 4th would be impacted until a tunnel was built.

Everyone,

It’s kind of strange that no one has noticed this, but it looks to me like the “alternative” shown in the Bellevue Blog post linked in the topic header shows the 110th NE Tunnel alternative (C9T). Assuming that the “standard” conventions that ST has been using in its documents until now, there is not one yard of track between Lake Bellevue and the bottom of the diagram that is shown as “at grade”. The black dashed line is the tunnel symbol.

I wish that the actual “hybrid” option had been mapped out. I guess that will happen next Wednesday.

Frankly, if I didn’t think light rail passed the library-and-park test, I wouldn’t be for it. It’s a test the automobile has dramatically flunked.

It’s easy enough to say “it has to be a tunnel” — and everyone agrees that would be better — but finding someone to pay for it is a different problem.

You could cut something out of East Link — say, Overlake — but aside from that someone’s going to have to pay more taxes. Bernie and I had a really interesting conversation about this at the end of the Wallace thread.

Some people like driving cities. I don’t, I won’t live there, but as long as they don’t screw over the system, I don’t see the problem with letting Bellevue pull a three monkeys and desperately cling to their faith in the allmighty auto.

Time will tell if the faith was misplaced or not.

What the heck does that mean? Only investments that make an economic profit are worthwhile? Why do we bother with libraries, parks and community centers then? Not too many private investors building those either.

“Nobody’s throwing in money to support light rail except politicians”

The public is throwing their money behind it, by choice.

Could it be that there is an actual tangible benefit to at-grade light rail

Could be if any of these were private investments instead of entirely government subsidized. The economic viability of trains make sense when Berkshire Hathaway buys BNSF at a big premium. Nobody’s throwing in money to support light rail except politicians buying votes with tax payer dollars. Sure the federal government promotes cars. If they didn’t I wouldn’t have just bought a brand spanking new Subaru but $4500 free money was hard to resist. Thank you Senators Murray and Cantwell. Even after I wrote them and pointed out what a bad policy decision it was they still voted for Ca$h for Clunkers (twice). The point, transit “investment” is highly skewed. Not to say that oil isn’t a root evil but transit spending isn’t immune to that influence. Neighborhood groups on the other hand by and large aren’t beholden to special interests. Real estate developers, Wright Runstad comes to mind, are entrenched in promoting government subsidy that benefits their cause.

I do agree with you that each area has different requirements and needs a solution tailored to it, but I think we should that the experts and elected officials decide what’s appropriate and cost-effective, not neighborhood special interest groups or real estate developers.

the 108th tunnel would be about $550-$600m more than the at-grade couplet. I believe that though this sounds like a large expenditure, it is definitely worth it

The money isn’t there. This is like the argument that RV should have been a tunnel. The choice was at grade or nothing. There is absolutely no funding package that’s been proposed. Reality may suck but it’s still reality. 405 and 520 lines are pure fantasy at this point. Not only isn’t there funding there’s not even a plan. 20-30 years into the future is hard to predict. The rail plans from 2-3 decades ago wouldn’t work with the reality today. When I need a reality check it’s fun to go work on my ’65 and ’66 Mustangs. No turbine powered cars today, the 60′s equivalent of today’s hydrogen fuel cells. No end of oil as the oratory in the 70′s predicted.