Great news for the campaign today – the Tacoma News Tribune just came out in favor. Definitely head over to their site and have a look!
I like their focus on what comes first. Not just more express bus service, but four new Sounder round trips, and longer trains to boot:
The new buses would show up quickly, and the commuter rail runs would not be far behind. The measure would give Puyallup, Sumner and the Tacoma area four new Sounder round trips to and from Seattle, greatly increasing the capacity of this extremely popular line.
They also point out that this isn’t the end, it’s just another step:
A third vote would be needed to bring the tracks all the way to the Tacoma Dome – but getting the line to Federal Way is likely to ensure a final build-out to Pierce County.
We’ll probably see the final vote in 2016. Before that, of course, we need the state legislature to authorize more taxing authority for Sound Transit. Especially after having ridden the train this week, I think there will be quite a bit of demand for that come the 2010 session. Maybe we can even get state support for the current projects – a few hundred million could get us to Bellevue faster, or get the S. 200th station built right away for commuters from south of Sea-Tac.
Thanks very much to the TNT for coming out in support!
No State support is coming if Rossi wins.
The legislature might just rally against him when public opinion changes. We’ll see.
I think it’s a great sign that the newspaper from the one city that has a functioning light rail is supporting Prop 1. They’ve seen what light rail is like, and they want more.