All posts by Lizz Giordano

Looking for ways to accelerate the delivery of light rail, Sound Transit is considering using private-public partnerships (P3) for ST3 projects. But to take advantage of potential savings, CEO Peter Rogoff warned the Board it “would have to cede some decisions to a private vendor that it customarily reserves for itself.”

P3s are a procurement form which uses a single private entity for the design, construction, and possibly the financing, long-term operation, and maintenance of projects. The partnership offers several potential benefits to public entities, including reducing risk and costs, lowering agency workloads and providing additional debt capacity, without having to privatize the project.  

Reducing agency workload

In the short term, P3s are more work for public agencies, which are still responsible for completing both the environmental review and design specifications for the bid process. In the long term, however, the partnership can eventually transfer a lot of work to the private company, freeing up agency resources.

“When we are facing a project list [for ST3] this long, if there is an opportunity to have a public/private consortium take on an entire project, and not therefore have to grow the staff as robustly… just relieving us of some of that bandwidth would have some benefit,” Rogoff said during the Thursday Executive Committee meeting.

Risk Transfer and Cost Savings

Once contracts are signed, ST would lock in a cost and timeline for the project, along with (if applicable) a long-term operational cost agreement, passing future risk onto the private company. Continue reading “ST Explores Private-Public Partnerships”

In an effort to improve the speed and reliability of southbound buses along Interstate 5, late last year the Sound Transit Capital Committee approved funding for a bus-only shoulder lane between the Lynnwood Transit Center and the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.

The Committee also approved funding for a feasibility study that would identify other potential opportunities to expand the program.  

The I-5 bus-on-shoulder project is part of ST3’s Early Deliverables Program, a “series of improvements designed to improve existing transit services, reduce travel time through bus-on-shoulder operations and other related transit priority elements, and construct new park-and-ride facilities.”

ST says the 1.4-mile project is basically shovel ready, requiring minimal modifications including the addition of signage and lane striping, and improvements to pavement and drainage. For this project, ST is partnering with WSDOT, who has already completed the design and environmental review.

Construction on the project is anticipated to begin in the third quarter of 2018, with the operation of the lanes starting before the end of the year.

Continue reading “Sound Transit Launches ‘Bus-on-Shoulder” Program”

State Senator Steve O’Ban (R-Tacoma) continued his pursuit of a directly-elected Sound Transit Board, grilling lobbyists defending the transit agency’s current governance during a public hearing on Senate Bill 6301 Wednesday. But now that a Democrat chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, it’s not likely the bill will even get a vote in that committee.

A similar bill, SB 5001, passed the Republican-led Senate in 2017, but the House Transportation Committee didn’t act on the legislation.

Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens), who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said he didn’t see the bill going anywhere. The public testimony did not convince him a directly-elected board was needed.

Currently, the 18-member Sound Transit Board is comprised of 17 locally-elected officials appointed by each county executive and subject to approval by the county council. The State’s Transportation Secretary also sits on the board but is a non-voting member. Ten of the board members must be from King County, four from Pierce County and three from Snohomish County.

SB 6301 would replace the current board with 11 members elected from single-member districts, with the first election held this November. To draw the lines for the 11 districts, the governor would appoint five members, who represent all five sub-areas, to a districting commission.

Continue reading “Bill to Directly Elect ST Board Not Likely to Get a Vote”

In a 60 to 37 vote Wednesday, the Washington House of Representatives once again passed legislation to lower car tab fees, reducing funding for Sound Transit.

The bill adjusts the rate of the motor vehicle excise tax (MVET) Sound Transit collects. ST3 uses an MVET schedule from the 1990s, which critics say inflates the value of cars and increases the cost of renewing car tabs. Wednesday’s bill would change the valuation system and provide a rebate for past payments.

Many House Republicans argued the bill did not go far enough.

“This bill will provide some relief,” said Rep. Mark Harmsworth (R-Mill Creek) during floor debate January 24. “It even got as bad, Madame Speaker, that we had a bill introduced that has to create a payment program to pay for our car tabs… But we will take what we can right now.”

Last week the House tabled voting on the bill, HB 2201, in order to consider offsets to restore some or all of the funding the agency would lose due to a switch in the formula that tabulates car tabs.  ST estimates the agency would lose $780M in direct funding over the next 11 years, with indirect financial impacts, such as higher debt costs, costing the agency nearly $2.3B.

The bill easily passed out of the chambers last year but then lingered in the Senate.

Continue reading “MVET Bill Passes House Again”

Democratic legislators are reexamining legislation that would lower car tab fees, reducing funding for Sound Transit and potentially delaying the expansion of light rail around the region.

According to the News Tribune, State Sen. Marko Liias, (D-Lynnwood) said the party is looking at a range of ways to lower car tab fees, but also limit the hit to Sound Transit’s bottom line.

“I’m not with the transit advocates in believing that this is sort of the sky is falling and we’re not going to get light rail,” Liias told The News Tribune. “But I also am convinced based on everything we’ve seen over the last year it probably makes sense to just have a conversation about how we make sure light rail gets to Everett and Tacoma like it’s been promised.”

Last week the House tabled plans to vote on HB 2201, which passed easily out of the chamber last year with both Democratic and Republican support.

The bill adjusts the rate of the motor vehicle excise tax Sound Transit collects. ST3 uses a motor vehicle excise tax schedule from the 1990s, which many have criticized as inflating the value of cars and increasing the cost of renewing car tabs.

If passed, ST estimated the agency would lose $780M in direct funding over the next 11 years, with indirect financial impacts, such as higher debt costs, costing Sound Transit nearly $2.3B. Voters passed the $54 billion transit package in 2016.

Continue reading “House Tables Vote on MVET for Now”

To “promote safety and deter crime,” King County Metro Transit recently began testing two new safety features: driver shields and public viewing monitors, the agency announced in late 2017.

For one pilot project, Metro plans to install public viewing monitors on the 33 buses serving the RapidRide A (Tukwila to Federal Way) and F (Burien to Renton) lines. The public viewing monitors connect into the security system already installed on the buses. Metro describes the 15-inch color monitors that will be placed above each of the three boarding doors as “simply an extension of the cameras that are already in place.”  

“The idea is when people know they’re being recorded, they’re less likely to engage in bad behavior or put others at risk,” wrote Scott Gutierrez, a spokesman for Metro, in a blog post announcing the safety features.

According to Metro, 56 percent of its fleet is already fitted with security cameras, including all of the RapidRide buses. The video is continuously recorded and stored onboard the bus. Metro retrieves the video as needed for an investigation or incident report. Once hard drives fill up, the old video is overwritten with the new video.

“For video unrelated to investigations or incidents, Metro’s policy states our intent to store it onboard for a minimum of 15 days,” Gutierrez wrote in an email. Continue reading “Metro Pilots Two New Safety Projects”

Sound Transit laid out a new process to streamline project development for the Ballard and West Seattle Link Extensions, emphasizing the need for key decisions to be made this year to expedite the delivery of light rail. Major considerations include two water crossings, the configuration of the new downtown transit tunnel and the locations of the future stations.

To reach consensus on a preferred alternative by mid-2019, ST convened two new advisory groups to facilitate public engagement. One, an elected leadership group, is comprised mostly of Sound Transit Board members and Seattle city councilmembers. The other, a stakeholder advisory group, will consist of transit riders, residents, business owners and community organizations. The agency announced ths Thursday during a joint meeting of the Seattle City Council Sustainability and Transportation Committee and Sound Transit’s elected leadership group on January 4.

Of the 25- to 30-member stakeholder advisory group, 5 will be chosen by an open application process and confirmed by the elected leadership group. The rest will be appointed by the elected leadership group, 19 of whom were announced during Thursday’s meeting. (See below for names)

The stakeholder group is scheduled to meet roughly every two months beginning in February and will be tasked with recommending a preferred alternative to study during an environmental review phase to the elected leadership group. The group’s application deadline is January 22 at 5pm; for additional questions contact Sound Transit at 206-903-7229 or email wsblink@soundtransit.org.
Continue reading “ST Launches Advisory Groups for Ballard and West Seattle Link Extensions”