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Sound Transit Plan goes on the Ballot
July 25, 2008
As expected, the Sound Transit Board this week unanimously approved placing a 15-year mass transit package on the November ballot in the Central Puget Sound area.
If voters in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties approve, the plan will create a 53-mile regional light rail system and also rapidly increases express bus and commuter rail service.
The package’s capital projects will cost $13.5 billion in year-of-expenditure dollars that include inflation estimates. Adding operations, maintenance, reserves and debt service through 2023, the cost is $17.9 billion including inflation. Funding would come from a 0.5 percent increase of the local sales tax, or approximately $69 annually for each adult in the three-county area surrounding Seattle.
Some of the construction details of the 15-year plan include:
-- Northward expansion of light rail from the University of Washington to Northgate by 2020, with a further extension to Lynnwood by 2023.
-- Eastward expansion of light rail to Bellevue and onward to Overlake Transit Center in Redmond by 2021.
-- Southward expansion of light rail to Highline Community College by 2020 and Federal Way’s South 272nd Street area by 2023.
-- Funding to increase access to transit facilities in Auburn, Edmonds, Kent, Lakewood, Mukilteo, Puyallup, South Tacoma, Sumner, Tacoma and Tukwila. Projects will be tailored to the needs of each location and may include expanded parking; pedestrian improvements at or near stations; additional bus/transfer facilities for improved feeder service to stations; bicycle access and storage; and new and expanded drop-off areas to encourage ride-sharing.
-- Planning studies to evaluate further mass transit expansions in future phases. These studies will focus on future extensions from Lynnwood to Everett; the University District to downtown Seattle via Ballard; Burien to Renton; downtown Seattle to Burien via West Seattle; South Bellevue to Issaquah; and along the SR 520 corridor between Redmond, Kirkland and the University of Washington and further west into Seattle. Funds for preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisition are included for the future continuation of light rail from Federal Way to Tacoma.
More information on the plan is available at www.soundtransit.org.
Sound Transit’s system of regional express buses, commuter rail and light rail currently carries about 55,000 riders each day, a number that should more than double following the 2009 opening of light rail service between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac International Airport. Construction of that light rail line is on schedule and is more than 90 percent complete. Expansion of Link light rail between downtown Seattle and the University of Washington is slated to begin this year and be completed in 2016.
Posted by Carl Molesworth on July 25, 2008 | Comments (0)
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