Sound Transit to Eastside: You suck until 2027
The Times reported this morning that a new sales tax initiative will likely be floated before voters next fall to approve funding for an extension of light rail to Overlake, Tacoma, and Lynnwood (which wouldn’t be complete until 2027, at the earliest). Additionally:
Other projects in the “ST2″ plan include a Seattle streetcar linking Capitol Hill, First Hill and the Chinatown International District; stations and parking garages for Sounder commuter trains; partial funding for a Burien bus-transit center; and land purchases for a future Lynnwood-to-Everett light-rail corridor.
My unbridled enthusiasm for this [and almost any transit-related] project is tempered by the fact that I’ll be middle aged before it’s complete. By that time, I’m not sure I’ll want to ride the rail to my first colonoscopy on First Hill.
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Y’know, I’m all for planning for the future, but….
2027?????? I’m all about mass transit and stuff like this, but that’s just insane.
I still do not understand why Seattle is so far behind other cities when it comes to transportation, especially public transportation. I look forward to light rail, which should have been in service already for numerous year (and no, the monorail does NOT count).
Of course, the other bitch I have with Seattle transportation is the lack of expressways. We all know that I-5 does not cut it, but that’s another story. (Thanks all of you who bashed plans for more expressways in Seattle and the metro area in the 70s. You all probably have moved by now.)
That was an unbelievable article. Light rail hasn’t started running, and we’re talking about $17B extension! Hold your horses, ST, but isn’t the under-construction Central Link line 5 miles shorter, more expensive, and 4 years late from what was promised to the voters in 1996?
So 3 years (at the earliest) before a single person gets on Link, ST is proposing a $17B extension of the line? You want me to approve that? Are you kidding me? There’s no chance they can deliver on even half of their promises at anything that even remotely resembles their estimated costs. I’m trying not to be cynical, but this is ridiculous. There has to be some accountablity here. I got an idea, how about we propose another transit agency (as was actually talked about earlier this week)! Somebody help us.
you can thank your pal Ron Sims for the amazing amout of overpaying and screw ups for ST sucking like it does.
That and the almost sexual obsession guys like Dow Constantine, Mark Sidran, and others had against “light rail”. They got re-elected and made their cashola - and you the citizen are left holding the bag of flaming poo!
HAW HAW I’m glad I escaped to Portland!!