(The Center Square) The Chairman of the Sound Transit Board said he will present a new plan in the next few weeks to accelerate construction and reduce costs to address an almost $35 billion shortfall in funding to build out the light rail system.
But Dave Somers, also the Snohomish County Executive, made it clear that a key priority in his plan will be finishing the six-station Everett link in his home county and moving it ahead of schedule.
The light rail extension was originally scheduled to be finished in 2036, but has been pushed back to between 2037 and 2041.
The link is also over budget, anticipated to cost between $6.8 billion and $7.7 billion, at least $1 billion more than was originally anticipated
Somers told a transit forum in Everett Tuesday night that he would bring forward a plan that is “affordable” and within the approximate $180 billion budget to expand the light rail system.
To loud applause, Somers said that would include finishing the Everett link on an accelerated schedule.
Somers, speaking to The Center Square Tuesday night after the meeting, said he did not want to reveal the full details of the plan until it was officially released. But he said the plan will mean the elimination of a planned light rail transit line to the Ballard section of Seattle, because new financial estimates have made it cost-prohibitive.
“They can’t get all the way to Ballard with the budget they have,” he said.
While cost overruns and inflation have left light rail officials short $34.5 billion to complete the transit system, the Ballard extension has seen the largest cost increases.
It is now estimated to cost more than $20 billion, twice its original cost when voters approved a bond issue for the transit system in 2016.
Somers said that while the cost overruns on the Everett line are manageable, building Ballard would require scrapping the Everett expansion and the expansion south to Tacoma in Pierce County.
He said both Everett and Tacoma, the last stops in either direction, are considered “the spines of the transit system” and are essential to providing public transit throughout the region.
Eliminating Ballard would put Somers at odds with newly elected Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, who is also on the Sound Transit Board, and with Seattle City Councilman Dan Strauss, who represents Ballard and is another board member.
Wilson ran for office last year on a pro-public transportation agenda and built her political reputation as head of a city transit riders’ union focused on expanding public transit and making it affordable.
Wilson and Strauss did not respond to requests for comment. Strauss said at a community meeting last month that eliminating the Ballard “was not an acceptable option.”
He said ridership on the line could be as much as 170,000 passengers a day, more than on any other light rail line
The Sound Transit Board, which has 18 members, is expected to decide which future part of the rail system will have to be cut at a meeting in either May or June.
The West Seattle line is next to be built with a scheduled completion date of 2032. The line is scheduled to cost between $4.9 and $5.3 billion, which is also over budget but less than the $6.2 to $6.5 billion plan Sound Transit presented in the fall.
The reductions have been made by scaling back the size of one station and eliminating a second stop.
Tuesday’s meeting was sponsored by the Transportation Choices Coalition, a group advocating for the finishing of the light rail system.
“Our message to the Sound Transit board is to build the damn trains!” Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Kirk Hovenkotter told the meeting.
When voters approved a $53.8 billion bond issue in 2016 to expand light rail, they agreed to pay higher taxes and auto registration fees to fund the expansion for up to 75 years.
