Unsound Transit

Today's Seattle Times reports on yet another cost overrun for Sound Transit link light rail. The lowest bid to build a tunnel through Beacon Hill will cost $41 million more than originally expected. Sooner or later this will add up to real money:

The Beacon Hill bids reinforce opponents' belief that a total of $7 billion will be needed to finish 24 miles of light rail from Northgate to just south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said John Niles of the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives, which favors express buses.

This page explains the $7 billion estimate, which is double what the voters were sold in 1996.

Sound Transit itself estimates that it will eventually serve 160,000 riders a day. What they really mean is 160,000 rides a day, or 80,000 round trips. Bear in mind that Sound Transit has a habit of badly overestimating their ridership. But if the goal is to get 80,000 people off the freeways at rush hour, for $7 billion you could just pay 80,000 people $87,500 each to either move closer to their jobs or leave town altogether. Ridiculous, yes. But it would be just as ridiculous to spend the same amount of money to build a rigid and disruptive train system that barely makes a dent in reducing traffic congestion.

It's seriously time for a revote on Sound Transit. Do what you can to help the Trust and Transit campaign get the revote on the November ballot.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 15, 2004 04:08 PM