An article in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer leads:
Sound Transit may not itself be a money-eating sinkhole, but the agency does own one.This is inappropriate editorializing. Sound Transit is too a money-eating sinkhole. The article describes the physical sinkhole:
Sounder's Seattle-Tacoma trains were pulled off a newly constructed 1.3-mile segment of track in January after Sound Transit discovered soil in a new earthen embankment was sinking ... Somerstein said Sound Transit does not know the cause of the problems, how to fix them or when service will return to the tracks.Same damn geniuses who couldn't figure out that more people want pork sandwiches than want vegetable sandwiches. And this has been going on for years:
The introduction of Sounder train service between Everett and Lakewood in Pierce County is many years behind schedule. At one point, Sound Transit had promised to have 15 round trips by the end of 2001. Currently, there are three round-trip trains running between Tacoma and Seattle and one round-trip train running between Everett and Seattle.Look on the bright side. The fewer trains they run, the less money they waste!
Meanwhile, today's Seattle Times has a terrific unsigned editorial endorsing I-894, the Trust and Transit initiative to reassert public control over the "runaway train" of Sound Transit. It's time to either get new permission from the voters to keep pouring money into this sinkhole, or to walk away from it altogether.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 10, 2004 08:51 AMTheir is no bright side. If the trains don't run all of those fixed costs are being or will be spent.
I don't think construction will stop or fewer employees will be hired or any downsizing will take place if the trains can't run. I'll bet the marginal costs of running these monuments to stupidity given the way the agency organizes itself are relatively small. The only thing I'm confident about is the lose of revenues when the train won't run.
Posted by: Gary B on June 10, 2004 10:30 AM