SEATTLE — Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom spoke to New Day to explain what is going well and what needs more work on the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) and Sound Transit 3 (ST3) plans. He also talked about Sound Transit's new CEO, Julie Timm, and her work to improve public transportation safety and efficiency for riders.
ST2 projects are experiencing a domino effect
Defects have been found in the track support on the I-90 floating bridge, which has set construction back on the Bellevue and Seattle line. This line was originally planned to be the first to open. With this delay, other project openings will be impacted.
One of the reasons is that they won't have access to the new Operations and Maintenance Facility East located in Bellevue. Construction services will only be supported by OMF Central in Seattle. This results in less storage space and maintenance for the new train cars of the Lynnwood and Federal Way extension. This also results in a longer eight-minute Lynnwood Link frequency, which is causing further fears of crowding.
Sound Transit is also spacing each of the grand openings six months apart to implement feedback, run safety tests, and troubleshoot. In other words, a delay in one opening sets another half a year back.
According to a blog post by Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm, the new order for opening these lines could be Lynnwood Link Extension, then the East Link and Downtown Redmond extensions at the same time, and then the Federal Way Link Extension.
Timm also weighed the possibility of opening only a portion of the East Link extension line from South Bellevue Station to Redmond Technology System. This is called the "East Link Starter Line" which could possibly open before the Lynnwood line in spring 2024.
The Sound Transit board has been told by a professional engineer, who's their deputy CEO, that the Lynnwood line could be delayed three to six months. For ST2, there are two scenarios: without the Starter Line, Lynnwood will open in summer/fall 2024, or with the starter line, it could open in fall/winter 2024.
Background:
ST2 is the extension of the light rail from Seattle to Lynnwood, and Seattle to Federal Way. It will also build an extension rail from Seattle to Bellevue. It was approved by a sales tax increase on the 2008 ballot measure, and the construction for the Seattle to Bellevue line was supposed to be done around 2020. However, it took an extra three years to finalize the route alignment. At the time of construction, it was supposed to be done by mid-2023.
ST3 proposed routes are facing community outcry
Communities in both Chinatown-International District and West Seattle have voiced their concerns against new light rail tracks being built in their community.
In Chinatown, Sound Transit has almost gone back to the drawing board considering completely new ideas, such as putting a big double station at Pioneer Square, instead of building in the Chinatown-International District.
That is because there's been a community upswell against the idea of having construction in the district that causes dust and noise, as well as having construction on Fourth Avenue next to the stadiums that send diverted traffic into the neighborhood.
In West Seattle, the Ballard connecting line would put an elevated trackway through an area served by the nonprofit Transitional Resources. This organization has been serving the local community for 45 years and provides housing for people to go from homelessness into permanent housing and also has behavioral health services.
The neighbors have gone to testify in support of not moving any of it to build the trackway. As a result, Sound Transit would have to find some way around that. The end product would be a combination of elevated tracks in the Delridge area and then a short tunnel into the Alaska Junction.
The decision will be made in late 2023, according to the Sound Transit website, when the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is published.
Background:
ST3 is one of the largest local transit tax packages ever in the United States. It costs $54 billion and was approved by voters on the 2016 ballot. ST3 will add 62 new miles of light rail, reaching Everett, Tacoma, Ballard, and West Seattle, as well as Eastside locations of Redmond, South Kirkland, Bellevue, and Issaquah.
The full finance plan to do ST1, ST2 and ST3 includes a network of around 112 miles of light rail extension and totals $142 billion.
New CEO Julie Timm
Sound Transit has a new CEO, Julie Timm from Virginia. She is promising to boost security and station cleaning in 2023. Riders can expect a somewhat better experience this year, though they will need nearly a decade to replace all the worn-out escalators and elevators.
Timm started in September and spent her first several weeks just doing nothing but riding transit, according to Lindblom. She went all across the three counties going to meetings, doing work from her laptop at coffee houses and from the bus to see the conditions.
Another effect that riders will see in 2023 is that the downtown stations will start to improve. There are no major projects, but there's already an effort underway to do more cleaning. There is also a big security contract that is going to be signed soon. Timm has talked about wanting to put more garbage cans in the tunnel.
There are some other ideas that may come up soon about reusing some vacant spaces. Timm is open to the idea of having cafes and snack stands, but that's not going to happen right away.
For more updates, check out the Sound Transit site.