WE ARE WEST SEATTLE RESIDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT SOUND TRANSIT’S PROPOSED LINK LIGHT RAIL EXTENSION
While multiple members of Sound Transit’s Board of Directors voiced concerns over the rising price tag of ST3 projects jeopardizing funding for extending Link’s spine, only two members showed any.
“Fundamentally this is a project that has seen dramatic cost escalation — it has gone from $4 billion to over $7 billion. And all our programmatic work that our capital team is going to do not going to pull $2 billion out of this project,” Dammeier said ahead of the vote. “It’s going to still be dramatically over anything we’ve envisioned and anything the system budget can handle in mind.”
Sound Transit Board Rubberstamps West Seattle Link Route, Amid Cost Issues | The Urbanist
How to comment on the West Seattle Light Rail extension: You have less than 30 days
“The comment process for Sound Transit meetings is not easy. These hints might help.”
LETTER: How to comment on the West Seattle Light Rail extension: You have less than 30 days | Westside Seattle
Click for downloadable ST BOD Contact List PDF
More voices on WSLE's soaring costs:
“The Board’s motion shows that Sound Transit is approaching the problem as though it is just about the agency budget, but that narrow view ignores the bigger question raised by the FEIS, which is that despite the extravagant cost the project accomplishes very little.”
The West Seattle Link Extension has gone off the Rails | Washington Policy Center
“While the summary talks about the positive impacts, it misleads the public by not even mentioning any adverse carbon impacts from its construction.”
West Seattle Link and Climate Change | Seattle Transit Blog
Sound Transit expansion continues to be a hot button issue and the co founders of Smarter Transit are calling for a pause on the expansion efforts, despite being big believers in public transit.
Making the case to pause ST3 | Smarter Transit
It's not just us. Other voices on WSLE's soaring costs:
“At this point, it’s unclear where or how Sound Transit can close this funding gap, among the toughest challenges since its founding in the 1990s.”
West Seattle’s light rail estimate soars past $6 billion | The Seattle Times
“The harsh reality is that Sound Transit can’t just absorb cost increases on the magnitude of 40% — let alone the 67% to 77% increase the agency’s new bottom-up accounting method turned up on the West Seattle Link Extension.”
Op-Ed: Sound Transit Should Rethink Light Rail Extensions Beset with Overruns | The Urbanist
“With eye-popping cost increases impacting West Seattle Link, the big question that’s mostly being left unanswered right now is what the state of the larger ST3 program looks like, in particular for West Seattle’s sister project, Ballard Link.”
Sound Transit Board Forges Ahead on West Seattle Link Despite Cost Jumps | The Urbanist
“Sound Transit staff told the Board the more expensive Preferred Alternative would require third party funding, but now they’re assuming Seattle, King County, and Sound Transit will somehow find the funding, which is implausible given the large shortfall.”
Implications of the West Seattle Link Cost | Seattle Transit Blog
“Now that the plans are getting more specific and Sound Transit can do bottoms-up estimates, it turns out that the projects are more complicated, and cost is quite a bit higher.”