Seattle — Expansion Proposals

Rail Transit Online, January 2006

Sound Transit on Dec. 8 unveiled a list of 81 possible projects for its next round of construction, although only a fraction of those will reach fruition.  The agency’s board of directors will whittle down the proposals to a manageable number before asking for voter approval — possibly as early as next year.  “We've got many more ideas than we can possibly afford here,” ST board chairman John Ladenburg told The Seattle Times.  “We've got a lot of tough decisions ahead of us.”  The most ambitious piece of the scheme is a 20-mi. (32.2 km), six-station southern extension of the Central Link light rail system from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Tacoma.  The price tag in current dollars is $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion, which could make the line unaffordable, given the resources available, unless it was built in stages.  Two smaller LRT extensions include a line from downtown to the Eastside and from Husky Stadium north to Northgate.  Also proposed is a two-mile (3.2 km) streetcar line between First Hill and the LRT stations in the International District and on Capitol Hill costing $104 million to $122 million.  This would substitute for the now-abandoned plan to provide light rail service to First Hill.  Other rail transit projects include a line from Everett Community College to Everett Station and another from the Lynnwood Transit Center to Alderwood mall.  Money could also be provided for preliminary engineering on LRT from the King County line to the Ash Way park-and-ride lot and for a study of light rail from the Ash Way park-and-ride to Everett Station.  Finally, the program calls for building bus rapid transit, convertible to LRT when ridership warrants, to Mercer Island, Bellevue, Overlake and Redmond.