In the News
In Five Years Sound Transit Has Racked Up an Additional 50 Billion for Rail Plan
By Mariya Frost of the Washington Policy Center, May 10, 2022 Since 2017, Sound Transit’s full system expansion went from costing taxpayers $92 billion to an incredible $142 billion, and project completion was stretched from 2041 to 2046. That’s $50...
Nation’s neglected bus stops pose early test for infrastructure money
Along much of the No. 94 route Stevens takes into the city, there are no shelters. That pattern is repeated across the country: Less than one-fifth of more than 122,000 bus stops served by 16 of the nation’s largest transit agencies have shelters, according to...
VTA approves $235 million San Jose BART extension contract — so why is it also reviewing its controversial design?
"The unanimous vote from the board puts the VTA in the unusual position of awarding a $235 million contract that moves forward with the extension’s “single-bore” tunnel plan, while simultaneously launching a new analysis of the contentious design." ...
Sound Transit’s light-rail project to the Eastside is running late
April 28, 2022 Seattle Times Article by Mike Lindblom "...managers blame construction errors, a concrete delivery strike, COVID-19, frayed supply chains and even bad weather." Most disturbing from the article is this: "Progress reports say the prime schedule risk...
Stuck, cracked, crumbling: Mayor Harrell, Seattle bridge repairs can’t wait
April 14, 2022 Seattle Times Editorial Board ...Voters weary of watching their bridges crumble need to know their mayor has a definite timeline for getting this longstanding problem under control, and must hold him accountable if he punts like his predecessors....
Smarter Transit Annual Update – March 2022
Warm Greetings! Our Annual Outreach from Smarter Transit Leads, John Niles and Maggie Fimia (approximately 2 minute read) Hello, Our efforts to hold Sound Transit and our leaders accountable are going on three decades now…that’s how long some of you have been at this....
Seattle Times: New data shows remote work surges, transit use collapses among workers in downtown Seattle
A bus pulls into the boarding/drop-off area at the Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station, adjacent to the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center. (Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times)In 2019, before the COVID pandemic, nearly half of downtown commuters took transit to work,...
Empty trains, deserted stations cost taxpayers billions. Will BART, VTA and Caltrain riders ever return?
A lone commuter waiting for a train. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) Once bustling stations that catered to tech commuters now resemble hushed mausoleums Here's a transit board member -- San Jose's Mayor speaking of the VTA light rail network -- not afraid to bite...
KIRO: Sound Transit failed to perform crucial safety checks before Apple Cup incident, CEO says
Riders balance on a ledge, leaning out to look for an oncoming train, while walking back to the University of Washington Station... (Photo courtesy Daniel Heppner) No one was seriously injured. That’s about the only good thing you can say about the list of...
Seattle Times: Sound Transit report pinpoints cause of the Apple Cup train stall
Riders balance on a ledge, leaning out to look for an oncoming train, while walking back to the University of Washington Station... (Photo courtesy Daniel Heppner) The weight of a fully loaded light-rail train triggered the post-Apple Cup stall Nov. 26, when...
Seattle Times: Sound Transit fares on ‘unsustainable’ trajectory, CEO warns
Revenue from fares on Sound Transit buses and trains has cratered in recent years as operating costs climb, creating a “financially unsustainable” trajectory for the regional transit agency, CEO Peter Rogoff told board members Thursday. Depressed ridership because...
Seattle Times: Sound Transit’s downtown Seattle tunnel would bring riders 145 feet below the street
Mark Nowlin/Seattle TimesIf Sound Transit manages to build a second light-rail tunnel through downtown Seattle, passengers would use elevators, escalators or stairs to descend as deep as 145 feet to catch a train. That new 3.3-mile central-city tunnel would be the...
Opinion: Accountability is Missing for Sound Transit – Maggie Fimia
Here's part of the famous "Paint is Cheap" speech by the head of the Federal Transit Agency in 2010: “Riders often want rail – but you can entice diehard rail riders onto a “special” bus, sometimes by just painting the bus a different color than the rest of the fleet....
Seattle Times: Apple Cup light-rail stall shows Sound Transit’s communication strategy needs to grow up
Riders balance on a ledge, leaning out to look for an oncoming train, while walking back to the University of Washington Station... (Photo courtesy Daniel Heppner) Sound Transit acknowledges what was clear to hundreds of people stuck in the Nov. 26 Apple Cup...
Seattle Times: Frustrated passengers leave stalled light-rail train near UW and walk through tunnel
Light-rail passengers left a stalled train Friday night and walked through a tunnel back to the University of Washington station. The train came to a halt as crowds were heading home from Husky Stadium. (Piper Wilton)A severed cable suddenly halted a northbound...
WaPo Opinion: Metrorail needs to fix more than its wheels. It needs to fix its culture.
A train arrives at Federal Triangle Metro station in D.C. on Dec. 1, 2020. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Metrorail, the transit network on which hundreds of thousands of people depended daily before the pandemic, is limping along, a shadow of its once-robust...