September 1, 2015

Sound Transit narrows list of projects for 2016

Seattle's future could someday include a second downtown transit tunnel and a light rail line running from West Seattle to Ballard, or from Ballard to the University District.

Those are a few of the options the Sound Transit Board identified last week for further study as potential candidates for the November 2016 Sound Transit 3 ballot measure. The agency could seek $15 billion in revenues to pay for projects on the ballot measure.

Studies will be completed over the coming months. The results will help the board decide which of the dozens of projects and studies on the list will make it onto a draft ballot. The agency will release that draft for public input early next year.

In June and July, Sound Transit received thousands of written comments and survey responses on projects from the regional transit long-range plan.

According to the agency, public input showed strong support for extending light rail to Everett, Tacoma and downtown Redmond; light rail extensions to Ballard and West Seattle; and bus rapid transit on Interstate 405.

A few of the ideas are probably nonstarters, such as one suggesting that the agency run light rail between Ballard and West Seattle on the traffic-choked streets of downtown Seattle.

Each of the possible projects will be studied to generate estimates of ridership, operating and maintenance costs, travel times and reliability, potential for transit-oriented development, and other factors such as benefits, needs and potential risks.

The whole list of projects is at http://bit.ly/1UbNEU4.

Sound Transit is getting ready to open the University Link light rail extension early next year. It includes new stations on Capitol Hill and at Husky Stadium. The agency may also open the extension to Angle Lake south of Sea-Tac Airport in 2016.

In 2021, light rail service is scheduled to go to Northgate, and by 2023 Sound Transit is on track to extend service to Lynnwood, Kent/Des Moines and Redmond's Overlake area.