Light Rail From UW To Downtown Closer To Reality Today

There's a national transportation bigwig in Seattle today pledging flood relief and the like. Transportation secretary Mary Peters is a Bush appointee, though, so if the rebuilding of NOLA is any indication Rainier will probably erupt before the flood-damaged areas around it are repaired.

The cool part is that she's expected to say something positive about light rail in Seattle, particularly about the UW-Capitol Hill-Downtown line that we have high hopes for.

From the P-I:

Sound Transit requested an initial $700 million to help finance the UW link and later requested $50 million more.

The Federal Transit Administration, part of the agency Peters heads, told Sound Transit a year ago that it was giving the UW project a "high" rating. Ladenburg said he expects the proposal to continue to do well "since it's the same rules" that determine a project's priority.

Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass could not confirm details of the announcement but said "it would not be shocking to me" if the next step for the rail extension was part of the news.

If so, it would be the second major federal grant for the Link Light Rail system. Sound Transit earlier received $500 million in federal cash for the first 15.6 miles of the rail system, between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport.

The agency hopes to begin extending the system from downtown to the university by way of Capitol Hill by mid-2008 and begin operating it by 2016. The initial link from Westlake Mall to the airport is scheduled to beginning running in 2009.

Sources are saying that Peters is loving the light rail extension as predicted and will put in up to $750 million federal dollars for it.