Light Rail Making Us Feel Old

I actually had an extensive conversation about this with their planners about this issue during an open house. There are several things governing this timeline:

1. They won't start on the I-90 bridge rail work until the I-90 two-way HOV project is done. DOT doesn't even know when that is, but the guess is that's done around 2012. So, they're not even putting track on that segment till then.

2. Previous commenters are correct: they're largely funding-limited. Chalk it up to higher property values and no guaranteed federal money to East Link. Also, I believe we are unique in the nation in building a light rail system with zero financial help from the state. Thanks, Gov. Gregoire and the Democratic supermajority!

3. It may be that the East Link portion is done before the system-wide rollout in 2027, although they can be forgiven for being gun-shy about making promises with the all the lawsuits and Eyman initiatives still in their future. But a faster completion is possible, especially if tax revenues come in faster than expected, or if Sen. Murray delivers the pork.

4. It's going to take 20 years to complete the 1996 Sound Move promise by getting to the U-District in 2016 -- so it makes some sense that the 2007 ballot allots 20 years to complete the latest round.

Yo! Those big pointy things that the light rail had to climb up the sides of in Salt Lake are called mountains...Granted, the light rail up to the University only had to climb a couple hundred feet. I'll spot you the ship canals tho...

2027 is the full build-out, meaning Redmond, Tacoma and Lynnwood.

I believe Bellevue will be 10-15 years - depends (just like the first line to the airport) how many frivolous lawsuits are filed. Maybe those clowns in Kemper Freeman land globaltelematics.com/pitf/eta-... want to tell us about their childish plans now.

Salt Lake is actually a good example. Like Seattle, they had their share of bug-eyed anti-rail foamers who claimed cars and buses could do the trick just fine.

Once light rail was up and running, the public stopped paying attention to the whack-jobs.

Their first tax hike included a full build-out of 30 years; then, last November - voters in surrounding counties overwhelmingly approved a measure to speed the process up and make it 15 years.

Something tells me if anti-tax culture war Salt Lake suburbs can do it, so can we. (I dunno. Maybe we should second and third guess it a bunch of times)

In Salt Lake, just like here, it was all about cash flow. The more cash coming in, the faster the projects get built. We've spent our money on freeways, cars and buses for the past 50 years. Only recently did we decide to spend a couple dimes on real mass transit.

Also, they don't have lakes, hills or ship canals in Salt Lake.

Is the writer's point that this generation should follow the same shortsightedness of the generation before us? If so, that's pretty punk rock of her.

I believe it's supposed to be done in 2027. 2030 is just the "forecasted ridership" year. So you'll only have to wait for 20 years! Seriously, though, the reason that we have to wait so long is that it's a huge package -- north from UW to Lynnwood, east to Microsoft, and south to Federal Way or maybe north Tacoma. The SLC project was tiny comparatively.

I believe they included the year 2030 as a projected milestone for ridership, not completion of the project. Or I missed your use of satire...