Ouch! Retired transit service planner Jack Whisner accuses the @sound-transit.bsky.social board of taking a "ridership minimization vote" last month, by planning for years of a West Seattle-Sodo standalone rail spur less convenient than the WS bus services (until/unless Ballard/Sodo is built).

My coauthor pulled their name because they couldn't risk losing funding from the project delivery industry. That is politics, but it should also raise big red flags. We need to start saying the quiet part out loud and we should be able to say it without fear www.seattletimes.com/opinion/soun...

Sound Transit's 2003 FTA audit set up a decade+ of delivery success. California HSR is delivering major works after legislative reforms and creating a Inspector General. Better is possible, @skubly.bsky.social sets out the case for reforms to build the ambitious network approved by voters.

Including WA's own Rick Larsen, ranking Democrat on the committee, who is signing off on these huge cuts. One of the reasons Sound Transit's decision to scale back ST3 rather than find new financial tools or cost savings measures: makes it harder to get public support to fund it without the feds.

But once the never ending process ends... the outcome is often so burdened with compromises it doesn't achieve its original purposes It can't be implemented (starting the process over anew), Or it is implemented at massive cost and delay, Sound Transit's problems reflect all three

Sound Transit’s $34.5B funding gap and delayed lines are a sobering reminder: the richest nation on earth has a systemic capital project delivery crisis. If we want a sustainable, mobile future, we absolutely must solve our project costs and controls problem. www.king5.com/article/news...

Awful result. This is downstream of making commitments to projects at 0% design in ST3. It doesn’t matter how much construction money or program management you have if you’re making decisions out of sequence.

👀 “I really do think it’s time to start talking about governance. If we’re in this constant cycle of crisis, recovery, crisis, recovery, crisis, recovery, maybe a board full of people who are expert at transit running a transit agency and delivering transit projects would be more attuned.”

we're getting a 'range' for completing the project likely extending well into the 2060's and this counts as 'saved?'

Apparently some on the ST board are seeing this article as an attack on rail to West Seattle. I didn't write it, but I see it as fundamentally supportive. I want to build rail to West Seattle. That is going to be made *harder*, not easier, if Somers' anti-ST3 resolution passes tomorrow.

Given obstacles from the Trump administration, West Seattle Link will not break ground anytime soon. Before any vote overhauling the Sound Transit 3 plan, the board owes the region revised, evidence-based dates for every project, Trevor Reed contends. Op-ed: www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-sound-...

New Op-Ed in @theurbanist.org where I look at where West Seattle is in the planning cycle based off prior expansions. Spoiler alert: Sound Transit's timelines don't make sense.

Remember this when folks talk about why ST3 costs so much. ST3 is paid by sales tax (regressive). Costs borne by regular people so mega yachts can get serviced. Seattle electeds make a lot of noises about equity but actions (beyond the symbolic). Not so much.

And tell them before the meeting you are going to ask it. It’s not mean. It’s management

In 1970 voters rejected Forward Thrust a regional metro rail to be built over 25 years. 46 years later (2016) voters passed ST3 to build out a very similar rail system. 2 be completed in 25 years. They are now “deferring” lines into the 2060s insiders saying 2066 for Ballard. 50 years after ST3

The Seattle Nice podcast had former SDOT Director Scott Kubly (@skubly.bsky.social) on to do a deep dive into Sound Transit’s debacle of the Ballard Link Extension and a plan to save it from @transportreform.bsky.social. seattlenice.buzzsprout.com/1897925/epis...

@rohanaras.bsky.social, quoted in the article, being from the Seattle area is a nice touch!

Awesome interview with @skubly.bsky.social on our Automated Light Rail proposal and challenges facing ST3!

Why does @sound-transit.bsky.social cost so much 2x to 3x more than anywhere outside NYC. Lots of handwaving and seemingly technical justifications. I think parking structures a really good apples2apples: ST $200k/space 8x more than industry average Why? wginc.com/wp-content/u...

Riding bikes is 10X more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. And that’s just the climate emissions. Doesn’t include the massive public & personal cost difference, the air & noise pollution difference, the massive space difference, etc, etc…Via @theconversation.bsky.social

@girmayzahilay.bsky.social appoints (or will appoint) 10 of the 18 board members. He literally has all the power needed to get ST3 back on track. But unless @mayorofseattle.bsky.social makes it clear failure is unacceptable he can skate.

Imagine the cognitive dissonance from fighting for ST3 for decades and pivoting to fighting for less than ST3 engenders. 1 thing bureaucracies struggle with is acknowledging they don’t have all the answers and changing course. Especially when u have momentum Thelma and Louise had momentum

There is a level of transparency under Randy Clarke that the MTA never achieved even under Andy Byford. They weren’t publishing PowerPoints about exactly how much money they were saving with Save Safe Seconds or how many extra runs they could do a day because of it

One way for transit agencies to hire people more familiar with and curious about global practices: sponsor work visas for foreigners. The MTA is about to lose a data scientist they currently employ because they won’t do that. www.linkedin.com/posts/dan-po...

Financing tools cannot catch up when projects run 70-80% over budget when controlling for inflation. West Seattle would be a $2.94B project in 2025$ if construction costs increased by the same factor as they did nationally from 2014 to 2025.

Before money is given - we need to know why projects have increased by 70-80% in cost when controlling for inflation. How does tunneling in WS go from $1.2b more than elevated, to equal, to $725M from 2019 to 2024? 2016: $3b 2025: $7.1 - 7.9b 2026: $4.9 - 5.3B *all values constant 2025$ NHCCP

So wait how are we gonna “built the West Seattle link this year” if we don’t have federal funding for it yet??

@sound-transit.bsky.social staff take on automated light rail. RISK of Process Delay. (Versus CERTAIN delay of not building) www.theurbanist.org/seattle-soun...

“Number 1: I am committed to completing the spine” Hey @girmayzahilay.bsky.social, which county are you in charge of??

Washington DC’s transit system plans to automate its trains, removing the need for human operators. As I explained in @bloomberg.com, this could be a watershed moment for US public transportation. Gift link & 🧵

Designing a system today to get built in the 2050s is wasting money to buy silence from activists. NEPA needs to refresh if a project is idle for 3+ years and no planner/engineer is going to pick up 20 year old designs and say “cool, let’s go”

Sound Move’s EIS took 3 years, Ballard is over 8, just because we’ve spent time doesn’t mean we’ve made progress 10 years since ST3 passed and we are still barely off the staring line.

evergreen graphic for north american jurisdictions seeking to build primarily grade-separated low-floor light rail systems because they know no other alternative for 21st century "flexible" rapid transit

Seattle’s Sound Transit “could save at least $15 billion by adopting international best practices and building automated light rail from Ballard to West Seattle. This reform would allow rail to get to Ballard by 2039, rather than decades later.” [showing Vancouver’s skytrain] AUTOMATED light rail.

Cities like Copenhagen, Turin, Rome, Paris, Lille, Brescia, Honolulu, Rennes, Toulouse, Lausanne, Vancouver, Montreal, etc., have all built automated light metros… Seattle could do the same, to great effect!

This is a roadmap to delivering all of ST3 without decades of delay. If not this, then Sound Transit and the board must come up with another approach that delivers the full system with out scope cuts or decade long deferrals. #noexcuses www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-reconn...

NEW OP-ED// Op-Ed: Reconnect and Automate Ballard to West Seattle Rail to Save ST3 By Scott Kubly, Trevor Reed via @theurbanist.org

This is a must-read. It’s a detailed proposal based on systems that work around the world, and doesn’t require reopening an EIS. There’s a path here toward building *all* of ST3, sooner and cheaper. But so far, Sound Transit leadership has refused to consider it, wanting instead to cut rail projects