Pierce County Council announcement.
TACOMA, Wash. — On Tuesday, Feb. 28, Sound Transit announced the light rail connection from Federal Way and the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in King County to Fife and Tacoma – commonly referred to as ST3 – has been delayed again, this time to 2035. The delay is a result of Sound Transit project planning issues and not funding, which means there is no additional tax burden for Pierce County taxpayers. However, this delay does mean Pierce County residents will have to wait longer for their transportation needs to be met.
“This is disappointing and now, five years after it was promised to voters of the South Sound, we have to wait again,” said Council Chair Ryan Mello (District 4). “I am deeply disappointed and frustrated. I believe Sound Transit must work to provide transportation options to the South Sound sooner rather than later; it is not an option to accept the delay with no mitigation.”
Over the next several weeks, Mello plans to work with the other members of the Pierce County Council to identify interim steps Sound Transit can take to address the South Sound’s immediate transportation needs. Some initial options identified include:
- Increasing opportunities for people to use Sounder Commuter Rail services throughout Pierce County, including more daily train runs to the South Sound, an extension to DuPont as quickly as possible, and better, safer station access
- Increasing Sound Transit ground transportation options with an expansion of express bus route services and frequency between Pierce County and King County
- Partnering with Pierce Transit (PT) to increase point-to-point transportation options like dial-a-lift or the PT runner to connect to ST express bus service stations and Sounder train stations
“We plan to work with our County and City council colleagues to put our requests into a formal letter to Sound Transit,” said Mello and Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards. “We understand issues arise in projects, especially one in the size and scope of ST3; however, that doesn’t change the fact we need and deserve reliable transportation through the Puget Sound region now. Pierce County residents are paying Sound Transit taxes and have been for years with little value in return in the short term.”
The County Council will discuss the letter at their Tuesday, March 7 study session. You can attend the County Council study session in person at Council Chambers in Room 1046, 930 Tacoma Ave. South in Tacoma, or remotely via Zoom. To attend remotely, please visit piercecountywa.gov/4898/Study-Sessions and select “Tuesday Study Session”.
The City Council will bring forward a letter for discussion at their Tuesday, March 14 study session. Access details for all City Council meetings are available at cityoftacoma.legistar.com.
“I look forward to working with County Council Chair Mello, the Pierce County Council, and Sound Transit to find solutions for our community, because having no clear remedy to this delay is unacceptable,” said Woodards. “One in four Pierce County workers travel to other counties for employment each day and, of those, more than 80 percent work in King and Snohomish counties, adding well over a hundred thousand drivers to the I-5 corridor. Light rail is a vital connection for Tacoma to the rest of our region, and Sound Transit needs to be prioritizing solutions that show the South Sound the benefits of public transportation.”
How about remove the county from ST3 like we voted for? Or do we not live in a DeMoCrAcy?
ST3: a hole in the ground into which you pour money. Vote to secede from this disaster. What makes anyone assured that it will be completed in 2035 at a cost of $$$$$$$$$$? As I figured it, the current ST3 cost is about $39,000+ a running foot ($205M a mile) just for construction, let alone other capital, maintenance and operational costs. Compare this to the cost of a 4 lane highway: about $1136 a running foot ($4M – $6M a mile). Do the math and you’ll understand at 34 times the cost what a wasteful, needless, mindless disaster ST3 was and is! At this rate I’ll be dead and gone before it’s completed and my children and grandchildren will be paying for it for the rest of their lives.
The result of inept management decisions, no accountability, and unlimited access to large amounts of public money have lead to this debacle. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone!
Will the powers that be refund our money?
These same “leaders” who are directly in charge of the planning and execution of the largest transportation project in the country, are now going to react to this latest failure-to-plan.
Their answer? To put more buses on the interstate which this project is supposed to take pressure from.
If you were going to build a multi billion dollar rail transportation asset, wouldn’t you first plan, finalize, and secure the real-estate for that linear corridor, rather than make it up as you go along? You know, so people can react and plan accordingly, so they don’t suddenly get run over by a train project. Not to mention the cost savings on real-estate acquisition.
So you say the money is “there”, and this delay will cost taxpayers nothing? B.S.
Any time you have a group of folks on payroll, you have a burn-factor whether you are producing or not. Let’s look at that as an annual cost times 12 years. 2035 right?
Sound Transit, you have one job to perform for “the people”. Build the tracks; run the train; pick people up; drop people off.
That’s it. Cut everything else out of your bloated “agency” and just do that.
Oh, and some security that does more than stand there and watch the neighborhood deteriorate into chaos would be nice too.
“Light rail is a vital connection for Tacoma to the rest of our region, and Sound Transit needs to be prioritizing solutions that show the South Sound the benefits of public transportation.” This statement continues to go unchallenged. You’ll note that “vital” is not defined yet according to articles on the subject less than 5% of the total traffic along this route will be carried by a project costing $142,000,000,000 with a farebox return of only 8%…..which means you the tax payer will be putting up the other 92% to support this debacle.