Balducci Interview about the 2 Line

On Wednesday (April 24) I had a chance to talk to Claudia Balducci, King County Councilmember and Chair of the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee and former Bellevue Mayor, about the opening of the 2 Line on Saturday. As the Eastside representative on the Sound Transit Board, she spearheaded the opening of the Eastlink starter line. I thought it would be good to get her perspective on the line and share some of her thoughts (not verbatim).

You have been tweeting every day a countdown towards the opening, what are you most excited about?

The line provides all kinds of opportunities for many riders. Not only am I looking forward to the opening on Saturday, but I would also love to sit in the back of the train in the next few weeks and watch how it will influence people's travel habits. Once it connects to downtown Seattle, even more opportunities will open up. Once transit times becomes shorter and more predictable, it will make some trips feasible which transit riders may not have considered before. Riders may be familiar with crossing the 520 bridge. Now they may find that taking the 2 Line across I-90 is faster.

Once the 2 Line connects to Seattle, which destinations do you think will be most important to Eastsiders?

Many people already take the bus to ball games, special events, work or other activities. It will be interesting to see how the Line will make these trips easier as well as open new uses.

Bellevue just reduced their commitment to new bike infrastructure. Do you think that will affect light rail ridership?

I live in East Bellevue and quite a bit away from the line. Three stations are about as far from my home. Some routes have more hills, others cross major roads, the Overlake Village station may be the easiest for me to reach. Generally Sound Transit has tried to make the stations as easy to reach for cyclists as possible.

You're talking to me from a lunch spot in the Spring District. How much of the Spring District's success is tied to the light rail line?

100%! Some of the anchor tenants were attracted by the light rail. Fixed line transit is certainly attracting major employers as well as TOD as stations cannot be move as easily as with a bus line. This has sparked interest and accelerated the development of the Spring District.

The area around the East Main Station is currently being transformed. How much of that do you think is driven by the light rail station?

I have not been as much involved with the recent developments there as I have been with the Spring District but I'm excited about seeing some aging buildings and large parking lots being upgraded to much denser urban areas. The light rail station is certainly a big factor enabling this redevelopment. Bellevue's downtown core has been confined thus far to the area north of Main St and west of 112th. I wonder whether this redevelopment may be the first step to expand the downtown core beyond the traditional boundaries, potentially even across the freeway.

What lessons did you learn while working with the rest of the board and Sound Transit staff to bring the Starter Line to fruition?

Sound Transit is a big organization which works with other even larger organizations such as the Federal Government. It was great to see the flexibility and adaptability the Sound Transit staff showed when they pivoted from their original plan to the starter line. It involved numerous complex steps including approval by the FTA (Federal Transit Administration). I hope this will encourage us to be bolder and more creative to adjust our plans as necessary to bring transit to this region sooner rather than later.

Would implementationof creative operations solutions like the Starter Line be easier if Link operations were not subcontracted to King County Metro?

The fact that we had decided early on to build a separate OMF (Operations and Maintenance Facility) on the Eastside and not around Lynnwood made this decision much easier. It also helped that a turn-around track had been built right by the South Bellevue station as it avoided single-tracking.

Since the approval of ST2, there have been major changes in how and why people move around, including the rise of online shopping in the 2010's and widespread adoption of hybrid home-office workplaces in 2020. Do you think the fundamental motivations for the 2 Line are still applicable today?

Yes, since the pandemic certainly transit patterns have changed, but people still need to get together and go places. I am confident the 2 Line will prove to be a smart investment despite the long time it took to make it happen.

Sound Transit plans to divert the Rainier Valley line into a new downtown tunnel once the 1, 2, and 3 Lines are running in 2039. You have voiced concerns that this will make it more difficult for riders of the 2 Line to connectto the south of Seattle. What about reconsidering the construction of a second tunnel and upgrading the existing tunnel to handle all three lines instead?

Sound Transit's engineering told me that they need the extra capacity to deal with our long routes. I am not sure whether there are other alternatives to address reliability needs.

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I very much appreciated her insights and hope we can continue this dialog in the future, in particular on the tunnel topic.