In Defense of West Seattle Link

Ever since the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure was being assembled, the West Seattle Link Extension has been a contentious project. Frank Chiachiere wrote in 2016: not since the days of the Monorail has a rapid transit extension stirred up so much debate amongst the armchair planners." Transit advocates have long known the project would be expensive and difficult, but for an extension that was strongly demanded by Seattle leaders and definitively approved by ST3 voters, why is it still so controversial? Let's look at how we got here, starting with a brief history of how the current project came to be, and think about where we should be going.

This map from The Rapid Transit Plan for the Metropolitan Seattle Area", 1970, highlights the topographic difficulties facing any project to connect West Seattle to Downtown. Image clipped from a scan shared by Bruce Englehardt on Reddit.Preparing for ST3

Ways to bring high-capacity transit to the neighborhood have been under consideration since the streetcars to West Seattle stopped running in the early 20th century. In 2013, David Lawson proposed a potential light rail line from Downtown through West Seattle to Burien, highlighting the difficulties posed by the area's topography and geography featuring steep slopes and steeper socioeconomic divisions. Even then it was obvious it would be impossible to serve all parts of West Seattle with a single rail line and that the topography would force the use of a mix of elevated rail through Delridge and bored tunnels under the Junction.

David Lawson's proposed West Seattle Link alignment in 2013.
Solid line = tunnel. Dashed line = elevated.

Beyond the inability of a single rail corridor to single-handedly serve West Seattle and the topographic difficulties, the most significant challenge identified in 2013 was financial. As David put it, the financial challenge of a West Seattle line is obvious, and not easy to reduce" but he believed that the high costs associated with building a high bridge over the Duwamish and tunneling under Alaska Junction could be justified if the line connected West Seattle with White Center and Burien with high-capacity trains.

The following year, Sound Transit updated their Long Range Plan to inform planning for ST3 and other studies. That plan, still in place today and incorporated into more recent documents like Seattle's Transportation Plan, includes a potential light rail corridor from Downtown Seattle to West Seattle/Burien".

Sound Transit's Long Range Plan, updated 2014.

As Zach Shaner put it in 2014, in a metaphor of Sound Transit being a restaurant co-op:

When it's all said and done, the menu reflects the items least objectionable to the greatest number of co-op owners. The patron who really likes it spicy might find it a bit bland, the purist connoisseur will notice every cut corner, and the simple meat-and-potatoes diner might think the whole menu to be overthought and wonder what all the damn fuss is about. But the restaurant is looking for something both that it can afford and that 50.1% of its co-op owners will find tasty enough to give a thumbs up."

The Candidate Project

With rail to West Seattle firmly entrenched in the political future of Sound Transit, the candidate project went through a series of refinements leading up to the final ST3 proposition. Of the three alternatives reviewed in early 2016, a mid-year expansion of ST3 to a $54 billion package promised 100% grade separation and earlier delivery dates, resulting in a bold and risky plan to bring Link to each quadrant of Seattle and to build the longest light rail spine in the world. Although many of the areas expected to be served by light rail have not yet reached population densities that might justify high-capacity transit, Zach Shaner said given our far-flung but historically urban cities (Everett and Tacoma) and their decidedly low-density suburban intermediaries, it is clear that ST3 is a grand experiment in inducing this kind of density rather than responding to it."

The final Representative Project for WSLE was a fully grade-separated line connecting Alaska Junction, Avalon, and Delridge to Downtown Seattle via SODO. Although planned to be predominantly elevated, exactly which portions would be above-grade (and which portions might best be buried), would be determined during environmental impact analysis and preliminary engineering.

Alternatives eventually carried through the draft EIS for WSBLE.

Opposition to ST3 came from two fronts: an assembly of firmly anti-transit reactionaries who viewed the price tag as far too high for the perceived lack of benefit; and a more nuanced group of transit advocates who ultimately agreed that the funds could be better spent on optimizing the bus networks and building BRT instead of LRT.

Ultimately, not letting perfect be the enemy of good, ST3 passed with just over 54% of the popular vote. Pierce County subarea voters rejected the measure, but King and Snohomish county subareas carried the measure to passage.With some foreseeable issues ahead, including the fact that Sound Transit had never constructed an elevated rail alignment in an urban environment as planned for WSLE, planning for a vast slate of newly-authorized major capital projects began in 2017.

Unforeseen Challenges

Planning for the West Seattle Link Extension quickly began as a combined effort with the Ballard Link Extension, shortened to WSBLE. By the end of 2019, Sound Transit had selected its final slate of alternatives for analysis in a formal Environmental Impact Study, as required under state environmental law.

The following year brought unprecedented challenges to public transit systems across the globe with a global pandemic changing transit ridership patterns permanently. Locally, changes in ST leadership and the realization that nearly every cost estimated in ST3 was profoundly underestimated (even before the onset of record-high rates of inflation) put project delivery into crisis mode. The Sound Transit Board initiated a process of Realignment", eventually resulting in final plan which extended ST3's horizon at least five years and delayed almost every project a year or more.

Meanwhile, environmental analysis of WSBLE alternatives proved what many had predicted: construction of WSBLE would be a major engineering challenge. With ultra-deep-bore tunnels required to avoid compromising skyscraper foundations in Downtown and community opposition to construction impacts forcing a rethink of station locations, additional analysis of the Ballard portion was delaying work on the West Seattle portion. To keep delivery of West Seattle on-track for 2032, Sound Transit made the difficult decision to split WSBLE into WSLE and BLE, increasing the cost of environmental analysis, but freeing WSLE to proceed free of BLE's delays. Ultimately, the Board arrived at a preferred alignment for West Seattle Link almost exactly matching a portion of the same route described by David Lawson over a decade ago: a high bridge over the Duwamish leading to a tunnel under Alaska Junction, with new stations at Delridge, Avalon, and the Junction.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Although much has been written on this blog in criticism of the West Seattle Link Extension, the fact remains that the project is part of Sound Transit's Long Range Plan, the project was authorized with 54% approval of the population of Sound Transit's service area as part of the ST3 package, and the project has already proceeded through several years of planning and environmental analysis.

WSLE is not a cheap project, nor will it provide the greatest ridership per dollar spent on heavy civil construction of the projects planned under ST3. For these technical reasons, some transit advocates seeking to optimize the efficiency of transit dollars criticize the project as it stands.

However, WSLE represents more than new transit service: it represents a permanent regional investment in reliable, high-capacity transportation for a growing neighborhood that, today, is only connected to its core city through a handful of aging bridges. Although it will operate as a stub with parallel bus service until BLE is complete a few years later, the extension will inevitably provide a more reliable connection between the core of West Seattle and Downtown Seattle for the next generation of West Seattleites.

One underappreciated aspect of West Seattle Link is the fact that it takes advantage of the wealth of the region to do the hard parts of building rail to West Seattle now. The high bridge over the Duwamish and the start of a tunnel under Alaska Junction set the stage for an affordable and high-value extension through White Center into Burien in the future. With RapidRide H providing BRT-like service to Burien today, West Seattle Link provides a launching point for high capacity transit to serve central West Seattle to Burien tomorrow.

Sound Transit's long-range financial plan states it has the capacity to build Link to the Junction. Perhaps a clever BRT network would achieve the goals of increased transit capacity in West Seattle at lower cost, but the decision prioritize light rail was was made long before ST3 went to the voters. Unless the agency falls into an even deeper fiscal crisis, calling for cancellation of West Seattle Link is calling for the waste of nearly a decade of planning and incredible amounts of civil service effort put forth by Sound Transit and its consultants.

Just as ST3 was not perfect in 2016, West Seattle Link is far from perfect in 2024, and it will be far from perfect in 2032. Instead of disrespecting the civil service of Sound Transit staff, transit advocates focused on the value of WSLE should pivot their collective effort towards making WSLE more valuable. As Zach Shaner said, ST3 is an experiment in engendering new density by providing service, not just serving already-dense corridors. Advocacy for increasing commercial and residential density around the future stations and improving the bus network to better funnel riders into the high capacity and comfort of Link trains is a much more worthwhile effort.