Link Reliability Issues Declared an “Emergency”

On January 21, Sound Transit interim CEO Goran Sparrman identified Link's ongoing reliability issues as an emergency, allowing him to issue a $1.5 million contract to HNTB to plan and design fixes to several problems with Sound Transit's operational and network infrastructure.

The Seattle Times ($) summarized the problems identified by Sound Transit as contributing to delays":

• The damaged wire near UW Station, as the scheduled repair in December was delayed due to a telecommunications outage and is now scheduled for February 1-2;
• 16-year old wires in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) that need to be inspected and tightened, so much so that operators are being told to coast into some DSTT stations to avoid drawing power on the lines;
• Accumulated grime and other deferred maintenance on DSTT rails causing high voltages, although Sound Transit crews have reportedly started cleaning them;
• Flaws in ST's dispatch control center network making disruptions difficult to fix;
• Mechanical problems with the new Siemens Series 2" light rail vehicles including faulty valves and brakes;
• Signals falsely indicating the presence of a train where no train exists;
• Fragile software in Bellevue affecting power-outage recovery on the 2 Line; and,
• Mysterious power supply issues in the north end of the tunnel between the Northgate and UW stations, which have caused multiple disruptions.

According to The Seattle Times:

Transit managers say that after a rugged 2024, when trains were blocked or reduced for anunacceptable 376 hours, or 6% of the time through November, its customers deserve better.

Railcar stalls accounted for 77 of 166 system slowdownsin 11 months last year and were solved in 34 minutes on average, for instance by sending an extra train into the corridor while towing away the idle train, staff said. Sometimes, passengers have caused train stalls by prying doors open.

Sound Transit's summary says HNTB will develop a project management plan to
enhance operational reliability and modernize the network" and assist with the
implementation of the project management plan during the design and construction phases," but not be allowed to compete for the contract to actually implement the longer-term operational and network reliability repairs they will help plan and design.

By many accounts, Link riders are fed up with these too-frequent unplanned disruptions. The causes of these delays have apparently become so numerous that Sound Transit needs to hire consulting engineers to help solve them. Rules and regulations meant to prevent waste would normally force the agency to build a Request For Proposals, wait for at least three bids, and then review the bids before selecting a contractor. To skip ahead to actually getting work done, Sound Transit's CEO had to legally declare an emergency in order to cut through some of the red tape slowing down the repair process.

But why does Sound Transit need to hire HNTB to solve these problems? Why doesn't it have the capacity to solve these problems as they arise? The Transit Costs Project identified over-reliance on consultants (due to a lack of in-house expertise) as a major reason why transit construction costs are so high in English-speaking countries. The agency should be building the expertise internally to resolve issues like these before they grow to emergency status. Not only would it allow Sound Transit to solve these problems faster, but it would reduce costs, too.

Sound Transit has been steadily building light rail since it broke ground at the then-future Central Base on November 8, 2003. With these original facilities nearly two decades old, and miles of new facilities coming online in years to come, we would be well-served by encouraging the agency to build the capacity to resolve these problems without requiring the help of consultants.