West Seattle Link Forum
On January 25th the West Seattle Rethink the Link group invited the public to a forum to learn about the West Seattle Link Extension, and to discuss the pros and cons of bringing light rail vs increasing bus services in West Seattle. Martin Pagel from STB was one of the panelists to offer technical details, along with Marty Westerman and John Niles offering their own perspectives. STB's Ross Bleakney and I attended as observers, along with Mike Lindblom from the Seattle Times. Dick Falkenbury, the creator of the Seattle Monorail Project in the 1990s and 2000s, spoke briefly near the end.
Earlier we reported about the construction concerns voiced by many citizens of the Seattle's Chinatown-International District (CID). Some West Seattle citizens have voiced similar concerns. While the CID argues about the best location for a new Link station, some West Seattle citizen have organized under the slogan Rethink the Link" and argue that the impact and cost of the West Seattle Link extension is not worth the effort and environmental impacts, and proposes to improve bus services to provide better transit outcomes. One of their posters referred to themselves as BIMBY - more Buses In My Back Yard.
Various STB posts have looked at the pros and cons of this extension, even suggested bus alternatives. Many people argued that other projects provide higher value. Sound Transit maintains that there continues to be broad support for this extension. That was not the impression we got from this forum, though there was a single pro Link" sign an attendee showed briefly at the beginning. The group stated that Sound Transit events have been focused on advantages while not painting a full picture nor truly engaging in a public discussion. In response they organized this meeting.
The meeting at the West Seattle Senior Center was well attended. The organizers had prepared many information panels. Most of them showed Sound Transit's plans and the list of local businesses which would have to close. They had also drawn up a map of West Seattle Transit Deserts. They asked attendees to provide their questions for the panel and group them into one of the following areas:
- Cost escalation
- Rider experience
- What voters approved
- Environmental impact
- Transit alternatives
While the three panelists addressed the various questions, attendees seemed to be surprised that the information was different from what they had heard from attending Sound Transit events. For example, that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) states that the construction-related carbon emissions will not be mitigated by carbon savings during the expected life of the line. Or that Sound Transit only expects 5,400 daily riders while running only as a stub between the Junction and SODO, less than many of Metro's bus lines. Sound Transit claims a ridership of 27,000, but that's only in the second phase when the West Seattle line is connected with downtown. Originally this was scheduled to happen in 2035. During the Realignment the Ballard line had already been delayed to balance the budget with estimated income and debt allowance. Now that the cost estimates have escalated further, the panelists pointed out that Sound Transit has not yet provided an updated budget and schedule. Further delays are likely. Until the Ballard line is built, the stub will have low ridership. Metro promised they will continue to run the existing bus lines from West Seattle to downtown. That means Metro won't reallocate any bus hours to improve West Seattle service when the West Seattle-SODO stub is running.
The panelists suggested a better transit outcome may be to focus on Ballard Link now and come back to West Seattle when the downtown connection is ready, rather than having a West Seattle-SODO phase before that. Improving West Seattle bus service in the interim would be more effective than a stub ending in SODO. ST3 has a project for interim capital improvements to RapidRide C and D. This was intended to be first as an early deliverable, but it was shifted to the last tier in the realignment. This argument is similar to what STB had suggested earlier.
During the question and answers, people commented: Why can't we just run more buses" and we need an Erin Brockovich. At the end the organizers encouraged the attendees to provide feedback to the local FTA office before the Record of Decision is filed (February 28th), and to contact their representatives on the Sound Transit Board. They also referred to their Citizen EIS response" document for further reading on their position.
Westside Seattle and the West Seattle Blog covered the event in detail, including a video of the proceedings.