Passenger Trains > "Puget Sound to vote on transit package"

July 25 news blurb from RAILWAY AGE Magazine:
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Puget Sound to vote on transit package

A 15-year, $17.8 billion plan backed by Sound Transit will be on the ballot in November for Seattle-area voters to consider; included is a recommendation for 34 miles of additional light rail routes.

The regional plan, debated among Sound Transit's participating counties for several months, would among other items extend light rail north along Interstate 5 to the Lynnwood Transit Center in Snohomish County, and south to South 272nd Street in the Federal Way area of King County, by 2023. An extension to the Overlake Transit Center in Redmond, Wash., is also envisioned.

Also planned is an increase in existing Sounder heavy rail train service to Pierce County and the lengthening of existing platforms to accommodate longer trains. A streetcar would link light rail in downtown Seattle to another segment planned under Capitol Hill to the University of Washington.

A 0.5% increase in the sales tax would finance much of the plan, though the cost estimate does not include longer-term financing costs such as repayment of 30-year bonds sold to finance the work.

Critics of the proposal note that Sound Transit has yet to open its initial light rail line, slated to begin operation in 2009 between downtown Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; many suggest Sound Transit should prove its fiscal capabilities first with such operations before trying to expand.

Unfortunately transit plans do not include even the possibility of light rail across the (yet-to-be) reconstructed 520 bridge, a very short-sighted mistake, IMHO, inasmuch as the Eastside is growing like crazy and may soon surpass Seattle in population. But Seattleites in the neighborhood of Rte 520 managed to quash any planned rail. Light rail across the I-90 bridge, even if it happens, isn't enough.

The Eastside also really needs N-S light rail. Widening I-405 may help a little for a while, but before long it will be the same horror story that it is now.