The 34 miles of additional light rail, to Lynnwood, north Federal Way, and the Overlake Transit Center, near Microsoft, aren’t expected to be finished until the early 2020s. The theme of serving future generations sounded at odds with the official campaign motto: “Mass Transit Now.”
Ugh.
Look… Like most folks, I’d prefer they build this stuff sooner rather than later, but them’s the breaks. On Tuesday, voters decided to put to an end the kind of hand-wringing and second-guessing that had slowed the region on the issue of mass transit infrastructure for decades. We’re making up for previous generations, and their inability to address this issue.
So if the slogan is “Mass Transit Now,” think of it as a truncated version of this:
“Let’s Decide To Invest In Mass Transit Now For The Benefit Of The Region In The Decades To Come.”
I like both, but the second one didn’t fit on a yard sign.
“I’d prefer they build this stuff sooner rather than later, but them’s the breaks.”
That’s your response to one of Prop. 1’s most glaring shortcomings?
Oh never mind. This argument is over, and I know when to shut up.
Or perhaps
Nah, that doesn’t make for a good yard sign either.
Often overlooked (probably because it is a small portion of the measure) is the 100,000 new hours of bus service that will start in 2009. That’s as close to now as you can get. I get so frustrated with the “it takes too long” argument. If we had just done this th efirst time it would’ve been done decades ago and the naysayers have no one to blame but themselves.
I don’t know why I am so worked up over this. It passed already.
This has made Dori Myron Monson really unhappy.
That’s a good thing.
How many votes need to be taken on this before the naysayers get it through their noggins that people are fed up with sitting in traffic? Do you know how many people down here in the South Sound would rather drive to Portland to go shopping rather than face the mess in the greater Seattle Metro area? Have they never sat behind a bus that is ALSO stuck in traffic in the HOV lane on 405?
Meanwhile, in Portland you can grab the MAX or the trolley to a lot of places and they are always adding extensions to the line. They get it. Most of the urban centers around the world get it.
Now we will get it. It’s about time.
It’s not just the immediate Seattle area; I live down in Olympia, and it would be so wonderful to have an actual commuter train that runs up to Tacoma and down to Centralia. If they could actually run into downtown instead of dumping you out at the Amtrak shack on the outskirts, that would be nice too.
Hey, 2020 is better than Lindblom’s cherished monorail. Which will never be built. Plus, this gives Lindblom another 15 years of pointless Discovery Institute conferences to cover.
The people have spoken.
Now let us watch as they invent a rail that can flex so it can be built across a floating bridge.
Good luck with that.
busdrivermike,
They already have that technology in Japan, Vancouver BC (SkyTrain)
As it is, rail is made to flex, bend, and contort. The expansion joint rail piece is a simple item. That is shown in the East Link EIS.
Maybe the legislature will decide to help build “mass transit now” instead of doing everything they can to defeat it.
This is the biggest surprise from Nov. 4th. It seems the voting populace is not the stupid beast the pundits make it out to be. Four plus dollar gas, and the sniff of peak oil probably had something to do with its passage.
“hand wringing and second guessing’
One reason Forward Thrust was defeated in 1969 and 1970 was because downtown Seattle business interests (Forward Thrust) just had to come up with a rail plan where all tracks lead to, of course, downtown Seattle. I’d hardly call it hand wringing and second guessing to oppose that plan. And where do all the tracks lead under Prop 1? Can one take a train from Renton to Bellevue or Redmond?
@3 Given that only 1% of Prop. 1’s capital funds will go to expanding bus service, maybe it’s because the money for those 100,000 hours is coming from somewhere else.
No Steve, you can’t, and apparently voters didn’t really mind.
Roger Rabbit, yep it’s mostly a light rail investment. Apparently voters thought that was the right idea.
@13 Yes, it was the voters call. I don’t live there anymore and have no say in the matter. Prop 1 wasn’t on my ballot. I opened an office in Bremerton and moved to what was to be my retirement home on the canal to escape the I-5 corridor. I just couldn’t take that traffic anymore.
@ 12 I never suggested that funding for ST Express was a large piece of the initiative, merely that it is there and will be implemented very quickly.
As for whether or not that funding would have come from elsewhere; I highly doubt it. At least, not that much and not so quickly. Transit agencies, despite high ridership, are struggling. Although ST’s budget isn’t hurt nearly as badly as little of it goes to buses, I highly doubt that they would’ve been in the position to launch such an increase in service next year with Prop. 1 funding.
Maybe I’m wrong. I’m no expert but suddenly finding that much money in this economic crisis doesn’t seem plausable.