Budget deficit rant: Is our dream of an elite class regional rail network dead?

The opening of the Crosslake Connection was a significant milestone in the history of our region. However, we are still a long way from being done with building the system.

ST3 was supposed to bring us a truly regional rail transit system for the first time in our regions history. But the plan neglected several key Seattle neighborhoods and surrounding cities (Renton and most of Kirkland) by not linking them to the rail system.

Now, Sound Transit is facing a major budget hole, and will almost be guaranteed to not deliver fully on the plan they promised to voters in 2016. One of Tacoma, Ballard, West Seattle, Everett, Kirkland, or Issaquah is going to be screwed. I know Sound Transit is looking to cut costs by standardizing designs, etc, but 35 billion dollars is a lot of money, and I am severely skeptical in the ability of any competent organization, much less the ST board, to cut costs while still largely returning the system promised to voters.

Is one of the areas I mentioned above going to have to wait even longer than 2044, have their stations delayed until ST4, or, god forbid, never get light rail at all?

What are some things Sound Transit could do to build ST3 without it being significantly scaled back?

What could Sound Transit have done differently to prevent this? Or is the budget the result of bad state policies? Or is it bad luck due to COVID and inflation?

What can they do so that this doesn’t happen in ST4?

Why are Olympia politicians unwilling to loosen regulations on Sound Transit that would lower the costs they constantly sound the alarm about, especially when Puget Sound is their state’s economic engine?

The new plan that will be published by the ST board in June is going to have generational consequences on the future of quality transportation in the Puget Sound region. The immediate success of the 2 Line after they began crosslake service showcases that the region could have one of the best metro rail systems in the nation if we continued to build ST3.

I can’t bear to think of the consequences and squandered opportunity a shortened, non regional, weakened system would cost us, especially since we’re currently suffering the consequences of rejecting Forward Thrust in the 60s.