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Council Endorses Longer First Hill Streetcar Route; Sound Transit Funding Unlikely

News, Politics   April 27, 2010 at 2:52 pm Erica C. Barnett

This post has been updated with comments from Sound Transit board capital committee chair Fred Butler.

The city council’s transportation committee voted unanimously this morning to authorize building the First Hill streetcar along Broadway, an alignment supported by both the Seattle Department of Transportation and Mayor Mike McGinn, and to support extending the route north to Aloha using “excess funds” from streetcar construction, assuming the streetcar comes in under budget.

However, given a 15-year Sound Transit budget shortfall of more than $3 billion, Sound Transit sources say, the agency seems unlikely to agree to extend the streetcar unless the city comes up with a way to pay for it.

Two-way Broadway alignment. Image via Seattle Transit Blog.

“We have an agreement with the city of Seattle for a certain scope of work and for a certain amount,” says Issaquah deputy council president Fred Butler, head of the Sound Transit board’s capital committee. “This is above and beyond that. … While it’s difficult to predict [what the board will do], given the revenue shortfall that we’re dealing with right now, I would say it’s unlikely … that you would see us looking to add a lot of scope” to the streetcar project.

The decision to fund or not fund the extension will be made by the Sound Transit board, which has been reluctant to expand the scope of the light-rail project beyond what voters have approved.

In Bellevue, for example, when the city council wanted Sound Transit to commit to paying as much as $285 million to put light rail underground through downtown Bellevue, Sound Transit balked, noting that the voter-approved plan did not include a tunnel. Eventually, the two sides reached an agreement under which the city would come up with up to $150 million to pay for the tunnel. Seattle hasn’t offered to help fund the extension itself, but it may have to if it wants the board to provide any funding, much less pay for the entire extension itself.

The Aloha extension wasn’t included in the voter-approved Sound Transit 2 plan, which specifies a streetcar from First Hill to the Capitol Hill light rail station, although it was included in 2007′s failed roads and transit ballot measure.

Advocates for the north streetcar extension say extending the streetcar to Aloha will connect First Hill with north Capitol Hill and unify the Broadway shopping and dining district.

The council resolution goes to the full council next Monday, where it is expected to pass.




  • http://twitter.com/rizzuhjj John Jensen

    A lot of this depends on what you think “excess” means.

    ST has budgeted $132 million for the First Hill streetcar. Current estimates for the minimum scope of the project are about $7 million below that cost. So is that remaining $7 million “excess” or is it money that ST shouldn't budget to be conservative?

    I'd argue spending $500k-$1m on preliminary engineering is probably worth it.

  • Matt_the_Engineer

    I think this is an important point. Having the same team design the extension as the rest of the line is far more efficient than starting from scratch.

  • Chris

    Looking at 'zero' riders on the SLUT last Saturday afternoon causes me to wonder why Seattle is even contemplating slow, heavy, ponderous rigs like street cars at this time. Whats wrong with electric trolley's – quiet, no tracks to get your bike tires into, and they load from the curb. Who sold the council on this stupid idea that should have died in 1925.

    Well, maybe they can take the money from the Seawall repair budget.

  • misha

    The SLUT goes from nowhere to nowhere, especially on a Saturday afternoon. The Broadway streetcar goes many places.

    Portland's streetcar (same technology) has almost as many riders per day (about 80%) as our entire Link Light Rail system.

  • TranspoGuy

    Here, ST has a chance to, for once, deliver more than promised in the same time for the same amount of money. You would think, for all Seattle voters have done for Sound Transit, they would be willing to return the favor and make Seattle voters even more enthusiastic about supporting a ST3.

  • TranspoGuy

    Also, Eastside Sound Transit boardmembers are going to want their Seattle colleagues (McGinn, Conlin, Drago, Phillips and Constantine) to vote for an extra $100 million for an unnecessary tunnel through downtown Bellevue, but they won't support Seattle using already budgeted dollars for the Aloha extension? WTF! Seattle boardmembers need to hold their votes on a tunnel until the rest of the board agrees to allow use of excess dollars for the extension.

  • Gern

    The current cost estimate is one step above a back-of-envelope guesstimate. Revisit the question when it's appropriate – at 30-60% design.

  • http://twitter.com/jseattle jseattle

    Planner Ethan Melone told us that SDOT will be asking for $750k of the existing budget to plan the north Broadway extension
    http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2010/04/27/st…

  • Donolectic

    I hear about the empty SLUT all the time, but every time I've ridden it (which have been Saturday and Sundays), there have been other riders on it besides me.

  • jns

    I agree – there's no reason not to spend a little money now to at least enable an extension in the future.

  • kathryn

    The SLUT seems to have spread out the schedule to the point where it really is getting faster to walk. Seems that operating dollars might be somethign to consider before extending the line?

    On another note — stop with the freakin' sideays maps. That's enough for me to never ride the darn thing.

  • zefwagner

    All we are asking Sound Transit to fund is the $750,000 for the preliminary engineering and environmental review of the extension, NOT the full construction amount. To compare a $750,000 ask to Bellevue's $285 million ask is ridiculous by 3 orders of magnitude. I hope Fred Butler understands this.

  • zefwagner

    SLUT is beating its ridership forecasts, and will get a big boost when Amazon opens up and an upzone happens.

  • zefwagner

    Good point. If they want our support for the Eastside they should support us in Seattle.

  • zefwagner

    If people reading this disagree with Fred Butler, please contact Sound Transit Board members and let them know you care about getting this extension shovel-ready and eligible for federal grants. We are not asking ST to fund the whole construction cost, just give us a chance to seek outside funding. This is a small amount of money out of the existing budget that could potentially leverage a lot more from the feds. It will bring additional riders to the light rail station and make the whole system more useful.

  • zefwagner

    To be fair to Fred, the journalist interviewing him may have implied that SDOT would be asking for the full construction amount, which is incorrect. We can't tell what his reaction would have been to the $750,000 figure SDOT is actually requesting. Can Publicola get some clarification on this point?