What will Sound Transit’s $34B shortfall mean for Tacoma’s light-rail extension?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tacoma leaders pressed Sound Transit to prioritize the Tacoma Dome Link Extension.
- The project is part of a regional transit plan facing a $34B shortfall through 2046.
- Sound Transit says no decisions on project delays will be made before the mid-year.
Tacoma Council member Kristina Walker vowed this week to “push pretty hard” with other Pierce County delegates on the Sound Transit Board to ensure the long-promised light-rail extension to Tacoma isn’t set back.
Walker’s public reinforcement of her commitment to the project came two weeks after a board retreat in Tacoma. Board members were asked to contemplate a scenario that delayed construction of the Tacoma Dome Link Extension and ended the light rail in Fife, according to a board presentation.
The approach was one of three intended to be illustrative and serve as a starting point for board members to address Sound Transit’s major financial challenges, documents show. Two other approaches suggested deferring the T Line’s expansion to Tacoma Community College. The scenarios also affected projects outside Pierce County.
“At (the) retreat, staff presented the Board with three approaches to illustrate trade-offs,” Sound Transit wrote in a blog post following the March 18 event. “These approaches are not decisions; rather, they exist to help the Board understand the policy considerations of different strategies.”
Before Tuesday’s City Council study session, Walker said in a statement, “We will not accept delays that disproportionately impact the South Sound.”
During the meeting, she sought to clear up confusion over the retreat, assuring that the board’s aim was not to choose any one scenario or slash other members’ projects but to talk through options.
“Everyone wants to get everything done. There’s no intention here to cut anything, and we realize we’re faced with an affordability gap that we have to solve,” Walker said. “But we do want to deliver the transit that we promised the voters all across the system. It’s a regional system.”
“That being said, Pierce County has waited a long time for our regional light-rail connection,” Walker added, “and so we’re going to push pretty hard to make sure that Sound Transit fulfills that commitment.”
The agency says it faces a $34 billion shortfall over the next two decades to fully fund the Sound Transit 3 (ST3) Plan — the ballot measure passed by voters in 2016 to expand the regional transit system. The Tacoma Dome Link Extension, connecting Tacoma with Federal Way and therefore Seattle, is part of the plan. The project, estimated to cost $5 billion to $6 billion, is expected to open in 2035 after two prior delays pushed it back five years.
In response to needing tens of billions of additional dollars, Sound Transit last year launched the so-called Enterprise Initiative, an agencywide review that was the focus of the retreat, to seek the most benefit from available funds and eventually lead to amending ST3 for the second time since its passage, according to the agency.
“No decisions on project inclusion or delay will be made prior to the middle of this year,” Sound Transit spokesperson David Jackson said.
Late Tuesday, the Tacoma City Council approved a letter to the 18-member Sound Transit Board that urged it to prioritize local investments, writing, “Tacoma cares deeply about its transit future.”
City lawmakers wrote that they understood the seriousness of the agency’s funding gap and its need to identify cost savings and efficiencies, but they expressed concern that communities that have long waited to connect to the regional transit system could suffer.
“The Tacoma Dome Station represents more than a terminus,” the letter read. “It is planned as the region’s primary multimodal hub, connecting light rail with regional and local transit, including the T Line, and linking riders to downtown Tacoma, major employers, educational institutions, and healthcare services.”
Council members, noting that the city had rezoned areas to accommodate the future station, also called it “vital” that the Puyallup Tribe of Indians be involved in collaborations on ST3 projects.
“While difficult decisions lie ahead, investments of this significance should not be deferred in ways that undermine long-term regional mobility or disproportionately impact the South Sound,” the letter read. “Tacoma is ready, and our region’s future depends on a system that serves us fully.”
While Sound Transit says it needs considerably more funding to complete ST3, the agency has also assured that it has more than $8 billion in cash and investments and exemplary credit ratings that make it “financially sound,” according to an agency blog post.
“Capital and operating costs have risen significantly since voters approved the ST3 Plan in 2016, and they’re continuing to escalate faster than contemplated 10 or even five years ago. If the agency does nothing to counter these rising costs, as well as lower revenue projections, completing Sound Transit’s expansion program will become unaffordable,” the agency said.
“This is a long-term challenge projected to begin (in) the 2030s, and Sound Transit’s staff and Board are taking steps to proactively solve for it.”
