Sound Transit’s $34B gap plan is near. Will Tacoma light rail stay on track?
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- Sound Transit faces a $34 billion funding gap to fully fund ST3 in the next 20 years.
- The board is considering how to move forward with the money the agency does have.
- Pierce County leaders have urged the board not to defer light rail’s extension to Tacoma.
The Sound Transit Board could finalize a cost-cutting plan in late May that addresses a $34 billion funding gap in a voter-approved measure expanding the regional transit system, according to two board members.
Sound Transit 3 (ST3), the package passed in 2016, includes a megaproject to extend light rail to Tacoma, known as the Tacoma Dome Link Extension. Although the board contemplated a scenario that delayed the extension during an exercise at a March retreat, Pierce County delegates on the board have vowed not to accept deferring the project, which is expected to open in 2035.
The board has been reviewing how to get the most benefit from available funds since last year because there isn’t enough money to fully deliver on ST3 over the next two decades. Its review, called the Enterprise Initiative, will lead to amending ST3 for the second time since the measure’s passage and likely mean that some projects get postponed, according to Sound Transit officials.
Speaking during a packed town hall Monday evening, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello and Tacoma City Council member Kristina Walker told audience members that the board was expected to receive a proposal on the Enterprise Initiative on May 7 and could make a decision on May 28. Four of 18 board members are from Pierce County.
When asked by the panel’s moderator to describe a good outcome of the initiative, Walker, who said the board was “very motivated” to wrap up the plan before June, simply replied: “Building light rail to the Tacoma Dome.”
“We’re going to get light rail to Tacoma, come hell or high water,” Mello said.
The Tacoma Dome Link Extension, planned to connect Tacoma with Federal Way and therefore Seattle, has been twice delayed. The project, estimated to cost $5 billion to $6 billion, is in the environmental review phase, according to Sound Transit.
Local officials and transit advocates are rallying behind the project in the face of Sound Transit’s major financial challenges, which the agency has attributed to significantly rising capital and operating costs and lower revenue projections. In the weeks after the March 18 retreat, Tacoma and Pierce County councils wrote letters to the board to champion the project and advocate against any delays.
“The best way to build trust is to do what we say we’re going to do,” Mello said Monday. “It’s not enough to just say, ‘Trust us, we’re working like heck.’”
While Mello assured the crowd gathered inside a University of Washington Tacoma conference room that the Sound Transit Board was not going to defer the project, he also noted that Pierce County delegates needed everyone’s help to make their case.
As such, Mello asked residents to complete a Sound Transit survey, write letters and emails to the Sound Transit Board, and show up to the two upcoming Sound Transit Board meetings in Seattle.
Additionally, the T Line is planned to expand to Tacoma Community College as part of ST3. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2039 or 2041 and has progressed only beyond the voter-approval phase, according to Sound Transit. It was contemplated for deferral during the board’s recent retreat as well, as were projects outside Pierce County.
More than 200 people showed up for Monday’s town hall which was titled, “The Future of Light Rail in Pierce County.” The event was sponsored by Transportation Choices Coalition, Tacoma on the Go, and Build the Damn Trains.
“We want these projects,” said Tacoma on the Go Executive Director Laura Svancarek, who hosted the panel. “We want them completed on a reasonable timeline.”
