Seattle Subway

State legislators have already told ST that they didn't do their homework last session, so the 75 year bonds (est. $1B in savings) didn't pass as a result. Hopefully, they are doing it now, and if they are, they need to show their work.

We are also looking forward to the results of the RFI. ST said tonight that they will be incorporating ideas generated from the process into ST3 projects

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

Ballard really turned out for transit tonight.

Obviously, they can't find design savings till they do the design work, but they should know approximately how much they can save or generate from the proposed state and federal levers like permitting reform, tax increment financing (TIF), federal loans (TIFIA), etc.

Hope to see you at the Community Forum in an hour at the National Nordic Museum!

Sound Transit@sound-transit.bsky.social

Join us Monday for a Ballard Link Extension Community Forum! Get the latest on the project timeline, cost reduction efforts and next steps — and bring questions and feedback. Details: https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/news-events/calendar/ballard-link-extension-community-forum-2026-10-19

seattlesubway.orgElection EndorsementsEndorsements Archive+2026 Primary Election2025 General Election2024 General Election2021 General Election2021 Primary Election2020 Georgia Special Election2020 General Election 2020 Primary El

Our general election endorsements are out! seattlesubway.org/election-end...

theurbanist.orgOp-Ed: The $10 Billion Question Sound Transit Has Never AskedElevating the next light rail line through Downtown Seattle could save $10 billion, more than enough to close Sound Transit’s systemwide budget hole and get rail to Ballard much sooner. There’s just one problem: The agency has never officially studied the idea. It’s high time.

This year, we reached out to most candidates contesting most elections that touch King County. We issued endorsements based on responses to our endorsement survey as well as public track records of supporting mass transit.

Seattle Subway reposted

The Urbanist

@theurbanist.org

NEW OP-ED// Op-Ed: The $10 Billion Question Sound Transit Has Never Asked By Travis Henderson via @theurbanist.org

Seattle Subway reposted

Seattle Streets Alliance

@streetsalliance.bsky.social

26 Aug

Pike Place should put people first year-round. In SDOT’s June survey, 98% of 5,403 respondents supported vehicle barriers. And among 224 Market businesses & staff who responded, 96% agreed. Yet the proposal for this winter would allow more general car traffic into the Market.

19 Aug

Three things you can do to help Save Ballard Rail: 1. We’ll be meeting at Old Stove Brewing this Thursday, August 20th at 7pm. We are stronger together! This is a more casual meetup, so if you’re looking to meet neighbors and get a little more involved in transit advocacy, this is the place for you

If you’re not able to make the meetup, shirts and yard signs are available at Smål Market with a $15 donation

click.actionnetwork.orgPrioritize Ballard to Westlake and Provide a Status Quo TimelineWe have a critical week ahead in the fight to save Sound Transit 3—and the Sound Transit Board needs to hear from you. On Thursday, May 28, the Sound Transit Board of Directors will vote on a proposa...

19 Aug

To be more precise on the meetup on Thursday, it will be at the Old Stove Gardens location in Ballard

2. We’re calling on Sound Transit to provide increased transparency and accountability, as well as implement some short and long-term solutions to improve transit in Ballard. It includes specific calls for more accountability, transparency, and stopgaps that ST can provide to the community

soundtransit.orgBoard of Directors Meeting | Sound TransitAugust 27, 2026 | 1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | The Board establishes policies and gives direction and oversight.

19 Aug

3. Speaking of the next Sound Transit board meeting, we’d love to see you there on 8/27 at 1:30pm. If you can’t commit to that, you can also provide public comment virtually via Zoom. And if you can’t make it live at all, you can always email public comment to meetingcomments@soundtransit.org

theurbanist.orgOp-Ed: Sound Transit’s Board is About to Vote on a FantasyGiven obstacles from the Trump administration, West Seattle Link will not break ground anytime soon. Before any vote overhauling the Sound Transit 3 plan, the board owes the region revised, evidence-b...

14 Aug

Already two more delays LESS THAN THREE MONTHS after the realignment vote in May. Why wasn't this disclosed during the Enterprise Initiative?

Trevor Reed@transportreform.bsky.social

The 2032 date being a fiction was knowable from publicly available materials. It is not credible this was unknown internally - why was it not disclosed before the May vote? www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-sound-...

Seattle Subway reposted

Robert Cruickshank

@robertcruickshank.com

13 Aug

This should be a scandal. Sound Transit told everyone we had to agree to put ST3 into a blender and massively delay projects in part to get West Seattle built by 2032. We argued instead ST should work to lower construction costs and get new $$ before delaying voter-approved projects. Now this?!

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

West Seattle Link's projected opening date has slipped to 2035, Sound Transit's Acting Chief Capital Delivery Officer just told board members at today's system expansion committee meeting.

theurbanist.orgOp-Ed: Sound Transit Gave Us a Ballard Date. Here’s How To Accelerate It.Sound Transit recently revealed light rail won't reach Ballard until "around 2060" without further intervention. Seattle Subway lays out a path to greatly accelerate this delivery date, which they cal...

4 Aug

Check out our latest op-ed for the Urbanist! TLDR: - Getting to Ballard "around" 2060 is unacceptable, but we're glad ST is finally acknowledging how dire the situation is - Their plan to get to 2042 is too vague - 2042 is still not good enough, the goal needs to be 2035 as originally promised

Answering these questions will allow Sound Transit to build momentum and restore trust with riders anxiously awaiting expansion. This agency’s goal must be delivering on promises made to voters, including service to NW Market Street in Ballard by 2035.

4 Aug

Failing that, we need to revisit every assumption to begin service far sooner than 2042. Rail to Ballard within our lifetimes is still within reach with the right approach.

- What are Sound Transit’s federal funding assumptions for each ST3 project? -How exactly can the budget gap be closed by 2033? How much additional cash flow is expected from each of the financial levers individually, and how much savings is expected from each cost-saving mechanism?

4 Aug

- Why would we ever count on third party or private sector funding, as the agency has hinted at? - Every month of delay costs tens of millions of “year-of-expenditure dollars” so what are the concrete steps to successfully achieve these financial levers and cost-saving mechanisms long before 2030?

ST needs to publicly and immediately adress the following: - Given that the date to get to Seattle Center has slipped 3 years to 2042 SINCE THE REALIGNMENT 2 MONTHS AGO, have other ST3 projects also been silently delayed in that time? - What exactly are the funding gaps?

soundtransit.orgNext steps on the Ballard Link Extension | Sound TransitOpening the full extension all the way to Market Street is possible by 2042. Here’s what it will take.

Sound Transit has finally posted a date to reach Ballard. Under current assumptions, it would be “around 2060”. Sound Transit has a concept of a plan to do better that relies on a lot of things going perfectly.

Together, we will fight tooth and nail for Ballard to open even earlier than 2042.

They also need to reexamine the design of this system, it's too expensive.

soundtransit.orgNext steps on the Ballard Link Extension | Sound TransitOpening the full extension all the way to Market Street is possible by 2042. Here’s what it will take.

If they achieve their desired federal funding, if they find cost savings proportional to what they found for West Seattle, if they find significant new revenue, and if they gain new debt authority, then service to Ballard may start as soon as 2042. Again, only if everything goes perfectly.

31 July

Right now there is no construction timeline because there is no date (and implicitly ST already said it's after 2052 since that's when they extended the planning to in the realignment). How is that less "dramatically different" than a specific date?

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

Environmental review is closely tied to construction timelines, so a date that's dramatically different from what's currently in the DEIS could prompt the FTA to ask Sound Transit to redo all their modeling.

31 July

It seems more like the concern is that there will be extra scrutiny, and ST is just deflecting blame and refusing any sort of accountability. We have no reason to trust that we'll even be in a place to find savings in 6-7 years (which btw puts us pretty close to the original planned delivery date)

seattle.legistar.comseattle.legistar.com

29 July

Housing and transit go hand-in-hand. Excellent work by @cmeddielin.bsky.social to close this loophole that has been continually exploited by NIMBYs to prevent much needed housing in Seattle.

AMR - Alexis Mercedes Rinck@alexis4seattle.bsky.social

Thank you @cmeddielin.bsky.social not just for your leadership on this common sense SEPA legislation, but for your courage to be bold and take on the hard fights. It’s an honor to work and fight for housing affordability and climate justice alongside you.

Seattle Subway reposted

The Urbanist

@theurbanist.org

28 July

The meeting today is at 2:00pm. You can still send in comments! And you can attend in-person at council chambers or virtually to provide public comment 🗣️. Details here: seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=...

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org

Support SEPA reform in Seattle by asking the city council to end predatory delay procedures from city law. The big vote is today! Habitat for Humanity has an online letter 📧 campaign here that is easy to fill out and send: habitatforhumanityseattle.quorum.us/campaign/164...

habitatforhumanityseattle.quorum.usHabitat for Humanity SeattleHabitat for Humanity Seattle

23 June

Interesting thought! This would be another proposal: branch off from SODO and build new, much needed stations in Georgetown and South Park and end at the airport. One downside of branching at Judkins would be cutting off the stadiums from their closest light rail while fixing the at-grade section

Jason@jrock08.bsky.social

If people are actually serious about it. This is how we could justify the expense of building grade separated rail in the Rainier Valley

theurbanist.orgIs Sound Transit Abandoning the Lofty Goals of the Enterprise Initiative?Sound Transit's lofty Enterprise Initiative was aimed at getting ballooning budgets under control without cutting or delaying planned light rail projects. However, that may have been an overly ambitio...

Great story here from The Urbanist. Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine is telling everyone to trust him despite the empty promises. The enterprise initiative was supposed to use tools other than cutting and delaying, but that's what they did yet again.

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org

Sound Transit's lofty Enterprise Initiative was aimed at getting ballooning budgets under control without cutting or delaying planned light rail projects. However, the agency did resort to pulling those levers last month anyway. Story: www.theurbanist.org/is-sound-tra...

Maybe this time is different, but ST has a terrible track record of implementing creative ideas. Producing the date estimate for Ballard should be simple, as any competent agency would already have the estimate, but we probably won't get it and the RFI till the last possible second.

Just some absolute word salad here from CEO Constantine. He has been leading this process in various roles as King County Exec, ST Board Chair, and now CEO since 2009!

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org

Well one other thing they tried was the 75 year bond bill, but state legislators told ST to their face (not Dow though because he didn't show up to the community meeting) that it didn't pass because ST didn't do their homework.

AMR - Alexis Mercedes Rinck

4 June

One option is to build the pink line south as part of an ST4 package, and then elevate the 1 Line through Rainier Valley

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

This impacted riders on the entire network, including the 2 Line. Can we actually talk about building "the spine" without the long term fix for the at-grade segment though the Rainier Valley?

Seattle Subway reposted

@alexis4seattle.bsky.social

31 May

The decision last week from the Sound Transit board to leave Ballard Light Rail extension unfunded is downright outrageous. So make your voices heard! Sound Transit board needs to feel that pressure every single day until Ballard is funded.

Seattle Subway reposted

Robert Cruickshank

@robertcruickshank.com

30 May

There's been a lot of discussion about bringing transit projects to 100% design. The Center City Connector has been at 100% design for nearly ten years. It was almost fully funded, with a $75 million federal funding agreement. Pre-construction work had even begun. It is now considered "dead."

Seattle Subway reposted

Ballard FC

@goballardfc.bsky.social

30 May

At least you can take the light rail back to Bellevue now 😉 #BallardFC | #UpTheBridges

30 May

Another shot across the bow for Sound Transit. They need to stop alienating voters and legislators

This post is unavailable.

To the Mayor's credit, she voted for the Ballard starter line amendment amongst the other important ones. Now we need her to lead the way for Ballard rail like she did for Graham St.

TashasEv(ered head)@tashasev.bsky.social

So what happened @mayorofseattle.bsky.social?

The board should not have passed the resolution. The enterprise initiative has been a rushed, flawed process and now the 4th iteration of the board cutting projects in the face of "unforeseen" circumstances. Sound Transit is failing fundamental tasks of planning, communication, and transparency. 🧵

Seattle Subway@seattlesubway.org

Tomorrow, the Sound Transit Board is voting on amendments to the proposal that cuts Ballard out of the Ballard Link Extension by only funding construction to the Seattle Center. We support all of the proposed amendments, but #12 is crucial to get a date to Ballard under the current resolution.

That being said, a few key amendments did pass: - We will get a date for Ballard under the current funding by August 1st - The board will issue an RFI (so they can study creative solutions like automated light rail) - Graham St station is now funded

As a result, momentum is building for board reform so we can end the cycles of crises and cuts.

Seattle Subway@seattlesubway.org

They still have no concrete plan to get to Ballard. They rejected the Ballard starter line amendment with the board chair and others baselessly fearmongering about it threatening the success of all the other extensions.

Mayor Wilson: “I’m going to make sure we get it across the finish line. It’s critical we deliver light rail to Ballard like voters were promised.”

soundtransit.orgBoard of Directors Meeting | Sound TransitMay 28, 2026 | 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. | The Board establishes policies and gives direction and oversight.

27 May

Councilmember Strauss: “We need you to show up to Thursday’s Sound Transit Board of Directors Meeting and tell Sound Transit that’s unacceptable. It’s time for them to keep their promises. It’s time for them to build Ballard Light Rail.”

If you want to ride a train to Ballard in your lifetime, make your voice heard at the Sound Transit Board meeting tomorrow, May 28th. Public comment starts at 1:30 (sign-up up early). If you can't make it in person, you can also call in to comment virtually.