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June 20, 2002 King County voting to turn over Downtown Bus Tunnel to Sound TransitBy Maggi Fimia The King County Council is poised to vote on Monday, June 24th, to lease the Downtown Bus Tunnel to Sound Transit. The proposal is to run Sound Transit trains and some, mostly Sound Transit buses in the tunnel. Bus Tunnel is already a Regional FacilityThe 1.3 mile Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) is an integral part of the local and regional King County Metro bus system, which, even operating at less than 50% its capacity serves twelve million trips per year, 46,000 one-way trips a day. With more resources, more rail like configuration of service and modest upgrades, it could serve potentially as many passengers as a surface light rail line. Of course, that surface light rail line would cost tens of billions of dollars to reach enough major centers to equal bus ridership now and take decades to build. Even after that, it still would serve as an alternative for a fraction of the 6 million additional car trips per day expected in the region by 2030. The bus tunnel attracts many suburban and in city bus riders now because it provides service through downtown at a rate of two to three times faster than those routes on the surface streets. 75% of the Tunnel peak hour passenger counts in 1998 were regional trips, trips to/from the suburban cities. Conversely, about 85% of the light rail trips would begin and end in Seattle. What will it cost to change it, How long will it be closed?Doing "joint operations," bus and light rail, requires a $68 million retrofit and closure for two years. Turning the buses back out onto surface streets will increase bus traffic 60%. Customers will be in the rain and cold during the winter, they will have a slower ride, car and truck traffic will also slow down, there will be more air pollution. If this resulted in more service, more capacity, more riders it might be worth the tremendous cost to people and pocketbooks, but it does none of that. How many cars will this streetcar take off the roads to Seattle?According to Sound Transit's own documents, in year 2020, after all this cost and disruption, there will be 400 fewer cars traveling to downtown Seattle than if we did nothing at all. (Final Environmental Impact Statement Addendum, Nov. 2001, pg. 13). We could accomplish the same thing with 10 more bus trips, 50 more 8 person vanpools, and two striped bike lanes. Chump change. Why the Councils should not vote to turn over the TunnelIn addition to no added benefit, the Sound Transit Link Light Rail 14 mile project is in major jeopardy of being funded and built. Why would we turn the tunnel over prematurely? The Federal Government has not released a letter of "no prejudice" which would have allowed Sound Transit to proceed with demolition of buildings, and doesn't bode well for future Federal dollars. The County Councilmembers are not leaping to include the Sound Transit streetcar for funding in the Regional package being considered now for a November 2002 vote. I-776 looks like it has enough signatures to go on the ballot. If passed, the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax portion for Sound Transit would be stopped. There are three lawsuits pending against the project. This facility was paid for by the public, is used now by the public and is needed for optimal regional bus service. It is not something a few elected officials can bargain away to maintain the impression that surface light rail is an "essential public facility." Surface Light Rail not even considered in original studiesIn fact, Surface Light Rail was taken off the table in 1993 because due to its limited capacity, lack of reliability, and slow speed, (average about 18-22 mph), surface light rail technology is unlikely to satisfy the demands of a three-county system. (Final Environmental Impact Statement, Regional Transit System Plan March 1993 pg. 2-50) We’re obviously on the right track with Buses and Monorail and VanpoolsWe must be doing something right. According to the 2000 US Census, only 6% of residents in the Portland-Vancouver area are using transit to commute, while 8% of the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett residents take transit to work. And Portland is the one with the surface light rail. Atlanta, the city that "got our rail" money 30 years ago, only has 4% of the people commuting by transit. Seattle, North and South King County really miss outAll of Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and South King County are paying for this $3 billion streetcar, but Seattle and North King get no other investments- no commuter rail, no express buses. Only 2.5% of Seattle residents live within walking distance of the proposed line. What is the Alternative?The people in this region use buses, vanpools and many want more monorail. Monorail is a safer, faster, cheaper, faster to build and gets people up out of traffic. Vanpools serve less dense areas very efficiently and would be used more if the price were lower and the advertising higher. All those modes are very compatible, we can add to them incrementally, and they don’t have to displace the other. Surface light rail was never part of the Regional transit system, never studied as an alternative, never measured against Bus Rapid Transit or Monorail. Speaking about BRT, the Federal Transit Agency director, Jennifer Dorn says that, Combining exclusive transit-ways, modern stations, high-tech vehicles, and frequent serve, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) provides-at a fraction of the cost- the high level of service that people want and expect from more expensive transit systems. Please call your County and City representatives and tell them to keep the bus tunnel for buses only. Sound Transit is welcome to run their buses through, but no trains, it’s too dangerous, too slow and too expensive. King County Council
Seattle City Council Mayor Greg Nickels
Senator Patty Murray senator_murray@murray.senate.gov 202 224-2621 |
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