Sound Transit

Services

Sound Transit operates three transit services across the Seattle metropolitan area: the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma; the Sounder commuter rail system from Everett to Lakewood, via Seattle; and the Sound Transit Express bus system. In 2016, these three systems carried a total of 42.7 million passengers, including an average of 143,000 riders on weekdays.

Link light rail

Sound Transit's Link light rail system consists of two disconnected lines: Central Link between Seattle, Tukwila and SeaTac; and Tacoma Link between Tacoma Dome Station and downtown Tacoma. The system serves 22 stations and has a total of 21.95 miles (35.33 km) of track. Link light rail trains carried 20 million passengers in 2016, or an average of 62,299 per weekday, making it the 16th-busiest light rail system in the United States.

Central Link trains are operated and maintained under contract with King County Metro and Tacoma Link trains are operated and maintained by Sound Transit staff (the only service in the system to not have operations and maintenance performed under contract).

Sounder commuter rail

Sounder is the name for the commuter rail services operated by Sound Transit.

Sound Transit currently operates Sounder as two separate services:

Trains are operated under contract by BNSF Railway and maintained under contract by Amtrak.

Sound Transit Express

Sound Transit Express is a network of regional express buses providing service to cities in all three counties, including Seattle, Redmond, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Issaquah, Lakewood, Bellevue, Auburn, Federal Way, Gig Harbor, Everett, Woodinville, and Tacoma. The bus fleet is owned by Sound Transit and buses are operated and maintained under contracts with local transit authorities (Community Transit, King County Metro, and Pierce Transit).

Background

Throughout the 20th century, Seattle planners and voters rejected various proposals for rapid transit systems. The Forward Thrust program of the late 1960s produced two ballot measures for a rapid transit system that were unable to pass with the state-required supermajority for bonds. Federal funding that was allocated to the project was instead sent to Atlanta, Georgia, forming the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro), the regional water quality agency, took over bus operations in King County and the city of Seattle on January 1, 1973, after approval from voters in response to the failure of Forward Thrust.

The Puget Sound Council of Governments, an inter-county planning agency, partnered with Metro to complete a light rail corridor study in 1986. The regional transportation plan was amended the following year to include rail transit, and the Washington State Legislature formed a State Rail Development Commission to study a regional transit system with light rail, commuter rail and express buses.

Establishment

The predecessor to Sound Transit was a 1995 ballot measure that was rejected by voters because of its $6.7 billion cost. The first Sound Transit ballot measure passed in 1996 as the current mix of buses, commuter rail and light rail, at a cost of $3.9 billion. By proposing a much smaller light rail system, the remaining funds could be used for the two other services, ensuring that the entire Seattle area received services from the measure.

Sound Transit started out in scandal. The agency faced a crisis of financial mismanagement and poor planning, and federal officials ordered an audit in 2000 and pulled promised funding. After a series of executives resigned in 2001, Joni Earl took the helm and is widely credited with saving the agency. Largely, this was by being more realistic and being more honest with the public — reportedly she used the slogan "Optimism is not our friend." Largely due to her efforts, by 2003 Sound Transit received a clean financial audit, and was re-rewarded the funding lost two years earlier. Despite this, the earlier crisis required Earl to drop about one-third of the originally promised light rail line.

2007 vote

Sound Transit 2 (ST2) was part of a joint ballot measure with the Regional Transportation Investment District entitled Roads and Transit, which was presented to Snohomish, King, and Pierce county voters on November 6, 2007. Sound Transit 2 would have made a number of mass transit related improvements, as well as a series of highway improvements. These changes included almost 50 miles (80 km) in new light rail lines, four new parking garages, two new Sounder stations, a streetcar line connecting First Hill, Capitol Hill, and the International District, a transit center in Bothell, and two expansion studies, one for studying rapid transit across the SR-520 floating bridge and the other studying the use of the Woodinville Subdivision between Renton and Woodinville. The ballot measure was defeated by voters.

2008 vote

The Sound Transit Board on July 24, 2008 voted to put a reduced Sound Transit 2 plan before voters. It passed by large margins (58% to 42%) on November 4, 2008. The financial plan for the measure shows $17.8 billion expenditure over 15 years, funded with a 5-10% rise in the regional general sales tax, which essentially doubles Sound Transit's revenue. Central Link Light Rail will be extended from the currently funded northern terminus at Husky Stadium north to Lynnwood. To the south, the tracks will continue from the current southern terminus at Sea-Tac Airport to the northern edge of Federal Way. The proposed East Link Light Rail will depart from Downtown Seattle and end in Overlake via Bellevue. A First Hill Connector (streetcar) is proposed from Central Link's Capitol Hill Station to the Jackson Street terminus of the former Waterfront Streetcar. In total, 36 miles (58 km) of new two-way light rail track were approved by this measure.

Sounder Commuter Rail will receive longer and more frequent trains, for a 30% increase in service. Express Bus service will be immediately boosted (17% increase in service; 25 additional buses) and Washington State Route 520 will receive a Bus Rapid Transit line. A new commuter rail line is proposed to run from North Renton to Snohomish if additional funding beyond the Sound Transit taxes is secured.

Extensions

University Link is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) extension of the Central Link Light Rail system which opened on March 19, 2016. Construction on the line began on March 6, 2009, and completed in early 2016. The line is underground for its entire route and connects downtown Seattle to the University of Washington via Capitol Hill. The cost of the extension is about $1.9 billion with half of the funding expected to come from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

The South 200th Link Extension is a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) extension of the Link Light Rail system. Construction on the line began in May 2013 and opened to the public September 24, 2016. The line is aerial for its entire route and connects Seattle–Tacoma International Airport to the new Angle Lake station and park-and-ride garage at South 200th Street in SeaTac. The cost of the extension is about $383 million with funding from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration, WSDOT, and Puget Sound Regional Council.

Under construction

A new line known as East Link will connect Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond using the Interstate 90 floating bridge. It would terminate at the Microsoft Redmond campus in Redmond's Overlake area. Construction began in 2016 and is expected to finish in 2023.

Funded projects

Northgate Link Extension, an expansion of the Link Light Rail system from the University of Washington to Northgate, was approved by voters in November 2008. Although Sound Transit is currently developing the schedule for final design and construction, it already finished the North Link's Final Environmental Impact Statement in April 2006. The light rail line will link the University of Washington station to Brooklyn and Roosevelt, finally terminating at the Northgate Transit Center. The Northgate station would further provide access to the Northgate Mall and Lynnwood, via the Lynnwood Link Extension Project. This line is expected to be completed by 2021, following the completion of the University Link in 2016. Continuing further north, the Lynnwood Link Extension Project is expected to extend the line from the future Nortgate stop to Lynnwood, via stations at NE 145th Street, NE 185th Street, and Mountlake Terrace. However the Lynnwood Link Extension Project will rely primarily on federal grant money, for which Sound Transit still will need to complete the Alternative Analysis stage to qualify. Although this also means that the stations can be changed to reflect a number of scenarios, the Link Light Rail line is expected to be elevated.

The Federal Way Link Extension is expected to extend Link Light Rail from the planned S. 200th Street stop to Redondo/Star Lake, in a plan approved by the region's voters in November 2008. The project would add 4.8-mile (7.7 km) of track with stations at Highline Community College and Redondo/Star Lake. As the cost estimates have not yet been considered, the line is expected to be a primarily aerial line along SR 99. Final alignment and station designs are to be determined through the project level design and environmental review.

The Tacoma Link Expansion Project is currently under study to extend the current Tacoma Link light rail from the Theater District Station to St. Joseph Hospital, via Wright Park and Tacoma General Hospital along Stadium Way, Division Street, and Martin Luther King Jr Way.

Sound Transit 3

Sound Transit 3 is an approved 2016 ballot measure that will expand Sound Transit services with $54 billion in funding (combining local taxes and federal grants) over a 25-year period beginning after the completion of Sound Transit 2. The measure will add 62 miles (100 km) of light rail, with the completed 116-mile (187 km) system carrying an estimated 500,000 riders per day. The plan also funds Sound Transit Express bus routes, adds two Bus Rapid Transit lines and expands Sounder commuter rail with longer trains, potentially better frequency and two additional stations in Tillicum (near Joint Base Lewis–McChord) and DuPont.

Police

Sound Transit contracts with the King County Sheriff's Office for police services. Deputies assigned to Sound Transit wear Sound Transit uniforms and drive patrol cars marked with the Sound Transit logo. There is currently one chief, one captain, five sergeants, four detectives, 23 patrol officers, and a crime analyst assigned full-time to Sound Transit.

Sound Transit officers patrol Sound Transit property around Puget Sound including vehicles (trains & buses) and stations.

Board of Directors

The current CEO of Sound Transit is Peter Rogoff. He served as President Obama's Federal Transit Administrator and Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Sound Transit is governed by an 18-member Board of Directors, which sets policies and provides direction to the CEO and staff. By state law, the board includes the Washington State Secretary of Transportation and the King, Pierce, and Snohomish County Executives. The three county executives appoint other elected officials from their counties to the remaining seats on the board, which are apportioned based on population, with each county receiving a seat for each 145,000 people that live within the county.

As of 2017, the board members are: