In an article on the PNW Local news website, the issue of budget cuts is raised re: police coverage on Sound Transit corridors and unincorporated areas:

“Unincorporated King County will have less law enforcement”

“Citizens in unincorporated areas of northeast King County — including parts of Redmond, Woodinville and Duvall — would be “terribly exposed” to crimes including thefts/burglaries valued under $10,000, bad checks/fraud and regional drug rings because loss of deputies and staff would eliminate most investigations, said (King County Sheriff Sue) Rahr. ”

“We also are Sound Transit and Metro Transit police — we cover 2,000 square miles with that service … and handle homicides, forensics, Homeland Security. … We really are a metropolitan police unit,” Rahr emphasized, countering the notion of a quaint sheriff’s department in a fictional town like Mayberry. “

First of all, it’s completely irresponsible to cut police & security services when the population keeps growing- and what does that mean for cities along a light rail line?

If King County is looking at: “the loss of 21 positions, both commissioned and non-comissioned personnel. King County Executive Ron Sims has called for more reductions in 2009, further slashing up to 70 more jobs in the Sheriff’s Office”, then what happens at light rail stations and on the trains when the inevitable happens- crimes like the typical, numerous assaults in Portland?

Is Sound Transit going to require the cities to pay for security that the light rail line passes through?

Have the cities budgeted for that? Probably not.

Could the cities afford to provide sufficient security to keep their citizens safe? Probably not. Portland isn’t doing a great job of that:

Hire 160 Officers for Light Rail, City Tells TriMet

Crime on the MAX- The Oregonian

North Portland MAX attack renews fear, safety worries

Knife attack on bus raises security concern

71 year-old budgeoned with a bat on Tri-Met

Before the ST2 light rail proposal is voted on in fall 2008, citizens should be assured that what is happening in Portland will NOT HAPPEN here.

Who will take responsibilty for the security budget? Sound Transit? King County Sheriff’s office? We just heard from them that they won’t have the coverage.

Seattle? Bellevue? Redmond?

The Bellevue City Council will seek comments from people about proposed changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan and other recommendations related to developing a light rail system at a study session Monday at City Hall.

Read former Washington State Secretary of Transportation Doug McDonald’s articles (3) on transit & transportation in the Puget Sound region at the Crosscut site.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Successful organizations build their strategies around meeting customer-driven needs.

The customer-driven mission here is to help move ordinary people where they need to go.

It’s not to lay a few ribbons of expensive rail lines where it seems suitable and convenient to engineering firms, public relations consultants, contractors, and rail buffs.

Sound Transit has to back off the merchandising of this expensive and one-dimensional plan that most people don’t need and won’t use and enter a collaboration to see how all transit can best work for all the people of the region.

The ridership numbers for all the systems are the best place to start the planning.”

We couldn’t have said it better. Read all three articles by McDonald at Crosscut:

Transit Train Wreck: The case against more light rail

Transit Train Wreck: Revealing Bus Route Ridership

Transit Train Wreck: Here’s how to do buses right

The new light rail line under construction in Jerusalem has a unique bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem. It is also known as the Bridge of Strings. Like with all light rail lines, the project has been controversial and charged with being over budget, late and making traffic congestion worse. Heat over troubled bridge:

Nevertheless, the full picture is much less rosy than the PR. While it is true that Jaffa Road will turn into a pedestrian mall once the ...

WOW. According to a Washington Policy Center study: “Attracting a new rider to light rail costs 16 to 47 times as much as attracting a new rider to a traditional bus system“.

Read the Washington Policy Center’s research on light rail and download the study at:

http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Centers/transportation/policybrief/08_Ennis_LightRail.pdf

The Facts on Light Rail: A Comparative Analysis of Light Rail Systems in Six West Coast Cities

by Michael Ennis
Director, Center for Transportation

As Washington cities consider whether light rail is right for them, this study on the performance of the six existing systems on the West Coast provides factual, real life examples of what taxpayers could expect here. Policymakers and the public should consider whether diverting transportation taxes away from other programs and services is worth the opportunity costs. Based on the data, this analysis concludes that it is not.

Take a ride on this scenic route before it’s gone TheNewsTribune.com, WA - May 11, 2008 Contractors for Sound Transit will begin work late this year on track and crossing improvements so the Sounder commuter train can reach Lakewood and Amtrak ...

Rail transit construction is so farking expensive that the people overseeing lose all sense of proportion. Take Denver’s FasTracks program, which is supposed to build about 119 miles of rail transit over eight years for $6.2 billion. That’s more than $2 million a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. So its not surprising [...]

County Council Oks Eastside trail deal Seattle Post Intelligencer - 12 hours ago Sound Transit and a regional planning agency intend to conduct a $300000 study of the corridor and its transit potential. The corridor proposal has gone ...

This morning, the Seattle Times published the Antiplanner’s op ed about rail transit, energy, and greenhouse gases. But where did they get that deer-caught-in-the-headlights photo? The Oregonian published an abbreviated version of the same op ed (san photo) last week. Someone named Jake thinks he found a flaw in my study. As he points out in his [...]

Many Seattleites assume public transportation is vastly more energy efficient than cars, and that spending more money on transit will attract...