Link light-rail ridership dipped in November Seattle Times A November dip isn't surprising, said Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray, since October tends to be the best month for bus and commuter-rail lines. ... and more »

Bellevue citizens! Utilize your chance to communicate with the Bellevue City Council  regarding Sound Transit’s proposed alignments for light rail in Bellevue.

The hearing will start at 8 p.m. in the Council chambers at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. NE.

Sound Transit released a draft environmental impact statement for East Link on Dec. 12, 2008, and set a 75-day comment period. The document is a detailed study of potential routes in Bellevue.

The deadline to comment is Feb. 25.

Sound Transit's Prop. 1 spends much, delivers little Seattle Times, United States - 21 hours ago Sound Transit's Proposition 1 would disproportionally spend large amounts of public resources on a transit program that will serve less than 1 percent of ...

Here are a few highlights from some compelling arguments put forth by Eastside Rail Now at : http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/proposition_1_redo.html

1.   It would do little to reduce traffic congestion…”In fact, the plan could even increase congestion in some areas, such as the I-90 corridor.”

3.   Poor choices were made on selecting the rail routes.…”The most urgent need for rail transit on the Eastside by far is in the I-405 corridor (which would also be vastly cheaper than the I-90 corridor).”

4. It would downgrade some existing bus service. For example, several bus routes between Seattle and the Eastside would likely be eliminated or cut back in attempt to induce their riders to switch to the light rail line.

8.   Serious technical problems remain regarding use of the I-90 floating bridge. “Rail transit has never before been attempted on a floating bridge…”

9.   It would have an adverse effect on freight mobility. Constructing a rail line on the I-90 floating bridge would reduce the freight capacity of the region’s most important east-west road freight corridor.

14.   It is enormously expensive, despite only marginal benefits.  …”Furthermore, these are only the direct monetary costs — not included are a variety of other costs, including the opportunity costs, that is, the loss to the region from not using the same funds for more effective projects, such as lower cost rail lines with better routes.”

And here’s the kicker:

16.   It would preclude the region from taking on more worthy projects for decades. The region would become legally locked into this massive and unprecedented tax increase and its poorly planned projects for many years. Tax capacity would be exhausted for decades, and all flexibility to reduce taxes or to replace the Proposition 1 projects with more effective projects, including those that might become necessary due to changing circumstances, would be lost. 

It’s the Opportunity Cost, folks… see the link here

Take a look at the Washington Policy Center’s new study on ST2:

“ST2 would spend about $22.8 billion, yet serve only 0.4 percent of all trips in 2030.”

Michael Ennis of the Washington Policy Center has evaluated the ST2 tax proposal called (again) Proposition 1 for fall 2008, and has a pdf of the study available on their website at: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Centers/transportation/policynote/Sound_Transit_2008.html

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

Proposed light rail project draws keen interest Eastside Business Journal, Washington - 3 hours ago A large crowd turned out for Monday's Council study session to hear Sound Transit staff update elected officials on a proposed East Link Light Rail project ...

Former Washington Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald said he plunked down $25 for a piece of software that showed him how to work with spreadsheets, so he decided to plug in Sound Transit's ridership numbers. The result was Part 2 of his take on Sound Transit's plans for the next multibillion-dollar ballot measure, courtesy of CrossCut.

Transit train wreck: Revealing bus-route ridership Crosscut, WA - 6 hours ago Part 2 of 3 By Douglas MacDonald Monday: Ridership today and the suggested Sound Transit sales tax increase. Today: Real riders speak, and Sound Transit's ...

Former Washington Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald has written the first of a three-part series on Crosscut about Sound Transit. This is timely stuff, given that Sound Transit's board is going to decide sometime in July whether to take a second stab at a multibillion-dollar ballot measure this fall or in fall 2010. Read the comments, too. I tend to agree with the one who said it would have been nice to hear this kinda stuff while MacDonald was still transportation secretary. His successor, Paula Hammond, now sits on Sound Transit's board, and at least she said recently that ...