After years of delay, Seattle makes the Link

by The Oregonian Editorial Board

Thursday July 23, 2009, 12:06 PM

It's long overdue, but the opening of the city's 14-mile light-rail line is a milestone in the Northwest

The complaints were only sporadic. Still, they had a familiar ring. No doubt you've heard them all before in connection with Portland's light-rail system.

Jammed ticket machines. Inadequate bike storage. Woefully insufficient parking, as if people won't, mostly, drive to the train. (Prediction: They will.)

Only in this case, people weren't talking about MAX. They were talking about the new 14-mile light-rail line, dubbed the Link, that opened Saturday between downtown Seattle and Tukwila. It was first authorized by voters 13 long years, and many frustrating delays, ago.

To be sure, the new line thus far is mainly drawing rave reviews, and sighs of relief from Seattle residents, who have eagerly awaited its coming. They will be even more relieved, no doubt, when a promised connection to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is finished in late December.

An estimated 92,000 passengers celebrated the opening with a free ride over the weekend. But critics of the new line did predict parking along the route would be in ridiculously short supply. Why? In part, the critics contend that Sound Transit hasn't built enough train stations along the line.

That is not a complaint you hear often in Portland. In fact, if anything, complaints here run in the opposite direction: too many stops, too many slowdowns, especially in the downtown area. "Right now we have 64 light-rail stations," TriMet's Mary Fetsch said Tuesday. When the new Green Line opens in September, Portland will have 84 stations along 52 miles of track.

But, remember, the Portland region has built the system with the conscious intention of using light-rail trains and stations to spur development. Seattle has the same hope; it's just too soon to know whether, in its selection of a route and choice of stations and all other variables, it's on the right track.

Portland has a huge head start over its neighbor to the north. Yet Seattle can rightfully boast that voters have put their support and their money into catching up as best they can. Despite fissures in the environmental community and manifest crankiness about light rail over the past decade, public support for it in the Seattle metropolitan area is now deep, wide and very, very clear. A startling election last November made it obvious.

Given the grim state of the economy, many predicted Proposition 1 would go down to a defeat. It just didn't seem like a great time to add a half-cent to the existing sales tax to finance a $17.9 billion light-rail expansion.

But voters in parts of three metropolitan counties approved the expansion 57 percent to 43 percent. In other words, even before the new light-rail line opened last weekend, voters had already committed to dipping into their pockets for another 36 miles of track. This will take light rail to Lynnwood, Federal Way and Redmond (and the Microsoft campus).

"It was kind of an amazing vote," David Ammons, communications director for the secretary of state's office, said Tuesday. One transit leader called Proposition 1 "an act of great generosity to our grandchildren."

Either that, or voters had a different take on their own self-interest. As many test-riders acknowledged last weekend, they are tired of being stuck in traffic. They want options, and they want to live in a city smart and farsighted enough to supply more options.

Also, it's true, a few Seattle residents have wandered down this way a time or two and liked the look and feel of riding MAX. A cosmopolitan city all but requires some kind of rail system.

It took a while. In fact, it took too long. But Seattle voters deserve enormous credit for patience and stamina. It is paying off.

They've finally made the Link.

*My Reply** Just like LINK Light Rail, ALL MAX projects should be put before the voters!!! That way, if we feel bus service is suffering (which it is), We can shoot Fred down every time until the system at least in acceptable shape. If MAX projects weren't such a priority, there would be little to no service cuts. Period.