Sound Transit deal goes into overtime
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 11, 2003
SEATTLE — With a promise to have the first Sounder commuter train roll into Everett Station by the end of the year on the verge of being broken, negotiators failed Thursday to work out a deal in time for it to be signed at Sound Transit’s last board meeting of the year.
Still, Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl said the agency is tantalizingly close to signing a deal with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, and she will call for a special meeting "if I have a deal" in the next few days.
"I think the chances are that we’re going to get this done," Earl said, adding that the major issues of cost and timing have already been worked out.
"The devil is in the details, and we’re not in an agreement" on them yet, she said.
Outgoing Sound Transit board member Bob Drewel said he hasn’t given up on "being ridden out of office" as Snohomish County executive on a Sound Transit train, a refrain he has repeated often the past year.
"In keeping with the season, I see no reason that sense of anticipation shouldn’t still be in place," said Drewel, the new Puget Sound Regional Council executive director who is hoping he gets to sign a deal with Burlington Northern Santa Fe before stepping down. "I’m anticipating there will be one more Sound Transit meeting this year."
In May, Sound Transit agreed to pay Burlington Northern Santa Fe $250 million for access to the railway’s tracks, a tough sell because the route is the railway’s main line to the East Coast. The money will be used to make improvements that allow for four round trips a day — four trains running south in the morning and four returning in the evening. The trains will stop in Everett, Edmonds and eventually Mukilteo.
What wasn’t agreed on in May was how soon the second, third and fourth round-trip trains would start, and at what time of day the trains would run.
Snohomish County commuters have longed for an alternative to fighting their way to work in Seattle on I-5, something outgoing Sound Transit board member Dave Earling knows all too well.
"I remain guardedly optimistic that we will still be able to deliver the first train this year," Earling said, adding that he could not comment on the outstanding issues because they are part of confidential negotiations. "There are issues that still need to be resolved," he said.
Although he couldn’t be reached Thursday, Sound Transit board member Mark Olson, an Everett City Council member, has said that delivering on Sounder is critical to Snohomish County’s support of Sound Transit. Olson has said it is more important than the bus service and road projects that so far have been all Sound Transit has been able to deliver in the county.
The cost of the Everett-to-Seattle Sounder project which voters approved in 1996 has grown from $177 million to $377 million, an increase that mostly can be blamed on the payout agreed to in the spring for access to Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s tracks rising from $115 million to $250 million.
Earl said she is aware that Snohomish County’s board members have been pushing to deliver on the year-end promise.
"Our two teams have been negotiating around the clock basically for the last two weeks, and are still going to be tonight," Earl said.
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