Proposed Sound Transit plan would spare Everett Link from delays

Published 3:14 pm Friday, May 8, 2026

EVERETT — A proposed plan to help close a $34.5 billion shortfall in Sound Transit’s expansion budget would spare the Everett Link Extension from delays or reductions in scope, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers announced at a Sound Transit committee meeting Thursday.

As part of the updated Sound Transit 3 system plan, which seeks to close that funding gap, the Sounder N line, a commuter rail line running from Everett to Seattle, would cease to operate by 2033. Parking projects planned along the Everett Link Extension would also be deferred.

Other trade-offs from the plan included delays in various areas set to be part of the light rail network. The opening of the T Line streetcar expansion in Tacoma, which would bring the streetcar as far as Tacoma Community College, would be delayed from 2041 to 2043. The opening of the 4 Line, set to connect Issaquah to Bellevue and south Kirkland on the Eastside, would be delayed from 2044 to 2050. Two infill stations in south King County would also be deferred.

The most significant impact would be on the Ballard Link Extension, the light rail expansion project with the highest projected cost overruns. The proposed plan would build the extension only as far as Seattle Center while completing the final design of the rest of the project. No potential opening date for the complete Ballard extension, projected to attract the most riders out of the Sound Transit expansion projects, was included in the proposal.

In a statement Friday, Somers wrote that the board will direct its CEO, Dow Constantine, to continue to pursue “every available tool” to move projects forward.

“This region has repeatedly shown a willingness to invest in its future, and I believe we will ultimately deliver on those commitments,” Somers wrote.

Somers said Thursday that he and the board were committed to building out the entirety of the Sound Transit 3 package, but would first need to find the money to do it. The agency’s effort to tackle its multi-billion-dollar shortfall, which emerged due to higher-than-expected costs of construction and property acquisition, is known as the “Enterprise Initiative.”

“The proposal before us does not end the Enterprise Initiative,” Somers said at Thursday’s Executive Committee meeting. “It will be ongoing. We will continue to look for cost savings on these projects, we will continue the design and engineering which allows us to do that, and we will continue looking for funding opportunities and options and ways of being efficient.”

Sound Transit’s members are under a tight timeline to suggest possible changes to the proposed plan. Initial amendments from the board need to be submitted to staff by next Wednesday, said Alex Krieg, the agency’s executive director for enterprise planning. A vote is scheduled for the May 28 board meeting.

Somers said that accelerated timeline is needed to ensure that the agency can continue making progress on the West Seattle Link extension, a project that is currently “shovel-ready,” Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said.

In a statement, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin wrote that completing the light rail spine between Everett and Tacoma “is critical to the future of our region.” She said the city is working to ensure the expansion of the system comes to Everett smoothly and quickly, and that Somers’ proposal “holds the line on any further delay of light rail to our job center at Boeing, Paine Field, our growing South Everett community and our thriving downtown.”

“Our city will do everything possible to find additional operational savings and ways to accelerate the timing of when light rail will reach our communities,” Franklin wrote Friday. “The ST board owes the public rigorous oversight and urgency. Our residents deserve these investments, and I will continue fighting for our city and region.”

Brock Howell, the executive director of the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition, told the board on Thursday that because the cost estimates for the Everett extension were relatively close to its original budget, the project should not be delayed.

“The city of Everett has set the stage for supporting the projected growth of tens of thousands of housing units and jobs in the downtown regional growth center, making it easier for people with disabilities to walk and roll to transit, older adults to age in place, youth to grow up, and for low income folks to live affordably,” Howell said.

A number of people who spoke at the meeting expressed dismay that the Ballard extension, set to terminate in a booming, dense neighborhood, was pushed back without any expected opening date.

“We still do not have a date for Ballard,” said Dan Strauss, a Seattle City Council member from Ballard who serves on the Sound Transit board. “This is still a loss. This is the only metropolitan regional center that will not be connected by Link light rail in this plan.”

Regarding the decision to recommend discontinuing Sounder service, a spokesperson for Somers wrote Friday that the proposal was brought forth by Sound Transit staff because of the lower ridership along the commuter rail line and the high subsidies required to provide the service.

“Sound Transit’s shortfall requires difficult trade-offs across the entire system. Public feedback—through board meetings, surveys, and the Everett Station town hall—has consistently identified completing light rail to the Paine Field job center and downtown Everett as the top priority,” wrote Kari Bray, the spokesperson.

Sounder commuter rail has been operating the N line — which connects Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds to downtown Seattle — since 2003. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership on the commuter rail line languished and has never really recovered, Sound Transit data shows. Only four trains per weekday run in each direction, and its fares are more expensive than using buses to connect to light rail. In April, the rail service only provided around 565 rides per day.

“The Board can revisit this decision if ridership meaningfully improves in the years ahead or should new funding or cost efficiencies emerge,” Bray added.

Sound Transit projects that the Everett Link Extension would provide about 27,000 rides on an average weekday, according to an internal fact sheet. About 10,000 of those would originate from the downtown Everett station.

Steps the agency might take toward making the light rail projects more affordable could include changes to design, seeking permitting reform, using public-private partnerships, or asking for more local, state or federal funding, according to the proposed resolution. A bill to allow Sound Transit to issue 75-year general obligation bonds, which would give more borrowing flexibility to the agency, was introduced in the state legislature last year. It passed in the Senate but never made it out of committee in the House.

“This work isn’t finished until every project is built,” wrote Kirk Hovenkotter, the executive director of the nonprofit Transportation Choices Coalition, in a statement. “We’re glad that this proposal doesn’t cut entire light rail lines and advances engineering on every light rail project. Planning and design are already finding billions of cost savings on projects, and the legislature can help with reforms to bonding, debt, and permitting. Now, the Board must put together a plan to ask the legislature to step up.”

Sound Transit’s Executive Committee will hold another meeting to discuss the proposed plan further on Thursday.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.