My grandmother tells this fantastical tale that’s almost tempting to believe. The story goes that, as a girl, she could hop on a trolley in Seattle and ride around the Puget Sound region on an efficient commuter rail system.
Legend has it that the so-called Interurban was up and running a year after work began and was built out to Lynnwood and Everett within a decade.
Grandma and others of her generation have gone to great lengths to convince us that the story is real. They support their claims with books, photographs and even a realistic-looking restored trolley in Lynnwood. But it’s time for her and other octogenarians to fess up. It was all just a story, right? A rapid-transit system is like a Pegasus: a lovely thought, but impossible in reality.
In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked when you think light rail will reach downtown Everett. Almost half, 47 percent, said it will never happen. The rest of you are still believers: 27 percent said it will come in the next 20 years, and 25 percent said it’ll be sometime after 2035.
I once believed. The year was 1996. Gas cost $1.22 a gallon, the SuperSonics went to the NBA Finals, and 24-year-old me voted for Sound Transit and its promise to run light-rail trains around the area. I’m 43 now, and I’ve only rarely found the modest line between Seatac and Seattle useful. If Sound Transit’s projections come true, I will be in my 60s by the time I can take light rail from Everett to Seattle.
That’s a long time. We might each have our own robotic Pegasus to fly around on by then.
— Doug Parry, Herald Web editor: dparry@heraldnet.com
In honor of National Doughnut Day, weigh in on our next poll:
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