EVERETT – George Nakonecznyj loves riding Sounder. He wants Sound Transit to expand the commuter rail service that runs between Everett and Seattle.
John Balthes wants the transit agency to put more buses on the road in Snohomish County, especially on Highway 99.
Patrick McMahan wants it to get busy bringing light rail to south Snohomish County.
The county residents were among more than 25 people who stopped by Tuesday at an open house that asked the commuting public to help Sound Transit craft its long-range future. The meeting was one of 11 the agency is holding on its long-range plan in the coming weeks.
All three of the commuters said Sound Transit could do better, but they added that are fully behind the agency and would be willing to pay more to see it expand its services in Snohomish County.
Sound Transit will adopt revisions to its long-range plan this summer. The changes will launch a second phase, called Sound Transit 2, which could ask voters to pay for another 10 year’s worth of transit projects in the Puget Sound region.
“I think they’ve done a good job,” said McMahan, a Mountlake Terrace resident who frowned upon a recent proposal by some Sound Transit board members to start light rail in Everett and work south.
“I’m 100 percent against that scheme,” he said.
Sound Transit’s current plan is to gradually extend light rail north, but since there isn’t money in place yet even to connect downtown Seattle with the University District, it could easily take 20 years or more for light rail to reach Everett.
Everett City Councilman Mark Olson, vice chairman of Sound Transit, and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, a Sound Transit board member, want the agency to build a section of light rail from Everett to Paine Field first, within the next decade.
Then the line could be extended south to meet up with a light rail track gradually being extended north from King County.
However, McMahan said it’s south Snohomish County’s turn, pointing out that the majority of Sound Transit dollars spent in Snohomish County have gone to bring Sounder to Everett and on Everett Station .
“The southwest Snohomish County area is where thousands of people who work in Seattle live,” he said, adding that most county residents who use public transit live at his end of the county.
Balthes said it makes no sense that he has to transfer from an Everett Transit bus to a Community Transit bus to travel from his home in Everett to south Snohomish County on Highway 99, a commute that often takes 15 minutes or more.
“Since this is a main artery, I can’t believe there isn’t a bus that doesn’t go down at least every half-hour,” he said.
A draft version of Sound Transit’s long-range plan calls for more frequent bus service on Highway 99 without the need of such transfers, said Matt Shelden, a Sound Transit senior planner.
If the change sticks, that means a bus would arrive at a Highway 99 stop every 10 minutes or less, shaving five minutes or more off the time someone would have to wait.
That sounds good to Balthes, even if it costs more.
“We have to do something,” he said. “I’d rather pay the money and be able to get around.”
The same goes for Nakonecznyj, who lives outside of the Sound Transit taxing district in Snohomish but said he would be happy to see his city annexed.
“I’m currently a user of Sound Transit – I take the train,” he said. “If we’re going to use the service, I think we should pay for it.”
He said all Sounder needs is more trains at better times – something Sound Transit hopes to provide by starting a second Everett-to-Seattle train in June and two more by the end of 2007.
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