SEATTLE — A promise that the first commuter train will roll into Everett Station by the end of the year — only 28 days away — is likely to be kept.
But a report released Wednesday shows that the bill for delivering the service has shot up substantially — by about $200 million.
That means taxpayers will shell out about $377 million to get the trains rolling between Everett and Seattle.
Paperwork has been flying back and forth between Sound Transit and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway in recent weeks, the apparent closing stages of negotiations that will culminate on Dec. 11.
If all goes well, Sound Transit directors then will approve 10 separate agreements with the railroad.
"If we get the contracts signed on the 11th, then there will be a train by the end of the year — absolutely," said Joni Earl, Sound Transit CEO. "I’m very optimistic that we’re going to get there."
If not, then the only way Sounder service could start by the end of the year is if the board holds an emergency meeting.
Whether it comes now or later, the price tag for the Sounder service is pricier than the $177 million voters were told it would cost when they approved Sound Move in 1996.
A report given to Sound Transit’s finance committee on Wednesday shows the price for sending Sounder trains chugging up and down Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s tracks from Everett to just south of Tacoma will cost $1.2 billion.
That’s up nearly $500 million from the $746 million package — adjusted for today’s dollars — voters approved in 1996.
Taking a lesson from the massive cost overruns the agency identified in its light rail program in 2001, Earl told her staff to give Sounder thorough scrutiny. They spent the past year working on it.
Earl told Sound Transit’s finance committee members that they now have a much more accurate budget worksheet to work from.
The majority of the overruns came from severely underestimating how much it would cost Sound Transit to get access to Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s tracks. Sound Transit estimated it would cost $385 million to get access, but it has ended up costing $820 million, a $435 million underestimate.
The bill for access to the tracks from Seattle to Everett has gone from an estimate of about $115 million to $250 million, the amount Burlington Northern Santa Fe agreed to last spring.
Sound Transit was also supposed to get $136 million from the state Department of Transportation and from Amtrak. That money never arrived.
While finance committee members already knew about the cost overruns, they were not aware until Wednesday that the bill for building stations along the Everett-to-Seattle section and the Tacoma-to-Lakewood section had also climbed significantly.
The largest increase is a plan to build a station in Mukilteo, which went from $11.2 million to $18.2 million. Improvements to Everett Station went from $24.7 million to $26.9 million, while the cost to build a station in Edmonds went from $9.6 million to $13.1 million.
Finance committee member Dave Enslow said he was disappointed that the numbers for the stations came in so high. He told Sound Transit staff to try to stick to the original estimates anyway.
"Let’s see if we can’t figure out a way to live within our budget," he said.
Reporter Lukas Velush:
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