Sound Transit voted recently to spend an extra $8 million to gain access to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks between Everett and Seattle.
Signed at the end of the year, the agreement allowed Sound Transit to start its long-promised commuter rail service to Snohomish County. Currently, one round-trip train runs from Everett to Seattle each weekday. That service will eventually be ramped up to four round trips per day.
Calling it a housekeeping move; the agency’s board of directors voted March 25 to give the railroad the extra money in turn for getting perpetual access to the tracks. Previously, the two had agreed on a century-long lease arrangement.
But one critic says the number of riders doesn’t justify the extra cost. So far, about 150 people ride each train south from Everett, and presumably that same group rides back to Snohomish County, creating a total of about 300 trips per day.
Pencil out the cost, said Emory Bundy, a longtime Sound Transit critic from Seattle, and you’ll find a per-passenger bill that’s well in excess of $100 per trip.
“You could literally be sending people by chauffeured limousine cheaper than having them ride on Sounder,” Bundy said.
The board also voted to increase Sounder’s systemwide operations budget by $826,000. That bumps that budget up to $24.8 million a year.
The Sound Transit board voted to increase its Sounder budget by $10 million, but $2 million of that is going to support its new service south of Tacoma, said Lee Somerstein, an agency spokesman. Sounder already has three round-trip trains running from Tacoma to Seattle.
The $8 million for the Everett-to-Seattle run increases the payout to Burlington Northern Santa Fe from $250 million to $258 million. Overall, Sound Transit’s cost of launching Everett-to-Seattle service has grown from $385 million to $393 million.
The cost increase wasn’t unexpected, Somerstein said. Final details of the arrangement with the railroad could not be finished in time for Sound Transit to meet a self-imposed deadline to start Snohomish County Sounder service by the end of 2003.
The agency knew it would cost more – just not exactly how much more, said Mark Olson, a Sound Transit board member and Everett City Council member.
“We expected (the increase) to be in exactly that range,” Olson said.
Still, Bundy said, the increase is another unacceptable cost overrun for service that was supposed to cost $177 million.
“The terrible nightmare about this is that the cost is prodigious compared to the benefit,” he said.
Olson said Sound Transit had to do what it could to get commuter rail started in Snohomish County, saying that riders will come as the system is built up.
“We in this country have such a short time horizon,” Olson said. “It’s really critical, in looking at public transit, to take the long-term view.”
Delaying now only means the bill will be much bigger five or 10 years from now, Olson said. He said once mass transit is in place, it’s easier and logical to expand service.
“I see a time when we have more train times and when we have bi-directional trains,” Olson said, referring to reverse commute trips where people from Seattle can ride a train to work in Everett.
“I have every expectation and confidence that Sounder will see increased ridership in the future,” he said.
Lukas Velush is a reporter for The Herald in Everett.
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