Seattle's 'Rail Madness'?
"...[N]owhere is the misallocation of public money more evident than in public transportation, where Rail Madness eats billions that could otherwise be devoted to truly efficient transportation technologies.
Consider Seattle's version of Boston's Big Dig: The city's downtown bus tunnel is closed -- two years ahead of schedule -- for rail retrofit. Sound Transit, a regional agency, is obsessed with building a cost-ineffective light-rail system. It is preparing to bore twin tunnels five miles further northward, which will require moving between 121,000 and 167,000 dump-truck loads of dirt. Never mind that voters have not yet approved funds or a plan for a rail system going that far or beyond."
[Editor's note: This article is available to non-subscribers for a period of 7 days.]
A WSJ columnist blasts Seattle for its misallocation of public money to poorly devised rail projects at the expense of ‘real’ transit projects that improve mobility.
"...[N]owhere is the misallocation of public money more evident than in public transportation, where Rail Madness eats billions that could otherwise be devoted to truly efficient transportation technologies.
Consider Seattle's version of Boston's Big Dig: The city's downtown bus tunnel is closed -- two years ahead of schedule -- for rail retrofit. Sound Transit, a regional agency, is obsessed with building a cost-ineffective light-rail system. It is preparing to bore twin tunnels five miles further northward, which will require moving between 121,000 and 167,000 dump-truck loads of dirt. Never mind that voters have not yet approved funds or a plan for a rail system going that far or beyond."
[Editor's note: This article is available to non-subscribers for a period of 7 days.]
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Mr Dyk's twiddling propitiations..
I don't trust that WSJ editors ever present unbiased viewpoint. This piece by Seattle columnist Ted Van Dyk perfectly fits that requirement for their publication. Ted is surely a card carrying member of Seattle's dark side; evidenced by this standard ploy of blaming others for his own dark doings.
Mr Dyk rightly claims that Seattle rail projects are poorly arranged, but rarely hints at their basic engineering, which contain options the public are not allowed to consider through media sources like Mr Dyk's column. These options can lower costs, impacts and have more productive results.
Mr Dyk does not mention the blaring fatal flaw in the Link LRT project, that it inexplicably bypasses the only major destination on its route to Seatac airport - South Center, where existing and future transit riders completely justify the modest extra cost for its inclusion. I suspect Mr Dyk realizes that downtown Seattle retailers pulled strings to have the competition eliminated, but let these dark forces, his drinking and golf buddies, off the hook.
The Peoples Waterfront Coalition proposes a solution that requires a more definitive explanation than Mr Dyk is willing or allowed to print in his column. The principles behind their proposal would allow a Bus Rapid Transit system installation on the Express Lanes of I-5, that one day could evolve into LRT. Mr Dyk will not expound upon this money-saving potential. Does he not understand, or is he unable to print this viewpoint? I suspect the later.
Seattle's monorail advocates were similarly left unenlightened about their options as Mr Dyk opined ad nauseum about the cost overruns and the shady financial arrangements of his bedfellows.
Ted Van Dyk is a wretched member of Seattle's dark forces. May his bloated liver burst.
The Real "Big Dig" of Seattle
The real "Big Dig" of Seattle is not the rail projects that this column criticizes. It is the plan to underground the Alaska Way freeway, which this article seems to think is one of the "real" projects that needs more money. This plan is simply a repeat of Boston's "Big Dig," a tremendously expensive plan to put a freeway underground.
See http://www.peopleswaterfront.org/ for information about the People's Waterfront Coalition, which is fighting this plan and instead calling for less expensive traffic engineering solutions, more public transportation, and a pedestrian-friendly waterfront.
In addition to the alternative proposed by the People's Waterfront Coalition, it is worth considering the EIR alternative that would replace the current elevated Alaska Way viaduct with a surface-level boulevard with frequent pedestrian crossings. This would be far less expensive than an underground freeway, it would create a pedestrian-friendly waterfront, and it would do less to encourage automobile use than a new underground freeway.
Charles Siegel