Sound Transit Realigns as Recessionary Effects Linger

Joni Earl

When Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl presented her Proposed 2011 Budget of nearly $1.1 billion to the Sound Transit Board on Thursday afternoon, she had a sobering message: Faced with a 25-percent revenue shortfall since 2008 (amounting to $3.9 billion), Sound Transit will not be able to meet all the objectives in the planned 15-year time frame for Sound Transit 2 approved by voters in 2008.

The good news is that Sound Transit's project management toolbox no longer includes hiding under the bed and waiting for bad news to go away.

"No organization can confront an expected 25 percent reduction in revenues without asking--and answering--hard questions about priorities," Sound Transit Board Chair and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon was quoted as saying in a Sound Transit release. "It is important that we address these issues now and continue to move forward with expanding the region's mass transit system as rapidly as we can."

Earl outlined a series of program realignments designed to keep Sound Transit moving forward, albeit in a trimmer, adaptable way. In a PowerPoint presentation given to the board, she broke down the projects in the ST2 15-year plan into five categories: Design & Construct, Keep Moving, Retain Only Limited Funding, Suspend, and Delete.

The shorthand is if a project is currently under construction and contract, it will move forward as expected. Below that, if a program has been planned, but is facing cost uncertainties, it will move forward if and until unforeseen obstacles or circumstances make changes necessary. Below that level lie real belt-tightening measures: Funding might be limited to studies, or projects put on hold pending funding partnerships or other funding options, or simply deleted (from the ST2 framework).

Tax subareas (north, south, and east King County, Snohomish County, Pierce County) are being looked at differently based on their available funding. But riders will still see increasing levels of regional express bus service, 78,000 of a planned 100,000 service hours.

As might be expected, projects and services in Seattle and North King County are the least affected by the revised budget--our portion of tax revenue is down "only" 16 percent. The U-Link line, already under construction in Montlake and on Capitol Hill, will continue as planned, as will the extension of the Link line from the U-District up to Northgate, though it will be delayed one year until 2021. The line north from there, planned to Lynnwood, faces more uncertainty.

To the east, the fraught debate over East Link (see also Seattle Transit Blog) has pushed that section into the "Keep Moving" category, allowing for more scheduling risk to enter the equation.

The Link line south from the airport is more deeply affected. Earl said the Link to South 200th Street was moving forward (though since planning was in the early stages, she could not promise scheduled completion or rule out cost uncertainties). More importantly, all Link south of the South 200th Street Station falls into the let's-study-the-costs-some-more category.

Other cost-saving measures according to Earl included a one-year delay in bringing four new Sounder commuter rail round trips on line and cuts in administration, research, planning, and insurance.

On one subject, Earl was resolute: "We will not decrease maintenance levels and we will keep our assets in a state of good repair." She pointed out that other agencies around the country had cut maintenance levels, but she felt such tactics were short-sighted.

As the effects of the recession linger, Sound Transit is holding the line, while wringing efficiency from every possible source. Earl confirmed that decreased construction costs and lower than expected bids for major projects could lead to cost savings. That said, she is, the rest of the Sound Transit team are hoping for, and projecting, region wide economic grow sooner rather than later. 

In other Sound-Transit-budget and it-rains-too-damn-much news, Beacon Hill Station is leaking, and Sound Transit is having to repair the post tension cables at the Auburn Station garage and the Federal Way Transit Center. (Post tension cables entered our vocabulary with the announcement that their failure would bring down Belltown's McGuire apartment building.) In both instances, "Removal of failed grout pockets and replacement of the grease filled caps are necessary to extend the life of the support infrastructure." Repair for each structure is budgeted at $525,000.