A long-awaited light rail connection to Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood isn’t technically dead, but it won’t be happening anytime soon.
After months of debate over the future of the regional rail system, Sound Transit Board members voted on Thursday to approve a sweeping new strategy to balance the budget. It moves forward with voter-approved plans to build out light rail connections to Tacoma, West Seattle and Everett. But the plan puts Ballard in indefinite limbo, cutting the neighborhood’s promised light rail line short at the Seattle Center.
The decision, which could shape the region for decades, was not a huge surprise. Ballard has been on the chopping block for months as elected officials from Seattle and neighboring jurisdictions jockeyed over how to move forward with Sound Transit’s projected $34.5 billion budget shortfall, which the agency attributes to inflation, tariffs, rising construction costs and other factors.
“This is not a good situation at all,” Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss, who represents Ballard, said during Thursday’s marathon meeting, which lasted close to six hours.
The plan passed 16-2, with Strauss and King County Councilmember Claudia Balduci voting no.
The Ballard deferral represents a blow to transit advocates and the neighborhood residents who voted to approve light rail plans with margins of nearly 90% in 2016 and were once promised a completion date of 2035.
“I’m frustrated and disappointed that we have not yet been able to find a way to deliver more for the people in Ballard who have been paying into the program for years and not seen enough results,” Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said after the vote, noting that Ballard light rail has the highest ridership projections in the program's history.
Strauss tried introducing a longshot proposal that would have funded the Ballard to Westlake connection by taking funds from a second tunnel planned for downtown. But it was voted down, with many board members arguing that the ambitious plan would put the rest of the system at risk.
“It is a major change to the project alignment operation,” said Sound Transit Board Chair Dave Somers. “I’m committed to working as hard as I can to get to Ballard and figure it out, but this is not the way to do it.”
Ballard’s light rail dreams are not completely dead. The plan passed on Thursday still includes $300 million for design work, and Sound Transit board members were careful to insist that they intend to keep working to find money to revisit the connection eventually.
“Nothing in this proposal represents a decision to permanently eliminate the voter-approved vision,” Somers said.
Still, with no clear timeline or funding source, many transit advocates remain pessimistic. Before Thursday’s vote, activists with Seattle Subway staged a mock funeral and marched through downtown Seattle with a coffin for the Ballard light rail. Many advocates said it no longer felt like they would see the connection in their lifetime.
“We’ve all had that friend who insists on making a reckless decision we know they’ll regret, but who just refuses to listen when we try to talk them out of it,” transit advocate Robert Cruickshank told the board. “Unfortunately, today Sound Transit is that friend.”
‘Ballard deserves a date’
Strauss’ Hail Mary plan to save Ballard light rail may have failed, but several other amendments from Seattle elected officials provided glimmers of hope for transit advocates.
A planned infill station in South Seattle’s Graham Street was on the chopping block in Somer’s original proposal, but a last-minute amendment from Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda moved it back to the list of planned projects. To do so, they identified new money from a federal grant and cost savings from the Pinehurst station in North Seattle, and made a commitment of “last-in” dollars from the City of Seattle if needed.
Another successful amendment from Seattle leaders said Sound Transit will explore new ideas for revenue, including a potential voter-approved tax.
Board members from other jurisdictions made it clear that the tax would need to be specific to Seattle residents.
“Our communities are rightfully livid and frustrated, and certainly don’t want to talk about paying more,” Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said. “If Seattle wants to vote for additional revenue, go for it. Everett is certainly not ready for that, and won’t be ready until we have trains in our community.”
Without a clear picture of funding, Sound Transit staff have said that it won’t be possible to come up with an estimated completion date for the Ballard line until 2029. But on Thursday, board members agreed to pass an amendment from Strauss that requires staff to release a timeline for the Ballard line by August 1.
Strauss acknowledged that any estimated date would likely be subject to change. But he argued that it would help with transparency.
“We have lost so much trust in the community,” Strauss said. “Any bit of certainty, even if that’s a range, even if it’s a very broad range, it rebuilds that trust immediately.”
Wilson and Zahilay echoed Strauss, arguing that “Ballard deserves a date.”
The issue of a date was literal for Ballard resident Nathan Haerr, who showed up to the meeting with a sign that read: “Expand the dating pool… save Ballard light rail.” Haerr said his neighborhood's isolation sometimes makes it hard to connect with people in other parts of the city.
“I want to live in a connected city, I want to get all over the city conveniently, I want to date all over the city, drink all over the city, and that’s not really possible on a bus or in a car,” Haerr said.
Haerr said the board vote felt like a “now or never” moment, and that he’s pessimistic about the board’s commitment to bringing light rail to Ballard.
“I don’t think it will happen in my lifetime,” Haerr said. “Or by the time it happens I hopefully won’t be dating anymore.”
The new austerity plan also defers several planned parking projects, an extension of the Sounder commuter rail to DuPoint and an infill light rail station at Boeing Access Road in North Tukwila. It delays the planned light rail between South Kirkland and Issaquah from 2041 to 2050 as well.
