After months of uncertainty, Sound Transit now says it could deliver light rail to Seattle's Ballard neighborhood by 2042.
But that depends on whether the agency can find billions of dollars over the next seven years.
If it does not, Ballard residents could be stuck waiting for the train — which was approved by voters a decade ago, and originally promised for 2035 — until 2060.
The new timeline follows a controversial Sound Transit Board vote in May, which indefinitely deferred the Ballard extension in order to address the agency’s looming budget shortfall. The board voted to cut the line three stops short, ending at Seattle Center instead of Ballard’s Market Street as originally planned. The move was decried by transit activists, but board members stressed that they were not abandoning Ballard and were still committed to finding a path forward.
The new roadmap offers a glimpse of what that path could look like.
To open the Ballard station by 2042, Sound Transit said it will need to find about $1 billion by 2030 so it can begin acquiring property for construction. It will need to complete final design work by 2032. And by 2033, the agency will need to find funding for the full project — about $6 billion to $8 billion — so it can begin building.
If the money is not found in time, the agency said it would have to wait for existing revenues to accumulate, which would delay the Ballard line until 2060.
Jonatan Gonzalez, a transit activist with Save Ballard Rail, said 2060 was a “terrible date.” But he is glad Sound Transit is being transparent about the possible timeline.
“I think we wanted to hear from the agency just how bad the situation was,” Gonzalez said. “We saw them releasing this bad date and telling us just how bad things are as a way for them to build trust back with the community, and not just sweep it under the rug.”
Sound Transit Board members said they were optimistic about opening the line by 2042.
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, a member of the Sound Transit Board, said in a statement that the agency's information showed that “we can deliver light rail to Market Street in 2042 if we stay focused over the next seven years on finding cost savings and additional financial capacity.”
It is still unclear exactly where the money will come from. Sound Transit said it is exploring a variety of options to reduce costs and raise revenue. That includes permitting reforms, increasing debt capacity, asking the state for help with longer-term bonds and exploring third-party public or private funding sources.
The plan for the Ballard line would see trains running from Seattle Center to stations in Smith Cove and Interbay before ending at a station on Market Street in Ballard.
Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss, who represents Ballard and sits on the Sound Transit Board, has been vocal about pushing for the agency to release an estimated date for Ballard.
“Light rail to Ballard is not dead,” Strauss said in a statement, adding that Friday’s announcement “shows the way to get Ballard Link back on track.”
Sound Transit’s new roadmap frames 2042 as a best-case scenario. But some transit activists argue that that is not good enough, and are still pushing the agency to complete it closer to the original 2035 date.
“The reality is that 2042 is unacceptable, because the need for light rail, the need for public transit, is so important,” said Gonzalez, with Save Ballard Rail.
Gonzalez acknowledged that getting light rail to Ballard in the 2030s is ambitious. But he believes there are more levers Sound Transit can explore, such as smaller stations, fire code reform, shallower tunnels and maybe even automated trains. He said the agency should look to countries in Europe, where construction costs for public transit projects are significantly lower.
“Maybe we can be the region that starts figuring out why it's so expensive to build transit, build light rail in this country,” Gonzalez said. “It’s good to be aspirational. Because we have to have goals, even if realistically they might not happen, because that’s how we push for change.”
