Vote no on ST3 | Letter

It's official. Sound Transit's head honcho wants to abandon the provision that sold this almost useless transit agency to the public two decades ago, i.e. "Sub-Area Equity." He wants the communities ringing Seattle to pay for another tunnel so Seattle residents can be whisked between Ballard and West Seattle while our lone connection with downtown Seattle gets booted out of the present-day "bus" tunnel and back into the rain. Sounds like a great deal for raising our sales taxes, more than doubling our car tab fees, and adding a new property tax.

June 24, 2016 9:30 am
Send your own letter to editor@kirklandreporter.com
Send your own letter to editor@kirklandreporter.com

It’s official. Sound Transit’s head honcho wants to abandon the provision that sold this almost useless transit agency to the public two decades ago, i.e. “Sub-Area Equity.” He wants the communities ringing Seattle to pay for another tunnel so Seattle residents can be whisked between Ballard and West Seattle while our lone connection with downtown Seattle gets booted out of the present-day “bus” tunnel and back into the rain. Sounds like a great deal for raising our sales taxes, more than doubling our car tab fees, and adding a new property tax.

Of course to curry our favor they’ve added a spur line to the South Kirkland no place-to-park-and-ride to their ambitious light-rail plans. The big problem with that is that they have yet to prove they can run light rail across a floating bridge.

Sure, they have plans to knock the concrete side railing off the south side of the I-90 reversible lanes to save weight. Yes, in the early 2000’s they did a test, loading semi-trucks to approximate the weight of a two-car light rail train and running them very slowly across the bridge. The bridge only “deflected” eight-inches. And since the pontoons aren’t an outrigger-style as with the new SR-520 bridge, I’m sure that means the other side of the bridge … the one we drive west on … popped up the same amount. Now imagine the rolling wave across the bridge when these trains run at speed, or they add a third car as they have for some runs on the present-day (and a decade behind schedule) Husky Stadium-to-SeaTac Airport line. Bouncy, perhaps?

Two things need to happen. People need to vote “No” on ST-3; and the Legislature needs to compel that agency to prove it can cross I-90 with light rail trains before they are allowed to seek another dime from the taxpayers. And, while they are at it, the Legislature needs to get rid of Sound Transit’s un-elected board and compel the people who run it to stand for election before the whole of the taxpayers who are on the hook for it. When ST wants another $54-Billion on top of what they collect all ready, the people need more say about the overseers of this massive tax increase.

Bruce A. Haigh, Kirkland