Prioritize Ballard to Westlake and Provide a Status Quo Timeline
The Sound Transit Board is careening down a path to ruin ST3, they must hear from you prior to their May 28th Board meeting.
On Thursday, May 28, at 1:30pm the Sound Transit Board of Directors will vote on a proposal that would indefinitely postpone the Ballard Link Extension, Boeing Access Road and Graham Street Stations, leaving all without the light rail that voters approved back in 2016.
The stakes are enormous. Boeing Access Road and Graham Street Stations have had construction promised since the 1990's. Ballard has been upzoned multiple times to become a Puget Sound Regional Council "Regional Center", meaning that even more people will be clamoring for a Market Street Station in the future.
Two key amendments are on the table that we urgently need the Board to support:
→ Prioritize Building to Ballard: The current proposal diverts billions in funding toward a second downtown tunnel that would run parallel to the existing one and be largely duplicative. We're calling on the Board to redirect that funding to build a Ballard Starter Line from Ballard to Westlake— reaching the new riders who need it most. They could find further savings by building a service track connection to the existing spine instead of a new maintenance facility.
→ Demand a Timeline under Status Quo conditions: Sound Transit has repeatedly refused to provide any timeline for when the Ballard Link Extension, and Boeing Access Road and Graham Street Stations could be completed under the current plan without additional funding or further cost savings. The community deserves transparency. We're asking the Board to require Sound Transit to publish a real completion timeline in 30 days, even if that number is discouraging, so we can fight to fix it.
Please contact Sound Transit Board members today and urge them to support these amendments. Every message matters.