Published August 3rd, 2026
Save Ballard Rail has been committed to working with the Sound Transit board to deliver light rail to Market Street as soon as possible. That commitment included asking for a status-quo date based on current finances and cost estimates for Ballard, and a plan to bring that date much closer to 2035.
Sound Transit heard us and told the public that under the status quo, we won’t get rail to Ballard until 2060. That date is unacceptable and is what we hoped to avoid by opposing Sound Transit’s decision in May to delay rail to Ballard.
Sound Transit also says that by completing environmental reviews, adopting cost savings measures, and finding new funding, they believe they can open rail all the way to Market Street by 2042. That is a good start, but it must be matched with immediate action and a genuine effort to meet the original date promised to voters in the mid-2030s.
In order to make sure we keep this momentum going, we want Sound Transit to:
- Provide specific details on how their five proposed levers will get us to 2042, and how they will implement them.
- Move quickly to incorporate industry best practices, such as those outlined in the Transit Costs Project and Transit Abundance Playbook.
- Release a Request for Information (RFI) as soon as possible to find better and faster ways to build to Market Street, targeting 2035.
- Hold a public forum with substantive and open-ended community dialogue in Ballard regarding the new dates.
We also cannot understate the importance of Sound Transit bringing a concrete plan to the state legislature, backed with data, to help our friends in the legislature grant tools such as 75-year bonds, a higher debt ceiling, and other solutions that can bring us closer to the voter-approved 2035 date – and deliver all ST3 projects by 2040.
By giving us the 2060 date, Sound Transit is finally acknowledging how dire the situation is rather than continuing to pretend everything is fine. They also point out that even under their optimistic scenario of opening rail to Ballard in 2042, all solutions must be in place by 2033. There is no time to lose.
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