{"id":218,"date":"2026-05-07T06:13:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saveballardrail.org\/?page_id=218"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:13:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:13:36","slug":"lets-save-st3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/saveballardrail.org\/lets-save-st3","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Save ST3!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Letter to the Board<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Dear Members of the Board,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are Save Ballard Rail, a grassroots group of transit riders and residents from northwest Seattle and across the Puget Sound region. We organized just over a month ago in response to the proposed cuts to the Ballard Link Extension (BLE). Let\u2019s dispense with the notion that indefinite delays are just delays. Without a clear timeline to demonstrate accountability, progress can quietly lag, and EIS reports can go stale. When it comes to infrastructure, \u2018someday\u2019 means \u2018never.\u2019 Indefinitely delaying rail to Ballard violates a promise made to voters, and makes it unlikely we\u2019ll ever see it built in our lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since we started, we have organized a rally of hundreds of passionate locals, featuring speeches from city, county, and state representatives<\/a>. We also have met with 13 board members so far, and for those of you we haven\u2019t met yet, we have tried, and would love to make your acquaintance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re writing to you to invite you to work with us on a better solution for the entire ST3 project in all three counties. We have seen many technical, financial, and regulatory changes that could dramatically accelerate timelines and bring down costs without cutting stations, and compiled some of the ones we considered most promising into a one-pager that we have distributed to you or to your offices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, we would like to highlight Automated Light Rail (ALR), as it has a corresponding 40-page white paper<\/a>, and offers a forecasted $15B savings alone, without any delays, as its environmental footprint fits within the current draft EIS report. This justifies Sound Transit issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to find cost savings through technical solutions without delays, be it ALR or some other option. An RFI provides the opportunity to get innovative ideas without delaying the existing DEIS and can be done while West Seattle starts construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We understand that each of the projects under consideration represents an area that has been paying into the system for a decade, and deserves to receive what they were promised. We have shown up in support of those projects in recent weeks, and have met some of you at those events. Our goal is to build the entire system, and we reject efforts to pit our projects and residents against each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We fervently believe we all deserve a complete system, and with some technical, financial, and legislative changes such as the ones we have suggested, this is very much possible. Some of our proposals, such as permitting changes or tax increment financing, would benefit the whole system equally. Others are focused on reducing BLE costs, but given the 49% regional subarea stake in North King County, reducing costs there frees up capital for other subareas, accelerating projects such as Tacoma Dome and Tacoma Community College, Everett, and South-Kirkland Issaquah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you proceed instead with the status quo, indefinitely delaying or cutting projects, you would be setting a dangerous precedent, putting all future projects at risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the Enterprise Initiative, BLE was forecasted to be only 15 years away. Now you propose to kick it indefinitely into the far future. So for any stations with a new delivery date after 2040, how confident are you really that it\u2019ll actually get built? How confident are you in today\u2019s forecasted numbers? How confident are you that current practices will avoid another cost explosion? How confident are you that, 5 years down the line, when costs soar because you didn\u2019t act now to build more affordably or find new financial tools, that you can stop a future board from following your example set this month and cut the line to Downtown Everett, Issaquah, or Tacoma Community College?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We urge you to make the responsible choice. You can do that by fulfilling the promises made to taxpayers and voters, setting well-defined timelines for all projects, properly preparing legislative and financial tools ahead of the upcoming legislative session, and issuing an RFI for technical savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not wedded to any single solution, but ALR and other projects, both domestically and internationally, demonstrate that it is possible to deliver the full vision of ST3 at a lower price tag. If you choose instead to proceed with institutional inertia, to accept delayed timelines, exorbitant costs, and an incomplete system, that is also a choice, and one that voters will remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please, for the sake of all of us in Snohomish, Pierce, and King counties, make the right choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of those desperate for better transit,
Save Ballard Rail

Published: May 6th, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n