Expect another $250 million hit on Sound Transit. As if the $100 million a mile (and rising) for light rail were not enough, the Sounder has a NEW problem. Having already promised a THIRD OF A BILLION dollars to Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) in taxpayer funded track improvements and having already agreed to squelch the objections of citizens in Puyallup, Auburn, and Kent to freight trains being allowed to increase their frequency and speed up to 60mph through the downtown areas of these cities, BNSF has come up with a new expensive problem that they want the taxpayers to fix for them. This problem is the Seattle train tunnel. Built years ago, this tunnel is a mile long. It has room for two trains tracks side by side, with minimal ventilation, no area for people to walk to evacuate in case of a breakdown, and not really meeting any sort of a safety standard. Now BNSF doesnt have a big problem with this for railroad crews, worker' compensation limits their liability for employees. Amtrak trains use it, but they are rare and have few passengers. But once Sounder commuter service starts, thousands of people will potentially be transiting this tunnel every day. And if disaster strikes, as has happened in the CHUNNEL, in tunnels in the Alps, in downtown London for that matter, the fact that emergency services will not be able to get into the tunnel and passengers (particularly the handicapped) would have little chance getting out, has made the BNSF legal office REAL nervous. They are going to say NO DEAL, unless the safety problems are fixed at taxpayer expense. And thats understandable. The risk is real.

What IS IRRITATING, however, is that the Sound Transit people KNOW this, and have resigned themselves to the fact that itll have to be fixed. They dont want to tell the public, however. They are using the classic Department of Defense cost over-run ploy of getting so much money spent before the over-runs are made public that we MUST FINISH the project, despite the over-runs, OR WE LOSE ALL THE MONEY WEVE ALREADY SPENT.

Given that the bus tunnel was a $480 million project, fixing the Seattle rail tunnel will cost at least $250 million, if no problems are encountered in the fix. It will also dramatically delay the already dramatically delayed Sounder, since the improvements will have to be made while maintaining freight service through the tunnel. Get ready for a lot more tax money, and a long delay. Or ashcan this turkey EARLY, before the money is already spent.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), November 05, 1999

Answers

Why you liberals putting up with the corporate welfare for Burlington Northern? Go buy an electric train at Toys-R-Us (can't do the reversed r). Play with it.

-- zowie (zowie@hotmail.com), November 05, 1999.

Just another example of politicians mis-using public funds to pay for private problems...2 stadiums, railroads, and more!!

-- Everyone Needs to Complain (pmm3757@yahoo.com), November 05, 1999.

Just keep in mind the last time we turned down a rail transit opportunity we ended up with the Kingdome instead. Twenty years from now I wonder if we'll look just as brilliant.

-- (jfloor@jps.net), November 05, 1999.

Just keep in mind the last time we turned down a rail transit opportunity we ended up with the Kingdome instead. Twenty years from now I wonder if we'll look just as brilliant. Actually, the last time we turned down a rail transit opportunity was the year before we approved Sound Transit. You are, I would assume, referring to the old Forward Thrust initiatives? That was more than 20 years ago (how the time DOES fly), and we turned them down multiple times for very good reasons. We voted down the Kingdome twice, because the Seattle movers and shakers wanted to put it in a place with no parking and no freeway access, Pioneer Square. We approved the Kingdome on the third attempt, only after it was promised that we'd have an independent commission decide where the best place to put it was. They indicated Riverton Heights. Pioneer Square was tenth on a list of fourteen. The movers and shakers reneged, obviously.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), November 05, 1999.