this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Yep.
It's just $50m for an initial assessment.
At this rate, this one high speed line might be built in something like 20 years.
Its been about 15 years of building just a light rail system in the Seattle area... and we've got One line as a spine from Lynnwood to SeaTac (about 30 miles), and Two line as a spine from Redmond to Bellevue (about 8 miles).
These lines don't even link up.
Whole system planned completion date?
2045?
Total cost so far?
50 billion dollars? More?
Total planned cost out to project completion date?
150 billion dollars? More?
I pose these all as question marks as it takes a fairly involved effort to actually figure out real numbers.
If anyone can give me an accurate, unbiased breakdown, I'd appreciate it, I can't find one easily with a fucked up wrist, on a phone.
...
I like transit. I think we should build more transit.
I know HSR has less stops and stations than an urban light rail system.
The point here is that this scale of costs and timetables are ludicrous compared to what other countries or regions or cities of other countries have achieved.
Seems like Seattle is doing ok.
Link across lake Washington was supposed to be done already, but the floating bridge itself has an issue with improperly made concrete for the tremendous additional tonnage frequent train service will add (particularly if there was a seismic event).
This has had a number of knock-on effects, particularly the lack of access to the main OMF (operations and maintenance facility) in Bellevue, so the 1 line only has access to the smaller facility near sodo. That also means the additional train sets ordered can't be stored in a useful place, and messes up the phases of other parts of the schedule.
Good news: tracks are done, most likely we should expect to get trains testing for a few months in mid to late spring, with the cross-bridge connection finally opening to the public in summer 25.
Little late, sure, but I'd say this system is coming along quite nicely, after having previously supported NYC's transit systems.
Just a slight correction: the Link Light Rail project officially opened their first station (although served by bus at the time) in 1997. It's taken almost 28 years to get to this point.
Oh, sure, it's been a while. I just wanted to point out that the system has a lot of positive inertia coming towards the end of the project.
For the record, I'm sad that a system this size still took almost an engineer's career to implement, time-wise.