Documents Pertinent to Congressional Review and USDOT Inspector General Audit of Sound Transit's Link Light Rail in Seattle, Washington

Assembled by John Niles of Public Interest Transportation Forum, February-March 2001

(NOTE: The issues as described here represent data collected as of mid March, 2001, prior to the issuance of the Inspector General's Interim Report and the subsequent collapse of the Link light rail plan described in the
Full Funding Grant Agreement for Minimum Operating Segment One)

(Link to Story about the OIG audit in The Seattle Times, February 10, 2001)

Some of the following material was provided in a briefing book to the Office of Inspector General at a meeting in Seattle on February 9, 2001, and later to selected Members of Congress on February 27-28, 2001:

Overview (* = Read for quick introduction!)

• * Summary of Link Light Rail MOS-1 cost, funding, and schedule issues pertinent to scope of the USDOT audit
• * Overview comments to OIG from King County Councilmember Maggi Fimia, 2/9/01
• * Legal issues review of January 19 Link Light Rail MOS-1 FFGA
• Year end 2000 report from Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel, released March 8, 2001
• Selected Puget Sound area newspaper editorials, October 2000 to January 2001
• Broad-based, bipartisan, sophisticated citizen opposition (Sane Transit statement of September 6, 2000)
• "Why Rail" article in Open Spaces, Summer 2000, by Emory Bundy that motivated formation of Sane Transit
• Participant list and agenda for the February 9 Seattle meeting of the Expert Panel with OIG auditors

Financial issues with Link Light Rail -- costs, revenue capacity, subarea equity

• History of Link Light Rail budgets (Emory Bundy)
• Analysis of 2001 Sound Transit Financial Plan (Jim MacIsaac)
• Funds will be diverted from suburban subareas to pay for Link costs in North King County subarea (Anonymous Tip)
• The Stranger article on subarea equity October 26, 2000 quoting Councilman Rob McKenna
• Impacts on the funding of other regional public transportation needs (Dick Nelson)
• The cost estimates that the voters were provided in the RTA election of 1996 (Sound Move Plan)
• Description of Sound Transit's open-ended taxing authority (Sound Move Plan)
• Additional likely cost factors not yet described by Sound Transit as of December 2000 (from Emory Bundy) 

Legal and regulatory issues with the potential to cause construction delays and a later revenue operations date

• Sound Transit Board members Schell and Nickels advocate consideration of alternative alignments and technologies (from John Niles)
• Summary of Three Legal Challenges to Sound Transit's Ability to Complete Light Rail on Time and on Budget (by attorney Cleveland Stockmeyer)
  • Lawsuit filing from Citizens for Mobility
  • Lawsuit filing from Friends of the Monorail
  • Lawsuit filing from Save Our Valley (Story from Wall Street Journal)
• King County Council Motion passed February 22, 2001 that calls for renegotiating the agreement to transfer the Downtown Transit Tunnel from King County to Sound Transit (news story)
• Neighborhood concern about environmental impacts of "transit-oriented development" (news clipping)

Performance issues with Link Light Rail, including analysis of alternatives, raising questions about the validity of the planning process that led to the definition of MOS-1 

• Link Light Rail as a regional system (by Jim MacIsaac)
• Issues with the Link Light Rail Ridership Forecasts (by Sane Transit Technical Working Group)
• Issues with the Alternatives Analysis Process (by Richard Harkness)
• Reduction of capacity in Downtown Transit Tunnel in planned switch from all-bus to all-rail (by Citizens for Mobility)
• Alternative citizen-initiated monorail effort, subject of two affirmative votes, 1997 and 2000 (news clipping)
• Alternative "Ride Free Express" bus and vanpool mass transit plan, professionally developed
• State-mandated least-cost analysis of alternatives not carried out by MPO
• Peer-reviewed cost-effectiveness study in 1996
• EIS refutes the implicit Sound Transit claim that Link reduces congestion

Issues related to community and voter support for Link Light Rail

• News story March 1, 2001 describing Bellevue business groups withdrawing support of Link Light Rail plan
• Downtown Seattle Association letter of February 6, 2001 to Sound Transit withdrawing support of Link Light Rail plan
• News story December 20, 2000 describing Capitol Hill community and business groups withdrawing support of Link Light Rail plan
• Polling data indicates eroding support (January 2001 survey described by Associated Press)
• Text of official statement on RTA in the 1996 voters' pamphlet
• Original Sound Move plan approved by voters in 1996
• Copy of the promotional web site used by the pro-RTA campaign in 1996
• Misrepresentations to voters in 1996 "Regional Express" election campaign

Links to Puget Sound region web sites

• Sound Transit (Regional Transit Authority, the government agency building Link Light Rail)
• Puget Sound Regional Council (Metropolitan Planning Organization)
• Sane Transit (light rail opposition coalition of citizens founded 2000)
• Citizens for Mobility (light rail opposition association founded 1999)
• Public Interest Transportation Forum (light rail opposition web site founded 1996)
• Ride Free Express (bus and vanpool alternative advocated by two former governors and Seattle business leaders)
• Elevated Transportation Company (public authority established by citizen initiative in 1997 to build a Seattle citywide monorail)
• Freeway Monorail (citizen group advocating a monorail beside I-5)l
• Friends of the Monorail (citizen group supporting monorail construction in Seattle)
• Save Our Valley (Rainier Valley citizens protesting surface light rail)

Background Information

• Associated Press story on Inspector General audit of Sound Transit light rail
• Website of US Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General
• Website of  Honorable Hal Rogers (R - Ky), Chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee, Appropriations Committee, U.S. House or Representatives.
• Description of Federal Transit Administration
• FTA New Starts Report, Year 2000

Comments and questions:  Email to John Niles, Public Interest Transportation Forum