Don't ax future light rail stations, residents tell money-strapped Sound Transit

Don't cancel our train lines.

That was the dominant message Thursday from residents who filled Sound Transit's boardroom, to insist the giant agency keep its 2016 campaign promises to reach Ballard, Issaquah, Tacoma, Everett, West Seattle, and other new destinations, despite a $35 billion funding gap.

The latest light rail project list, published this week, would cut or postpone several stations until some unknown year, when more money or cost savings might be found. At least in the near-term, the network will be less than what voters expected when they approved higher sales, car-tab and property taxes for the ST3 plan.

The Sodo-to-Ballard corridor would still end as a starter segment at Seattle Center, a calamity transit staff first mentioned in a March report, instead of three stations farther north in the heart of densely populated Ballard. Neighborhood supporters have marched and testified to insist that Sound Transit build the whole line, currently considered unaffordable at $23 billion.

There was no vote Thursday, but the 18-member board is expected to approve its list of affordable projects by the end of May.

For reasons ranging from construction inflation, to planning delays, to over-optimistic forecasts about real estate costs, and the need to overhaul power and signal equipment, the completed ST3 build-out - for whatever isn't axed - would extend to 2052. For now, most lines and stations don't have a specific grand opening year. Long ago, voters were told they'll all be done by 2041.

In a small concession to Ballard, this week's plan commits to fully designing the Seattle Center/Ballard segment. That way, said Snohomish County Executive and transit board Chair Dave Somers, it could be revived for construction if new money such as federal grants, new Seattle taxes, or higher borrowing authority show up.

Councilmember Dan Strauss, a transit board member from Ballard who has denounced any notion of letting light rail miss his busy, pro-transit neighborhood, said Thursday: I'll continue to review this, but I'm still troubled at this point."

The future Denny Way and South Lake Union stations, a few blocks apart between downtown and Seattle Center, would be consolidated into one station under current forecasts, transit staff said.

The latest proposed list keeps West Seattle's line alive, for a best-case opening in 2032, to provide Delridge and Alaska Junction stations, but cut an Avalon Station.

An Issaquah-Eastgate-South Kirkland line now has an all-new 2050 target date.

An extension from Lynnwood to Everett, including a swing west to Paine Field, made the list of affordable projects, and is the top priority of Somers.

However, infill stations at Graham Street in South Seattle, and Boeing Access Road in Tukwila, didn't make the latest list, even though the 2016 ballot measure promised to deliver those by 2031.

Tacoma's T Line streetcar extension, from Hilltop to Tacoma Community College, has risen from the ashes to a 2043 opening, instead of being canceled as a mid-March report showed.

But deeper in Pierce County, a Sounder S Line commuter train extension to DuPont would be canceled.

The plan would retire the existing Sounder N Line in 2033, but only about 500 to 600 daily passengers ride the route, along Puget Sound between Everett, Mukilteo, Edmonds and Seattle.

At least six park-and-ride garages or upgrades would be canceled, including in Renton, whose residents have paid taxes for 30 years with no prospects of rail. In online testimony, Renton Mayor Armando Pavone reminded the board that the garage was a promise supporting Renton's only new mass-transit, the Stride freeway-bus line scheduled for 2028.

People at the mic gave many suggestions: Consider shorter automated trains to save on stations and labor; issue extra-long 75-year bonds; boost an existing rental-car tax.

Somers, the Snohomish County executive, said he consulted with King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, and several other elected officials before landing on this week's draft project list.

"Chair Somers' proposal is hot garbage, toss it," said Day-Z Gould, a pro-Ballard commenter, before shredding a bundle of report papers by hand.

Colored T-shirts marked people's interests - light purple for Issaquah, green for Ballard, orange for union laborers, beige for "Build the Damn Trains."

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, a member of the Sound Transit board, said she was as adamant as anyone that "we build the damn trains," and thanked commenters for keeping the board accountable. "We do not have the luxury of losing momentum, she said.

Issaquah Mayor Mark Mullet, in the audience, was relieved to get a 2050 date. "For us the No. 1 goal is to keep us on the project list, which we did," he said in an interview. Mullet suggests a 2028 ballot measure asking voters to increase how much money Sound Transit can borrow without a tax hike. Issaquah would seek stations and trackways on a state-owned Interstate 90 right of way, which he hopes would lower costs by half.

This is not the first time Sound Transit has regrouped by trimming promised extensions, when money is tight.

In 2021, a "realignment" delayed lines by two to five years, in an effort to ease a financing bottleneck. Long ago, the Great Recession pushed the board to postpone tracks to Star Lake in Federal Way in the 2010s, and before that, board members canceled a deep First Hill Station in the mid-00s after CEO Joni Earl said the risk of construction overruns was too great.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 11:44 PM.