New north Seattle light rail stations set to open for passengers on Oct. 2

[mtlhdtodd]

Still waiting for my reach around for the screwing I'm getting from sound transit.

[jabogitlu]

I went up to the U District last night to see a show at the Neptune. Nice train ride. I can't wait to check out Roosevelt & Northgate. I agree - the Roosevelt station will be particularly nice to head over to Green Lake!

[usernametaken]

https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=19186

The total cost of this line, which Sound Transit claims was “under budget,” was more than $1.8 billion, or $420 million per mile. Considering that light-rail lines built in the 1980s cost under $50 million a mile (in today’s dollars) and the average cost of light-rail lines in other cities today is about $200 million per mile, it’s easy to be “under budget” when you are spending far more than anyone else.

[uniquetraveler]

Originally Posted by usernametaken

https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=19186

We need to see the full cost breakdown before making a call on this.. this is because land in Seattle metro area is also much more expensive than rest of the country. For example, one of my colleague had a house in Mercer Island that got impacted by the new light rail station there and had to be compensated in the millions.

[fnh]

“The United States suffers from a political climate that does not uniformly see investment in transit infrastructure as net positive. Instead, transit project sponsors spend much of their public outreach effort simply justifying their existence and the value of transit, rather than engaging on the details of a project,” Eno says. “The lack of broad public acceptance for transit also results in communities demanding mitigation for negative construction impacts rather than demanding faster timelines.”

Why building rail transit in U.S., Seattle costs so much and takes so long
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...takes-so-long/

Yesterday I was tempted to ride the Link all the way up to Northgate from the airport, instead of getting off at my usual stop, to check out the new extension that opened over the weekend. But after an already long day of traveling to Seattle from New England, I opted instead to just go straight home. Soon though!

[pnwguy2]

It has taken awhile but Sound Transit is now becoming major. Probably equally meeting Portland, who got a 15 year head start.

This has been mentioned before but half a century ago Seattle turned down a heavy rail system that then went to Atlanta. Yes, a huge mistake, but atleast we have something to replace that idea today.

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by usernametaken

ti.org/antiplanner/?p=19186
Quote:
The total cost of this line, which Sound Transit claims was “under budget,” was more than $1.8 billion, or $420 million per mile. Considering that light-rail lines built in the 1980s cost under $50 million a mile (in today’s dollars) and the average cost of light-rail lines in other cities today is about $200 million per mile, it’s easy to be “under budget” when you are spending far more than anyone else.

But most "light rail" systems are above-ground, while this Sound Transit project was mostly underground.
Tunneling is expensive.

[jabogitlu]

Cost control measures are definitely worthwhile, but overall this is investment that is very much needed in the city and region. I am not surprised that building any type of project in the northwest is more expensive than in the nation on average. Even the major cost guides like Marshall & Swift have a large cost adjustment factor for the Seattle region. So this problem is not unique to the public sector developers like Sound Transit, SDOT, or WaDOT.

Our population projections and planning measures if realized cannot be absorbed by existing freeway infrastructure. We've decided to absorb additional capacity in urban development with light rail as the transit infrastructure. I think this is a very bold approach that is somewhat unique in the United States. Yet another reason I'm super happy to live in the PNW.

[TRC_WA]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Coming from the Midwest, I've been really impressed since I moved to Seattle with how fast projects get completed. Every day I drive by Northgate on I-5 there's visibly more progress on the extension.

In Chicago where I'm from, the aldermen have been fighting over the Red Line extension from 95th to 130th for literal decades, and completion is currently "estimated" for 2029. The rapid progress on Northgate Link is refreshing.

You weren't here when the tunnel underneath Seattle was under construction.

Originally Posted by mtlhdtodd

Still waiting for my reach around for the screwing I'm getting from sound transit.

Car tabs? Me too. Every January.

[pnwguy2]

I remember when downtown Seattle was completely torn up due to Sound Transit construction. It was a mess! But in the end we got a decent subway through the central city. I know it is not technically known as a subway, but in essence this is what it is. Not only downtown but in the north end as well.