VIDEO: City Council gets quick update from Sound Transit as revision decisions approach

38 minutes into that video of today’s Seattle City Council briefing meeting – their weekly meeting to both get briefings and offer individual updates – you’ll see a guest appearance by Sound Transit reps offering updates on Seattle projects: West Seattle Link Extension (due in 2032), Ballard Link Expansion (due in 2039), and the South Graham Street Infill Station (due in 2031). Alex Krieg presented an overview of the Enterprise Initiative, noting its intent is to remedy a “misalignment” of projected costs and projected funding for the entirety of ST3 – currently a $34.5 billion projected “misalignment.” (Here’s the full slide deck.) Neither he nor ST’s Brad Owen broke any news – that will come in a little over three weeks, when the Sound Transit Board gets a look at “scenarios” meant to bring down the price tag, for review at their scheduled March 18 retreat. “Everything is on the table,” the ST reps said. Councilmembers had an opportunity for Q&A; District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka was one of three councilmembers announced as having excused absences today, so he wasn’t there to ask West Seattle questions, but Councilmember Dan Strauss – whose District 5 includes Ballard and who also sits on the ST Board – called attention to what he considers a “really awkward situation,” the city’s responsibility to cover more than half the cost of the second downtown tunnel that’s currently part of the Ballard plan, a tunnel that some have suggested is unnecessary. He and the rest of the ST Board have their regular monthly meeting at 1:30 pm Thursday; the agenda explains how to watch/comment, in person or online.

Morgan February 24, 2026 (7:05 am)

One billion dollars is a lot of money.$34 billion is a lot of money.b-I-l-l-I-o-n. With a B.Wake Up dear readers…euphemisms like misalignment to catastrophic gaps in estimation with decades to delivery is a bonfire of your tax money. This agency isn’t run well. This isn’t going remotely to plan. The opportunity for these public dollars going to so many other priorities….if you had ten of billions we could do what else to address climate change, fix inequality, build social housing…instead spending on an agency and its plans to pour concrete for a form of transportation that will run parallel to bus routes.think about this again, shouldn’t we?

Ano February 24, 2026 (8:03 pm)

How much billions on homeless do we spend and what’s the result of that?Build the train.
- Morgan February 25, 2026 (12:39 am)
  
  Seattle built the most affordable housing units of any city for hundreds of millions. Problem is for behavioral health and drug treatment Washington state per capita spending is behind Misssissipi and Louisiana…and has some of the most permissive use and sell laws and prosecutorial setups of any major city. Spending on wrong things…so yeah, don’t build the train.
- Morgan February 25, 2026 (12:40 am)
  
  Seattle built the most affordable housing units of any city for hundreds of millions. Problem is for behavioral health and drug treatment Washington state per capita spending is behind Misssissipi and Louisiana…and has some of the most permissive use and sell laws and prosecutorial setups of any major city. Spending on wrong things…so yeah, don’t build the train.
SoLongDelridge February 25, 2026 (4:52 am)

This message, carefully planted in this person head for decades, has been brought to you the oil lobby, car lobby, and anti-social “leaders.”

22blades February 24, 2026 (9:47 am)

I have zero confidence that this will A. remotely look like the envisioned project ,B. remotely resemble the cost estimates, C. remotely conform to a timeline & D.remotely displace the estimated number of businesses or residences. I’m as pro transit as it gets but this thing needs to die. The window of opportunity has long past with the original monirail & it’s now a contractor welfare project.

Jg February 28, 2026 (10:50 am)

You don’t sound as pro transit as it gets. Build the damn trains.

Shawn February 24, 2026 (9:51 am)

How much money have we wasted hesitating? Just Build The Train. Immediately. The entire train. All the stations, as designed. Stop pinching pennies and grow a backbone. Provide the public transportation we desperately need, and already voted for and have already partially paid into. This train will service the West Seattle core and rapid population growth for at least a century. Frankly it should have been built twenty years ago. Every year we delay is just pointlessly burning money and potential population growth.

k February 24, 2026 (10:52 am)

Please just build it. The cost will be even bigger down the road if we don’t. It’s expensive, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best of the available options. If rapid mass transit were built in the 70s when they had the option to, it would have been WAY cheaper. Kicking the can down the road saves no one anything and just makes things worse and more expensive. Build it already.

22blades February 24, 2026 (11:36 am)

If you can come up with better oversight, better estimating skills, better confidence in the displacement of businesses & residences, better cost controls, better continuity of the ever changes in management teams & political entities, all things they have failed to demonstrate, s/ure. Sometimes you just can’t rely on vision statements, aspirations to keep you out of a bankrupt idea. It will resemble the $1.7 trillion dollar consumer debt on auto loans.
- SoLongDelridge February 25, 2026 (4:55 am)
  
  It will resemble the $1.7 trillion dollar consumer debt on auto loans
  
  How dare you remind people that they’ve handed over all of their wealth for some metal death boxes?

Roger February 24, 2026 (6:58 pm)

Any idea how much this will raise our taxes??

Kathleen February 25, 2026 (8:49 am)

It already has…

anonyme February 25, 2026 (6:04 am)

We could save billions immediately simply by keeping the station on the east side of the bridge and increasing bus service, which we need anyway, and will need more of even if the rail goes to the Junction. Most riders will have to take a bus to reach the rail station, and could just as easily stay on that bus to go downtown. It makes no sense to transfer.

Scarlett February 26, 2026 (9:28 am)

Bus transit canvases a far larger service area with multiple stops, as well. But it’s pointless to use commonsense and rationality with those entranced by a cool sounding concept. Light railers have been seduced by a neat sounding concept rather than its actually potential to be transformative mass transit.
- SoLongDelridge February 26, 2026 (3:03 pm)
  
  Bussers have been seduced by a neat sounding concept rather than its actual potential to be transformative mass transit.
  
  But let’s be real, the idea that Scarlett could seduce or be seduced is unlikely given how repulsive you sound.
- Jg February 28, 2026 (10:52 am)
  
  If only you drove on the high bridge and saw the buses get stuck in traffic. Take a look sometime.
Dumbfounded February 26, 2026 (3:53 pm)

It’s crazy to me that after reading the recent story of the environmental impact of tire debris on salmon, and the other recent story of the long backups after they had to emergency close a couple lanes on the 1st Avenue bridge, and the other story of how much better Seahawks Parade 2.0 was in moving people through town versus the first time when light rail wasn’t available for most… it’s crazy to me that there are still people who are asking for more buses. Buses are in no way a solution, buses are just doubling down on the problem. Like, it’s not even debatable any more. You have to willfully ignore every fact presented about buses and car infrastructure to believe that. Maybe just some successful trolling here?

Scarlett February 26, 2026 (7:22 am)

By in large, light rail is simply civic redevelopment, an economic shot in the arm (most into a few arms), that has been peddled to the gullible public as mass transit. It was never intended to be – nor does it have the capability to be – transformative mass transit and this is as true in Seattle as it is in other cities, such as Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix.