3 lines are added to Sound Transit wish list

The Sound Transit board voted yesterday to tentatively amend its long-range plan to include three new possible light-rail or "bus-rapid-transit" lines in King County:

• Along Highway 520 from Seattle east to Redmond.

• From Northgate northeast along Highway 522 to Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and Bothell.

• From Tukwila west to Burien.

The vote doesn't mean anything will be built — or even proposed — in any of those corridors anytime soon. The long-range plan is Sound Transit's blueprint, its official wish list. The agency is considering submitting another round of transit projects to King, Snohomish and Pierce county voters — perhaps next year — but that package will include only a fraction of the projects in the long-range plan.

And the plan amendments won't be final until summer, after the board holds public meetings and considers environmental studies.

The existing long-range plan, adopted in 1996, envisions possible light-rail lines from Seattle south to Tacoma, north to Everett and east across Interstate 90 to Bellevue; along Interstate 405 from Tukwila to Lynnwood; and east from I-405 to Redmond and Issaquah.

The only light-rail segment now under construction runs between downtown Seattle and Tukwila.

"Bus rapid transit" is bus service with many of the characteristics of rail, often including lanes off-limits to most other traffic. The amendments express no preference between rail and "BRT" in the three new corridors.

Another amendment the board tentatively approved yesterday calls for a BRT line along Highway 99 between Seattle and Everett.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com