Items big, small on Sound Transit's wish list

If Sound Transit asked voters to pay for all the projects it's considering for its next regional package, the price would easily top $12 billion.

The agency has no intention of putting anything that enormous on the ballot, however. "We've got many more ideas than we can possibly afford here," Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who also is Sound Transit's board chairman, said Thursday. "We've got a lot of tough decisions ahead of us."

The three-county agency is considering putting another round of transit projects and taxes on the ballot, perhaps next year. On Thursday it rolled out the first, preliminary cost and ridership estimates for most of the 81 projects on its wish list.

They range from studies that would cost $2 million to light-rail extensions that would cost billions.

The board could start trimming the list next week. "We may need a mesh screen between us and the audience," Ladenburg said.

Included in the thick briefing book Sound Transit released Thursday is its first cost estimate for extending light rail 20 miles south from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to the Tacoma Dome, a project that would link two rail lines Sound Transit already operates or is building.

The price: $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion. Like other estimates unveiled Thursday, it doesn't factor in inflation or financing costs.

More information

Web site: New Sound Transit information on the 81 projects it is considering for its next regional transit package is available at www.soundtransit.org/st2.

To develop the estimate, Sound Transit staff members assumed the trains would run on elevated tracks, generally along Highway 99, with six new stations in SeaTac, Des Moines, Federal Way and Fife.

They estimated the route would attract 33,000 weekday riders in 2030.

Ladenburg said the project's steep cost "is going to be a tough nut to crack," but he refused to rule it out. It offers high ridership and important connections to other Sound Transit lines, he said.

Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl said the board could propose part of the SeaTac-Tacoma line for now. She also said all cost estimates will change as the regional package comes into focus and projects are refined.

The briefing book includes revised estimates for two other proposed light-rail extensions: from downtown Seattle across Interstate 90 to the Eastside, and from Husky Stadium north to Northgate. Sound Transit already is building light rail from SeaTac to downtown Seattle, and says it can extend that line to Husky Stadium without raising taxes or seeking additional voter approval.

A two-mile streetcar line connecting First Hill with the proposed International District and Capitol Hill light rail stations would cost $104 million to $122 million and attract 3,000 weekday riders, the briefing book says. Sound Transit is looking for ways to serve First Hill after dropping a station there from its light-rail plans this year.

The briefing book also says a light-rail line linking Seattle with Mercer Island, Bellevue, Overlake and Redmond would be more expensive than the other alternative under consideration for that corridor: a "bus rapid transit" system that could be converted to rail later.

But if that system ultimately is converted to rail, the study says, those savings could be wiped out.

Other big-ticket items on the wish list include a "starter" light-rail line in Everett, priced at $272 million to $313 million; more bus-only lanes on Highway 99 between Seattle and Everett ($462 million-$498 million); and bus ramps near South Spokane Street linking I-5 HOV lanes directly to the E-3 Busway leading to downtown Seattle ($239 million-$258 million).

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