Proposal for Eastside light rail stirs interest, differing opinions

Some folks can't wait for light rail to come to the Eastside.

Others see it as a waste of tax dollars. Many are undecided.

Many diverse opinions were voiced Wednesday in Bellevue at a joint Sound Transit and Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) open house on bringing light rail from Seattle to the Eastside and the 2007 ballot measure that would pay for it.

Known as light rail's East Link, the 18-mile extension could cross Lake Washington on the Interstate 90 floating bridge to downtown Bellevue and extend to the Microsoft campus and downtown Redmond.

Residents milled around poster boards describing proposed routes, questioned transportation staff members and studied a large aerial photograph of the region where the East Link, estimated to cost up to $3.9 billion, would run.

"I've lived in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay area and I've seen the benefit of light rail," said Ann Kruse, of Sammamish. "It's long overdue."

Kruse said she is willing to vote for a sales-tax increase of 5 cents on a $10 purchase, the most expensive East Link option the Sound Transit board is considering as part of a $10 billion expansion that also would bring light rail to Lynnwood and the Port of Tacoma.

The proposal will go before voters in November 2007 with a $7 billion highway measure by RTID. The Legislature required that for the transit plan to pass, voters also must pass RTID's highway plan.

That may be too steep for Jeanne and Roy Poler. Both have been retired for more than 20 years and live on a fixed income.

"Money could be a problem," said Jeanne Poler, 76, a former Bellevue Public Schools food-service worker who supports light-rail expansion but is concerned the exact route won't be decided until after the measure goes to voters.

The Polers live in the Surrey Downs neighborhood in west Bellevue where neighbors organized a petition drive asking Sound Transit to stop studying Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue Southeast as possible routes and look instead to the Interstate 405 corridor. Sound Transit has since included two routes to the east of Mercer Slough: 118th Ave Southeast and a route that uses the current BNSF Railway and the I-405 corridor.

For Wayne Suyenaga, of Redmond, transit alternatives are vital because of the rising cost of fuel.

"In the next five to ten years, [gas] prices will go higher and higher," the retired geophysicist for the oil industry said.

"Already people are making decisions to use alternatives. But use of oil rises so much that it's difficult for the alternatives to fill the gap that is coming."

But running out of oil is not a concern for Frank Paddack, a Bellevue retiree who spent 50 years in sales. Paddack was at the open house to say he would only support the measure if there are performance audits on every phase of the project.

Lisa Chiu: (206) 464-3347 or lchiu@seattletimes.com