This is part 2 of the My Neighborhood News Network series on light rail arriving in Snohomish County. You can read part 1 here.

The history of light rail transportation in Puget Sound dates to 1968 with the Forward Thrust series of bond measures designed to bring a rapid transit system to King County. Seven of the propositions were passed, with the remaining five being reworked for another attempt in 1970.

However, the following year would mark the beginning of economic uncertainty. In 1969, Boeing was on the edge of bankruptcy. The company lost over 12,000 employees from attrition and lost another 20% after layoffs. The decline is known as the “Boeing Bust.”

Due to the poor economic outlook, the remaining bond propositions were voted down in 1970. By the time Boeing recovered in 1972, the federal funds designated for Seattle-area light rail had been awarded instead to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Light rail wouldn’t get another shot until 1996, when Snohomish, King and Pierce County residents approved vehicle excise taxes and sales taxes to raise funds to connect Puget Sound’s four most populous areas: Everett, Tacoma, Bellevue and Seattle, with Seattle acting as the hub. The $3.9 billion transit package had $1.7 billion dedicated to the light rail project, which was scheduled to open in 2006. 

“Electric light rail is a cost-effective way to serve the core of the regional system where transit ridership is the highest (a two-way light rail line can carry the same number of people as 12 freeway lanes). This new transportation link provides a stepping stone for expansion well into the next century.”

— Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, 1996 (Now Sound Transit)

One of the greatest champions of getting the light rail to Snohomish County was Jerry Smith, who served as the mayor of Mountlake Terrace from 2004 until his death in 2018. Smith understood the city’s importance as a gateway to Snohomish County and frequently took opportunities to promote it and remind fellow officials of how critical their roles were in the Puget Sound region’s growth.

In a 2018 MLTnews article, former Mountlake Terrace City Manager John Caulfield recalled Smith’s presence at a Sound Transit board meeting when the agency was considering expanding its light rail service north via Sound Transit 2 coming from Bellevue.

“Originally, the line was going to end at Northgate, and folks in South Snohomish County weren’t too pleased,” Caulfield recalled. “Jerry spent a lot of time testifying in front of the Sound Transit board about why it was important to extend rail to South Snohomish County and eventually Everett.”

Caulfield said representatives from cities east of Lake Washington spoke against Sound Transit expanding there. Smith, always willing to promote Mountlake Terrace and South Snohomish County, told the Sound Transit board, “If the folks on the Eastside don’t want the money, give it to North King County and South Snohomish County because we are ready to go.”

According to Caulfield, Smith’s advocacy for the light rail in Snohomish County caught the board’s attention. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t opposition.

Former Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling sat on the Sound Transit board for 20 years and agrees that Smith served as a pressure point to build northward.

According to Earling, the entire transportation system, from rail to buses to roadways, has been important to the region, but officials were interested in finding ways to move people by rail. Unlike buses, which can be delayed by traffic congestion, a rail system has a set schedule.

But then, Sound Transit lost federal funding for the light rail expansion and “things got nasty,” Earling said.

According to a 2017 HistoryLink article – “Sound Transit (King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties)” by Josh Cohen – Sound Transit learned that the 1 Line — then called Central Link — was going to cost more than originally projected. 

In his article, Cohen said that then Sound Transit Executive Director of Planning, Environment and Project Development Ric Ilgenfritz — now CEO of Community Transit — attributed the massive cost overruns to  a “combination of inexperience, optimism, and communication breakdown.” He also said that Sound Transit wasn’t “very disciplined about the scope” of the project and lacked internal communication. 

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) continued to commit $500 million for the Central Link and forwarded the proposal to Congress, but it failed to mention potential cost overages. The lowest bid for the tunnel that would run from the University of Washington to downtown Seattle was almost $200 million over budget.

In October 2000, Sound Transit hired former Snohomish County Deputy Executive Joni Earl as chief operating officer. She found that the Central Link was $1 billion over budget and would take three years longer to build than projected.

In January 2001, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater signed a $500 million full funding grant agreement to the Central Link, which Congressional Republicans opposed. Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee chair, requested more time to evaluate Sound Transit’s budget. 

After Sound Transit received the funds, Executive Director Bob White resigned, stating “that new leadership, unencumbered by past issues and decisions, is needed to position the agency to restore public confidence to succeed with the Link light rail project.” 

Rep. Rogers summoned Earl, as acting CEO of Sound Transit, to Washington, D.C., to be questioned by the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee. In a sign of support for the transit agency, then-U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, representing areas of Pierce and Kitsap counties, sat with Earl during her questioning.

The transportation subcommittee asked Earl about Sound Transit’s plans to get back on track and why it deserved federal funding. Rep. Rogers said his decision would be based on the results of the Office of the Inspector General’s investigation of Sound Transit later that year.

“The Inspector General report was not kind,” Cohen wrote in his HistoryLink article. 

The report was released in April 2001 and criticized Sound Transit for its poor research on budgeting and cost estimates. It recommended that the FTA hold the grant money, estimating the true cost of the light rail as planned was $4.1 billion. 

The day after the report’s release, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced Sound Transit would not get federal funds for the light rail. U.S. Sen.Patty Murray worked with the FTA to prevent the redistribution of the $500 million budgeted for Sound Transit to other agencies. This gave the agency time to correct its issues. 

Due to the costs of tunneling, the Sound Transit board voted 14-2 to build the $2.1 billion, 14-mile line from Westlake Park to the airport first — a shortened version of the original segment running from the University of Washington to SeaTac Airport. 

Earl was appointed CEO of Sound Transit in 2001. She adjusted the project’s scope and reshaped the agency’s working culture with the goal of underpromising and overdelivering. Further, she affirmed to staff that they would not be fired for identifying a problem but for hiding one.

She said the agency took the Inspector General’s list of issues and corrected each with new project control systems for project costs and risks. Earl also made internal improvements to avoid future communication breakdowns.

An anti-rail nonprofit group called Sane Transit, including former King County Councilmember Maggie Fimia, Bellevue businessman Kemper Freeman Jr. and former KING Broadcasting Public Affairs Director Emory Bund, sued Sound Transit in February 2002. The group stated that light rail’s reduced scope required Sound Transit to put the issue to another public vote.

HistoryLink’s Cohen writes that the Sane Transit suit also sought an injunction against agency spending. However, the courts decided that Sound Transit had legal authority to change the project’s scale.

Sound Transit reapplied for the $500 million FTA grant in July 2002, and the FTA granted it permission to progress to the final design stage.

Follow-up audits from the Office of the Inspector General lasted from September 2002 into the spring of 2003. The second Inspector General’s report was published in July and approved Sound Transit for the grant. In November 2003, the agency received the full funding grant for the Central Link.

With legal and funding obstacles cleared, Sound Transit was able to focus on breaking ground on the Central Link and designing the next phase called ST2, which would extend the light rail north to Lynnwood.

In spring 2006, the state Legislature created a $11 billion ST2 package, which included more than $7 billion for highway construction. In May, the Sound Transit Board unanimously approved the final ST2 package for the roads and transit vote. 

Cohen writes that Sound Transit faced opposition from both road and rail advocates: “Sane Transit opposed spending billions on transit, and the Sierra Club opposed spending billions on highways,” and the vote lost by a wide margin in November 2007.

Despite the loss at the ballot box, that same month, Sen. Patty Murray secured $94 million for light rail funding for the 2008 fiscal year: $24 million for the University Link light rail extension to Northgate and $70 million toward completing light rail from downtown Seattle to the airport. 

The Sound Transit board felt that the $7 billion allocated for road improvements killed the previous proposition, so it created an $18 billion stand-alone expansion package for ST2, which voters passed in 2008.

The victory, however, would be short-lived.

Sound Transit’s budget would soon be affected by the Great Recession, which lasted from 2007 to 2009. The agency’s revenue forecast fell by 30%, and it had to scale back on projects. To compensate, Sound Transit removed several planned park-and-rides, along with rail extensions to Federal Way and Redmond.

On July 18, 2009, the light rail opened between Westlake Center and International Boulevard in Tukwila and had over 30,000 first-day riders. Six months later, Sound Transit opened the airport station.

A pro-roads group in Bellevue led by Kemper Freeman sued the state in 2009 to block the light rail’s expansion to the Eastside. The group argued that using the Interstate 90 bridge to cross Lake Washington for non-highway purposes violated the state constitution because it was paid for with gas taxes. The lawsuit was rejected by the Washington State Supreme Court in 2013.

In April 2014, Earl took a medical leave of absence from the agency, retiring in March 2016.

Deputy CEO Mike Harbour stepped in as acting CEO until Earl’s retirement when FTA Transportation Undersecretary Peter Rogoff replaced her.

The University Link opened in March 2016, running from Westlake to Husky Stadium at the University of Washington, with a stop in Capitol Hill. The Angle Lake station – south of SeaTac Airport – opened in September that year.

In June 2016, the Sound Transit board unanimously approved the $54 billion ST3 package to connect Lynnwood to Everett, making it the largest tax package in state history.

ST3’s price tag drew opposition from long-time light rail opponent Kemper Freeman, who called for the public to vote no on the proposition and raised over $200,000 in donations. Although the Seattle Times editorial pages echoed the same sentiment and some state legislators voiced concern over the costs, ST3 passed by 54%. 

Scheduled for completion in 2041, ST3 will add 62 miles of light rail and 37 more stations, along with an expanded Sounder commuter train and Regional Express bus service. 

While the agency is now working on the Lynnwood-to-Everett extension, for now Sound Transit will be celebrating a major milestone with the opening of the Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace stations Aug. 30

Reflecting on the long road that brought light rail to South Snohomish County, former Edmonds Mayor and Sound Transit Board Member Earling explained that when there wasn’t a fight for funding, there was a fight for revenue. 

“Bus companies wanted to keep their piece of the action,” Earling said.

According to Earling, Snohomish County residents wanted light rail, but the Everett mayor at the time was focused on buses staying in play because people needed more than one mode of transportation.

Local transportation providers, such as Community Transit and Everett Transit, were concerned that another mode of transportation would take their funding and revenue. Further, that missing money could potentially result in a reduction in services and layoffs.

“Everything became a reality four to five years ago as the light rail started to gain momentum,” Earling said. “Community Transit and Everett Transit were working on how to keep jobs.”

Then, in  2019, Community Transit started discussing connecting bus routes, he added. In 2021, Community Transit began the Lynnwood Link bus restructure process with a service study in Snohomish County.

“Community Transit realized their responsibility to the community was to connect them to the light rail,” Earling said. 

Over a generation has passed since the Snohomish, King and Pierce County residents voted for the light rail. Some of those voters never got to ride it, while others riders weren’t even born when it was passed.

“I am beyond excited that we are finally getting light rail to Snohomish County,” said Mountlake Terrace Mayor Matsumoto Wright. “I have been taking it from Northgate and just love it. Opening day will be a huge deal. We have been waiting a long time.” 

— By Rick Sinnett

Next: Part 3 — The changing demographics of light rail users