Mayor Jenny Durkan put the project on hold in March 2018 for a review; the report itself and a decision on whether to proceed with or scrap the idea have been delayed for months.
Now, with updated numbers on its cost, Durkan says she’ll work with city council, transit agencies, businesses, and others “to move forward on this significant mobility project and identify resources to close the capital shortfall,” according to a statement released last week from her office.
The Center City Connector would run along First Avenue, from the historic Pioneer Square district past Pike Place Market to the Belltown-South Lake Union neighborhoods. It would connect two operating, but isolated streetcar lines. One to the north runs through the South Lake Union area that has been transformed in recent years by the growth of Amazon. The one to the south runs through the Chinatown/International District area to First Hill, which has a concentration of hospitals, to Capitol Hill.
“We have the opportunity to create a downtown with fewer cars and where residents, workers, and visitors can walk, bike, and take transit,” the mayor said. “A unified streetcar route provides a unique opportunity to build on our investments for the next generation.”
But to build that system will require more money than has been budgeted. The city’s 2017 budget had the capital cost of the project figured at $197.7 million. The latest review came up with an estimate of $252.2 million, a difference of $54.5 million. The latest number could grow still more, since the reviewers recommended “additional engineering analysis and design work to review necessary design changes to integrate the full streetcar system, including, but not limited to, platform design, rail vehicle suitability (rail car length, weight, and dynamic envelope), and impact on maintenance facilities.”
That $252.2 million is just for the streetcar itself. Once utility relocation and other costs are thrown in, the total balloons to $286 million.
And the numbers could get even worse. The city is counting on $75 million from the Federal Transit Administration. If the city doesn’t get that money, or has to prove it is good for the full amount, the gap grows to $140 million.
Last year’s hold and review were sparked when Metro, the King County agency that would actually operate the streetcars, warned that the Seattle Department of Transportation had underestimated the cost of running the system to the tune of millions of dollars. A memo from Metro officials said city council and federal agencies funding the project weren’t aware of the looming gap.
That memo also warned that “SDOT has not fully satisfied its obligation for the cost of operating the city’s existing South Lake Union and First Hill Streetcar lines.”
I. G. Narita: Final cost of Boston’s Big Dig was $24.3 billion.
Suggest that you read the Seattle Times opinion piece: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/what-explains-seattles-streetcar-fixation-look-at-who-really-benefits/ Or the Seattle Pi opinion: https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Seattle-Center-City-streetcar-disaster-Connelly-13550675.php
“to move forward on this significant mobility project and identify resources to close the capital shortfall,” This Seattle Streetcar project is not a significant ‘mobility project’ in that it will not significantly enhance ‘mobility’ in Seattle or in the region. On some stretches of the existing South Lake Union and the First Hill Streetcar lines, the streetcars operate mixed in traffic at speeds no greater than a walk. Pity the Seattle mayor doesn’t understand this obvious point.
A bus can do the same job better, with more flexibility, at far less cost. If you want an electric line there are trolley buses with an overhead line, that would also cost far less. AND they keep talking about Tesla cars and seni’s, so a bus should work just as well.
And I’m saying this as a Train-Nut.
Ric – Among the privileged elite are America’s con-man artists. What you describe in Washington State is theft. It could never happen in Wisconsin. The decorative modifications on Wisconsin freeways are part of the plan set owned by the people of the state. These esthetic enhancements are designed by a landscape architect who works for the same company that designs the roads and bridges.
I’m all for art, but once the art is sold, it’s chattel property of the purchaser and the artist should have no rights.
Allow me a couple of other late-breaking thoughts:
WA law REQUIRES 1% of any publicly-funded enterprise be spent on art. As a result, we Washingtonians are blessed with scenic freeway noise walls showing cavoting whales, soaring eagles and the like. Are molds are never reused and the rights remain with the artist. Aslo we get ‘art’ at the dump, really? So part of the streetcar budget will pay for this also. And while the track gauge is the same, if I remember correctly, te new cars need heavier rail, so in order to fully operate over the entire ‘extensive’ system, all rail needs replaced.
Thanks Charles,
and the irony is, the ‘Artists’ are usually NOT even WA state residents. so they take our $$ and leave. If my wife passes before me, you will have about 3 weeks to watch me liquidate and hit the bricks and leave this piece of ‘liberal heaven.’
All you really need is an unpowered trolley car, a horse and a trackman with a pick up truck and a shovel. Produces the same by product as Seattles politicians.
Gerald,
Us folks not in a major metro area are constantly told we have to phony up money for city transit projects we’ll never use. In PA, Philadelphia is always trying to get most of the rest of the state to come up with funds to solve their often self-inflicted problems. If they need transit funds that bad, let them raise one or more of their local taxes or increase fares instead of trying to toll our rural highways while refusing to told their local roads. But politically either one would be a problem with their local voters. So they keep on trying to get us to be the ones actually funding the greater part of their transit improvements but not adequately raising fares or taxing their residents who make up the greater Philly area that actually use their transit.
The cities appear to make many of their own problems, not just with public transit but in many other areas. Too many of the major US cities are like Seattle–spending not only what they have but also spending what they don’t have.
Like Charles said, if they want it let them pay the cost of construction and operation. The liberal mayor and city council have never met a dollar they didn’t want to spend. But why not, its not their dollar.
I agree the cost overrun is a lot. The cost of everything in this area from housing to any kind of construction is absolutely NUTS! So it does not surprise me that they have this shortfall. Everything is really expensive and very congested in Seattle area.
I’ve not been to Seattle so all I know about the project is what’s in the article. Let’s look at the article. It’s good to connect two otherwise isolated lines. That makes sense. The proposed cost is simply hideous. A small fraction of that cost would be too much money for what’s being proposed or the benefit that it would provide. Having spent my working life around transportation construction, I can tell you there’s zero justification for that kind of moolah.
If Seattle wants to pay for this out of its own money, that’s up to them. It’s not interstate transportation so there is no reason for federal money. And I’d say the same for any city or county that receives federal money for local transportation, even the bike paths (not interstate) that I ride on or the local buses I occasionally use.
I asked transit expert Ralph Kramden about that $140 million shortfall, and he said it was ” a mere bag of shells.”
Gerald – re-read my comments. I thought this is a transit reasonable proposal (from what I know, never having been to Seattle) at a wholly unreasonable cost by a factor of a hundred.
I was (a small) part of the (very large) team designing and building Milwaukee’s massive Marquette Interchange. Miles of high viaduct, rebuilding the 1970’s-era IH-43-94 high rise bridge, maybe 40 to 50 miles of freeway lanes, rebuilding of utilities all over downtown Milwaukee, and when all was said and done, rebuilding many miles of City of Milwaukee streets that had been torn up by road construction and utility line relocation. All built under traffic (and pedestrian access maintained for disabled Marquette University students). Add to that various artistic amenities to respect the architectural heritage of Marquette University.Oh, yes, 100% demolition of the original Marquette Interchange.
It cost less than this proposed one-mile trolley line down (as far as I understand) existing streets.
No, Gerald, you can’t justify a mile of trolley line for close to $300 million. In what world do you even live?
As one living near Seattle, these street cars are about as mis–managed as possible.
Looking at the teardown of the waterfront line: that was a classic case of ‘ready, fire, aim.’ The art museum wanted the maintenance shed land (near the water) and promised to find a new spot for a new shed. “I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” kind of thing.
Then the individual lines were put out there by a previous mayor who wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, in my opinion; later run out of office on pedophile ccharges.
The newest connecting link is an even bigger comedy; as nobody in the city’s staff stopped to consider the impact the new cars would have; being longer they don’t fit in the car barn, and cannot make the turns without hitting existing structures.
Seattle is trying to play catch up with Sound Transit and their gold plated light rail.
I do not live within the taxing district of either Sound Transit or Seatle but my life is impacted by the games they play. And the locals just don’t know how to stop themselves onvoting continued support. My son lives in the ST tax district, his car tabs are 3-4 X greater than mine (WA charges by blue book, and local juristictions can add on if approved).
No Federal money should go to this toy train.
For 1 mile of transit. What a waste
Charles Landey and Robert McGuire,
It’s time you gentleman(and I use that term very loosely) get out of the late 19th Century/early 20th and move into the 21st Century. Unless you want the United States and it’s cities to remain in 2nd World status(sometimes 3rd World), then the Federal government is going to have to pony up some portion of the money for these kinds of projects…it’s what keeps the United States growing, mobility for ALL citizens.
Unfortunately not. When the new Seattle Art Museum SAM built there new facility at Broad St and Alaskan Way, the car barn that was located there had to be removed. For some strange reason, they couldn’t seem to come up with a suitable replacement location. It is a shame as was a great tourist draw along the waterfront championed by the late City Counciman George Benson.
Do they still run the line along the waterfront?