The crosslake connection will be a great leap forward, but more hurdles lie ahead for Sound Transit.
On a frostbitten Friday morning, a gaggle of officials and transit nerds gathered hot with anticipation for the unveiling of the opening day of the 2 Line’s “Crosslake Connection.” By the end of the event, most were glowing with excitement, warmed by the news, the photogenic countdown clock, and the spring-uary sun.
While Sound Transit board chair Dave Somers acknowledged the speeches may be forgotten by history, speaker after speaker gave it a try anyway and waxed poetic about the impact the light rail opening, scheduled for March 28, would have on the region.
“I can’t wait to start revenue service and the opportunity for the people to get out of their cars and take a beautiful rail ride across Lake Washington,” Somers said at the January 23 event. “We’re finally giving Lake Washington’s commute an option that doesn’t involve brake lights. Years from now, people will not remember the speeches. They’ll remember how much easier life became here in our region.”
The 2 Line’s crosslake connection will make the International District and Downtown Bellevue just 20 minutes apart. Downtown Redmond and Downtown Seattle will be about 40 minutes apart, shaving at least 10 minutes off the bus trip — more when traffic congestion is bad.
King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci was given the honor of pulling back the veil, but the same week she was summarily removed from two key committees on the Sound Transit board. Balducci had chaired the System Expansion Committee since 2018, and committee assignments were in the middle of their term, rather than wholly up-for-grabs. In their place, Balducci will serve on Rider Experience and Operations, which will also be busy and called upon to help fine tune a system likely to face growing reliability issues as the system grows and ridership swells.
Overcoming obstacles to build 2 Line
First elected to the Bellevue City Council in 2004 and later serving as mayor, Balducci noted she was one of the few attendees who had seen the project through from its inception, given how long it took. Voters across three counties approved the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) package in 2008, funding the expansion of the 2 Line as far east as Overlake, but hardly queuing up a smooth ride to opening day.
“There have been generations of effort that has gone into making this announcement possible today,” Balducci said just before unveiling the opening date. “We experienced fierce opposition to the very idea of light rail in East King County, two ballot measures, the first one failed — remember roads and transit — local political challenges, getting land use and permitting approvals, court cases, including one that went to the state Supreme Court. Design challenges, how to attach a fixed rail to a floating bridge, being the leading but not the only one, multiple financial cycles with major cost impacts — who here remembers talking about steel prices, it’s a thing — construction challenges (this is the project that taught a new generation the word plinth), a concrete delivery strike, and a worldwide pandemic.”
As she ticked off the lengthy list of obstacles that the agency overcame, it underscored how long the track ahead could be for the next round of Sound Transit 3 (ST3) projects and how important carrying forward institutional knowledge could be. Sound Transit faces a huge budget shortfall estimated at $34 billion through the mid-2040s, as it attempts to nearly double the size of its light rail network to 116 miles with the buildout of ST3.
Is Sound Transit Board ready for storm ahead?
How sidelining a seasoned veteran board member — one of the few to consistently ask probing questions or push staff to consider outside-of-the-box solutions — would help greet those challenges was unclear, but that’s how her board colleagues voted. Those machinations could portend a storm cloud ahead for Sound Transit on an otherwise sunny occasion.
Also opaque was the full explanation behind her removal from those committees. Board chair Somers officially controls committee assignments, but it’s likely that Balducci running against Girmay Zahilay for King County Executive in 2025 (and losing) played a big role in her demotion. Neither Somers nor Zahilay offered much explanation of the committee shakeup.
The drama within the board’s ranks did not come to the surface during the January 23 celebration. And speakers emphasized momentum and the need to continue opening light rail expansions as soon as humanly possible.
“It’s a very exciting day to see this, and I think it will build on the momentum that we need to do hard things in our region and continue investing in light rail and transit that works for everyone,” Balducci concluded, with a nod to the battles ahead.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, who also earned a seat on the Sound Transit Board when she won election in November, stressed the importance of making transit a faster, more reliable option. She alluded to the neglect transit long faced as policymakers prioritized car-centric infrastructure, which leaves behind a growing segment of car-free households in Seattle.
“For the 21 years that I’ve lived here, I have been a transit rider, part of the more than one in five Seattle households that do not own a car. And honestly, sometimes being a transit rider can feel like being a second class citizen,” Wilson said. “But our light rail system is rapidly changing that. I know firsthand the way it unlocks worlds of opportunity when you can hop on a fast, frequent, reliable train or bus and get exactly where you want to go.”
After experiencing the transformational power of rapid transit firsthand, Wilson said she hoped more neighborhoods would soon join the party. She noted that the 2 Line would be especially important to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, which have cultural centers on both sides of the lake that will now be connected.
“I remember 10 years ago when the Link light rail station first opened in my neighborhood, Capitol Hill, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as people realized how this was going to change their daily lives. I can’t wait for more people to have that feeling as the light rail comes to their neighborhoods, the neighborhoods where they live and work,” Wilson said, adding. “If you build it, they will come.”
Redmond provides strong anchor for 2 Line
Kelli Refer, executive director of the advocacy group Move Redmond, was on hand for the unveiling of the countdown clock and said she expected Downtown Redmond will continue to lead the Eastside in light rail ridership after the crosslake connection turns the 2 Line into a 30-mile workhorse.
