The Sound Transit Board, comprised of 18 various elected officials from the counties impacted by the transit system, heard over 90 minutes of public testimony in a packed Union Station boardroom. The vote set in motion which alignments and station locations would move forward in the process of completing a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), but the agency will need to complete supplemental work to get the new station locations up to the comparable Draft EIS level of existing alternatives. The change drops connectivity approved by voters in 2016, moves the hub station to Pioneer Square, and will add a station in the desolate SoDo industrial area, blocks south of Uwajimaya Asian Market. Instead of a long-promised transit hub in the Chinatown-International District (CID) and a station in Midtown on the doorstep of First Hill, the official study will now include a brand new “North and South of CID” alignment.
In a marathon five-hour meeting Thursday afternoon, the Sound Transit Board of Directors fundamentally altered plans for a new downtown light rail tunnel connecting Ballard Link to the rest of the system. (Doug Trumm) The 4th Avenue Shallow and Shallower and Midtown station options remain in contention, but with Mayor Harrell warning against “false hope.”
Jail Station is a step closer to reality after Thursday's vote.
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