EVERETT — Sound Transit again got an earful from local leaders against the idea of altering where the future Link light rail line is routed within Everett last week.
Sound Transit planners began contemplating new options that shoot the line up either Interstate 5 or kink over to Evergreen Way to reach Everett Station.
Kimberly Farley, a Sound Transit planner, said at a July meeting that the Federal Transit Administration asked the agency to look at alternatives.
The original master plan — the one Snohomish County leaders want to retain — has the train turn west at 128th Street SW to make stops at Paine Field and the Boeing Everett plant before turning back toward Interstate 5 at the Boeing Freeway.
County Executive Dave Somers, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin and others say these alterations are outside of what voters were promised in 2016 when they voted on the Sound Transit 3 (ST3) ballot measure to build the Link line.
Sound Transit had a map printed in offical voters pamphlets that has the rail line make stops in southwest Everett. The Tribune saw this map was printed right after the ballot pro/con statements page in archived 2016 King and Pierce voter guides.
Serving southwest Everett "is very important because it's an important part of our city and a growing part of our city," Franklin told Sound Transit officials last week at a meeting focused on the Everett link.
The area of southwest Everett is also the city's most diverse community.
"Connecting to these job centers is far more important than the speed of going up I-5," Franklin said during a July meeting.
Others say veering the route into southwest Everett versus going straight up I-5 will lengthen traveling time by up to 7 minutes, and think clipping it could shorten the timeline to finish the Everett section.
Sound Transit's latest timelines have the Lynnwood-to-Everett line to reach Southwest Everett by 2037 and Everett Station by 2041. Construction may start in 2030.
The alternates first saw the light of day during a community feedback meeting about the Everett line in June.
The Urbanist, an urban policies blog in Seattle, set up a petition to push for Sound Transit to look at the alternatives in addition to the original plan. The Urbanist's petition says the public supports a faster rail line and accuses Snohomish County elected leaders of subverting this.
They wrote that "for years, elected officials have tried to foist the Paine Field deviation, a 6.75-mile loop that would deliver only a single station near Boeing’s plant, on the community."
In early 2023, Sound Transit route planners will refine the routes and hold another meeting about Everett's route.
The whole board will be looking at the entire system's routes next year to vote on preferred alternatives.
Franklin aired a warning to the Everett City Council last week that representatives from King County and Pierce County have a lot of sway on the regional transit board.
