Is $250M streetcar worth it, or should city scrap entire idea?

KIRO Radio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan wonders how beneficial it is to keep going with the the new Seattle streetcar line now that it just got a whole lot pricier.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan asked for a review of the project when it was announced this spring that the price of finishing the streetcar segment that would connect the South Lake Union streetcar to the First Hill line had gone from its original estimate of $135 million to almost $200 million.

Now it turns out that the full cost of the streetcar line known as the Central City Connector will amount to $252 million.

RELATED: Seattle going ahead with streetcar project despite low ridership

“It’s well over $100 million more than the original estimates to build this thing,” Sullivan told KTTH’s Todd Herman on the Dori Monson Show.

The Central City Connector streetcar line will run through Seattle’s downtown core, from Westlake Center to Pioneer Square. See here for a map of the new line.

Completing the streetcar system would make sense, Sullivan said — but only if the price tag were lower.

“If cost were no option — it would be nice to have a streetcar that actually goes somewhere,” Sullivan said. “Because right now you have two unconnected ends that nobody really uses.”

The city has already spent over $30 million on the new streetcar, but “should they pull the plug on this thing, the entire waste to taxpayers would be about $55 million just down the drain,” Sullivan said.

The question now is, should the city cut its losses and say goodbye to the $55 million, or should it proceed to spend the entire $252 million?

The answer to that question depends on how much benefit a person sees the streetcar as having.

As Sullivan pointed out, the tracks have proven to be dangerous to bicyclists whose tires have become stuck. Desiree McCloud died in 2016 when her bike collided with the streetcar tracks on Yesler Way, and plenty of other cyclists have suffered injuries serious enough to warrant surgery after getting caught in the tracks. KIRO Radio’s own midday news editor, Jillian Raftery, broke her foot and ankle earlier this month when her bike crashed on the South Lake Union streetcar tracks.

“I’ve known several people who have gotten injured on those tracks with bikes,” Sullivan said.

A potential $80 million of the streetcar project could be covered by the Federal Transit Authority, but the FTA needs to conduct a review before handing over the money, Sullivan said. This review period could take anywhere from eight to 18 months after the city makes its decision — leaving the streetcar project unfinished for that much longer.

On top of that, “we still don’t know if the trains fit the tracks — that review hasn’t been finished yet,” Sullivan pointed out.

Sullivan, who lives in the suburbs, has long since heard from his neighbors that they do not even go into Seattle anymore because of the number of drawbacks that they attribute to the city. These range from complaints of tents and garbage everywhere, to open drug use, to the traffic congestion, to the loss of vehicle lanes in favor of bike lanes.

Now, however, it’s not just the suburbanites who find fault with Seattle — Sullivan has noticed that even the city dwellers themselves are beginning to question the Emerald City’s priorities.

“It’s starting to pile up on them, that there are so many things that don’t seem to make sense about this city,” Sullivan said, adding, “People are reaching the point where they’re finally going, ‘Really?'”

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