Sound Transit: Over budget, behind schedule, and liars, too

Dori writes…

Sound Transit decided to put one of its new train cars in a high visibility spot next to I-5 in Tukwila so passers-by could see an example of our shiny new light rail system.

But over the weekend, graffiti taggers hit the train car causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Here’s what makes this story particularly outrageous: On June 19th, a listener to my show contacted Sound Transit and expressed concern that this train car could be vandalized. Here’s the e-mail that Mike Muller sent to Sound Transit nearly three weeks ago:

On 6/19/08 at 4:49 PM Mike Muller wrote:

I have noticed a new Sound Link Train sitting dead on the tracks near
S. 144th Street and I-5.
Curious this is sitting there at nite (12:45 AM) instead of being taken
back to the main ST building? Seen it there more than once. I have heard ST has the tunnel done and some testing being done, but leaving a train in that area at nite?

Thanks
Mike Muller

Here is the response Mike got from Sound Transit:

On 6/23/08 at 8:05 AM Doering, Carol wrote:

Thank you for your inquiry Mr. Muller. In response to your inquiry sent
Thursday, June 19th, please know that safeguards are in place to insure
that the light rail vehicle is secure while maintained at the present
site. Link Light rail is now in its testing phase and you will be
seeing more light rail cars on the track as testing progresses.

Carol A. Doering
Sound Transit

So here you have a citizen raising a legitimate concern about security of a public asset – and he was told “safeguards are in place to insure
that the light rail vehicle is secure while maintained at the present site”. Two weeks later, the train is hit by taggers.

What were the safeguards? And if there were safeguards in place, why were vandals able to do thousands of dollars worth of damage? Was ST simply lying to a citizen whose concern obviously had great merit? I find it amazing that Mike was able to anticipate the results of ST’s stunt – but all of the six-figure salaried employees and elected officials who oversee the agency could not. But, what the heck, it’s just a few thousand more tax dollars – there’s plenty more where that came from.

Sound Transit is running years behind schedule… is billions of dollars over budget… and now once again would rather pull off a PR stunt than be a responsible steward of public dollars. We’ll make every attempt to get a ST spokesman on the show Tuesday to explain why this citizen was lied to.