SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: The Sound Transit rolling drug den

May 9, 2022, 12:14 PM

Sound Transit employee records video of homeless individuals on light rail. (Jason Rantz/KTTH Radio...

Sound Transit employee records video of homeless individuals on light rail. (Jason Rantz/KTTH Radio)

(Jason Rantz/KTTH Radio)

Video shared with The Dori Monson Show by a Sound Transit worker is not recommended for the squeamish or already angry listeners. But it is an example of your tax dollars at work.

Images recorded by a ST employee last week show the No. 4 train on a morning route. Onboard: a series of apparently homeless drug addicts, riding the train while smoking various drugs or passed out across the seats.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t an anomaly,” the source wrote to Dori. “Regardless of what time, day or night, as all the trains are a consistent rolling homeless shelter and s*** show.”

Meanwhile, listeners are emailing Dori and texting him their own stories about drug-addled vagrants on light-rail trains and buses. Listeners routinely report seeing addicts urinate, defecate and vomit while onboard.

The problem is only getting worse, Dori told listeners, because the Sound Transit Board has voted to back off fare collection enforcement. Asking people to pay for ridership is racist, board members have decided.

Here is what Dori’s source told him about the video:

“(Train No. 4) pulls out of the OMF (Operations and Maintenance Facility) out of service up to UW station. It then goes in-service southbound from UW. Many of these fine people get on from UW to Sodo as it’s the first southbound in the morning.
I sent this video along with an email to ST Board this morning. I don’t expect a response until next week, if at all. I will let you know if I do. . .
Security and King County Sheriffs can’t and really don’t do anything due to the political policies, you are well aware of.”

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, and Thorsten Frei, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Fede...

Associated Press

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reshuffles top posts amid far-right advance

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reshuffled top posts on Friday as he tries to boost the fortunes of his deeply unpopular government ahead of regional elections in which a far-right party could get its first state governor. Merz took office less than 15 months ago with pledges to reform and turn around Germany’s […]

18 minutes ago

A tostada with bluefin tuna is prepared at Californios in San Francisco on Thursday, July 16, 2026....

Associated Press

With a historic 3 Michelin stars, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco defies stereotypes

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After an eight-year wait, the historic third Michelin star that chef and co-owner Val Cantú and his team at San Francisco’s Californios craved is theirs. It’s a first for any Mexican restaurant worldwide. So it’s understandable he and his 40-person staff have more swagger. “It’s been just really rewarding to see […]

27 minutes ago

Associated Press

Shares skid in Asia in sell-off of AI-related shares as Brent oil tops $100 per barrel

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares skidded Friday in Asia after Brent crude shot to its highest price since May as heavy fighting in the Middle East again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas. U.S. futures were little changed after tumbles for two of Wall Street’s most influential companies, Alphabet and Tesla, yanked […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

Bahrain sounds air sirens

JERUSALEM (AP) — Bahrain activated its air sirens early Friday, warning residents to shelter from detected fire hours after the U.S. wrapped up overnight strikes. The Gulf states have come under frequent Iranian fire over the past week as strikes continue to ramp up between the U.S. and Iran.

3 hours ago

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation holds a bouquet of flowers while at his retire...

Associated Press

Eight years after deadliest antisemitic attack in US history, Tree of Life rabbi bids farewell

PITTSBURGH (AP) — After surviving the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, after presiding over multiple funerals for his slain congregants, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers struggled to pray. “There was this emptiness to it,” recalls Myers, of Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. He turned to the biblical Book of Psalms — its hymns, poetry and […]

3 hours ago

People gather near a memorial at the site where a man was shot and killed on Wednesday by Madison p...

Associated Press

No bodycam footage in fatal Madison police shooting, because the department doesn’t require cameras

As officials review widely circulated bystander videos of the fatal police shooting of a homeless man in Madison, Wisconsin, one key perspective won’t be emerging: footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras. Unlike nearly every other similarly sized city, Madison doesn’t require its police to wear them. The absence of that footage has left residents in […]

3 hours ago

Dori: The Sound Transit rolling drug den