‘We’re projecting 50,000 riders a day’: Council member defends I-90 light rail investment

As Sound Transit prepares to launch the I-90 light rail on March 28, King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci had a first-hand look.

“It goes 55 miles an hour. It’s smooth as silk. It works very, very well,” she told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Balducci added that as more commuters see the train skipping traffic, ridership will grow.

“As you’re driving by and see that train going, and you’re sitting in traffic, I think that’ll be the marketing we need to get people who want to ride it,” she said.

KIRO host John Curley noted it will take 2% to 3% of the people who are normally commuting to pay for the train.

“So the guy sitting in the car — who’s basically paying for the entire thing — what you’re hoping is that person goes ‘Golly, I love the autonomy and the freedom I have being in my car, being able to go where I want to go, when I want to go. Darn it all, I’m just going to get out of this car and get on that train,'” he said.

Balducci replied, “Those trains are going to be packed. They are. We’re projecting 50,000 riders a day. And I think we’re going to hit it very early on, because people love the train. They do. They love to ride it.”

“We get not just commuters — although we do get an awful lot of commuters, and by the way, those parking garages that we built are going to fill up as well — we get a lot of people who want to go to the Mariners game, to the football games, weekend travel. Seniors love to take the train so that they don’t have to drive around downtown Seattle. It’s going to be a popular means of travel,” she continued.

Curley questioned the value of such a steep investment.

“Overall, the price tag is so high, and you wonder, well, what are you getting for the gigantic bill that every single taxpayer will have to be paying?” he asked.

“With fixed route transit, you’re getting transit that is out of traffic,” Balducci responded.

Curley dove into the numbers, saying, “I took the principal and interest bond paying on a 30-year or 40-year, and I ran the numbers through the total amount of money that the taxpayers will be asked to pay $9.8 billion by the time the whole thing is paid off.”

“So I took the 3.4, did all the math, worked through on 5% interest on the bonds, plus I didn’t include in there the maintenance cost, because they’re going to have to inspect this thing a lot, because this is an engineering feat that has never been done before,” he continued.

Balducci responded, “So I’ve never done that particular math. I always just look at the principal, if you will.”

“We projected a budget. We are coming in slightly over budget,” she added. “Given the fact that we’ve never put light rail on a floating bridge anywhere in the world before, I think it’s pretty remarkable that we’re within 3% or 2% of budget.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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