‘The number is just crazy’: Jake and Spike shocked at West Seattle light rail extension’s $3 billion shortfall
Mar 25, 2025, 8:31 AM
A Sound Transit light rail train sits at the new Lynnwood station on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (Photo: Chris Sullivan, KIRO Newsradio)
(Photo: Chris Sullivan, KIRO Newsradio)
Sound Transit’s West Seattle light rail extension project is facing a staggering $3 billion budget shortfall despite not having laid a single inch of track.
“The number is just crazy. I lost my mind,” Jake Skorheim of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio exclaimed. “I don’t even know how that’s possible.”
Brad Owen, the executive director, explained that the budget shortfall is due to rising labor, materials, and equipment costs and increasing real estate prices. But co-host Spike O’Neill says it’s the symptom of a larger problem, citing the project’s inefficiency and wastefulness.
“That’s the way Seattle has always done everything. Not a good start,” he commented. “You look into things for far too long, do research, do testing, voting, and you’ve wasted all this money.”
The project’s budget has ballooned from an initial estimate of $6 billion to a projected $10 billion by the time it is completed. The rising costs have led to concerns about the feasibility of the project, with some questioning whether it should be scrapped altogether. “At what point do you stop chasing losses and say this is a bad idea?” Spike asked.
Listen to the entire discussion below.
Businesses being pushed aside for slow Sound Transit extension project
Local businesses are also feeling the impact of the project’s slow pace.
A brewery that had been operating for six years was forced to relocate due to eminent domain for a new terminal. The business owner, who was renting the space, said he received insufficient compensation to cover the loss of their business.
“They were told, ‘You’re gonna have to find a new location,'” Jake said. “Because that business owner was just renting the space, they didn’t actually get the value of having the property being purchased, which they can then fold back into a new business. They had done all this work to the place over years, and they were given basically just a pittance to go find a new spot.”
Jake and Spike wonder how much more the project will cost and whether it will ever be completed.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
