‘You’re not early, you’re 8 months late’: KIRO traffic reporter sounds off on Sound Transit’s timeline

Following Saturday’s unveiling of the Federal Way light rail station, Sound Transit announced the Bellevue-to-Seattle train across I-90 is in its final phase of testing, forecasting service to be available before June 2026.

KIRO traffic reporter Chris Sullivan shared his thoughts on the long-awaited project and how Sound Transit handles its estimated construction timelines following rare positive news for an effort plagued by delays and budget problems.

“Our good friend, Dow Constantine, before the real opening of the Federal Way extension on Saturday, he said, ‘Oh, we’re coming in ahead of schedule and $500 million under budget,’ like, what?” Sullivan said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Here’s how the math and scheduling work at Sound Transit. For him to have actually said with a straight face, ‘we’re ahead of schedule.’ Yeah, it’s because you moved the schedule to next year, realized you couldn’t get across the lake in enough time, so you sped up Federal Way, but it was still supposed to open last year. You’re not early, you’re eight months late.”

Sullivan noted that no one has ever built a rail line across a floating structure, prompting Curley to question the viability of the Bellevue-to-Seattle connection and whether billions should be spent for a small group of travelers.

“Most people would think, ‘but that’s just crazy,’ especially if it’s only going to carry a few people, and it’s not going to take that many cars off the road,” Curley said. “We’re going to get rid of our capacity lanes, and we’re gonna have everybody stuck in traffic while this stupid train shoots you across the track, costing how many billions of dollars while the rest of us are sitting in traffic, and this thing’s carrying a few lonely souls back and forth into the city.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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