Our weekly “New Starts” roundup of new and newsworthy transportation projects worldwide.

Everett Wonders Whether LRT Promise Will Be Kept
Sound Transit was formed to provide improved transit service to the three core counties of the Seattle metro area — King, Pierce and Snohomish. With work on Seattle’s LRT line progressing and a short streetcar line operating in Tacoma, officials in Everett are beginning to get impatient about getting light-rail service extended to Snohomish County.

The Herald of Everett reports that as Sound Transit goes about preparing a ballot measure that would ask voters to approve anywhere from $11 billion to $15 billion in new taxes to pay for another round of transit expansions, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson wants to hold the agency to the promise made 20 years ago that light rail would come to his city.

The promise, made by the Regional Transit Authority board in 1994, was that “priority shall be given in subsequent phases to linking the four major centers of Everett, Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue” and that Everett “shall be a first priority” in the second phase of rail transit construction.

“Guess what? We all know that didn’t happen,” Stephanson told The Herald.

Instead, the second round of Sound Transit projects, known as “ST2,” put service to Bellevue and communities on Lake Washington’s eastern shore first. Now, as the board discusses the third phase — “ST3” — talk of new lines to West Seattle and Ballard has Everett and Snohomish County officials getting nervous.

Hence Stephanson’s letter, as well as a similar letter signed by Snohomish County Executive John Lovick and County Council Chairman Dave Somers.

If voters approve the funding package next year, it would be sometime in the 2030s at the earliest before Everett residents could hop aboard an LRV. The city does have Sounder commuter rail service; patronage on the northern leg of the line, which begins in Everett and continues through Seattle to Tacoma, is lighter than that on its southern leg by a factor of nine.

(Credit: Sydney Light Rail)

Work on Sydney LRT to Begin This Fall
Work on a new light-rail line designed to connect central Sydney with sports, entertainment, medical and educational facilities to the southeast will begin in earnest in October, Global Rail News reports.

The 12-km (7.5-mile) CBD and South East Light Rail Line, Sydney’s second, will begin at Circular Quay and proceed through the city center along George Street, making six stops en route to Central train station. From Central, the line will run east to the Moore Park sports and entertainment district before turning south again and splitting into two branches. One branch will run southeast to Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, with a stop at the Randwick race course along the way, while the other will head south past the University of New South Wales to Kingsford.

According to the Sydney Light Rail website, the first segment to see construction will be the Moore Park segment, starting in September. Work in the CBD will start the following month on George Street, which will be turned into a pedestrian zone. Construction will continue for the next two years, with work on the final zone set to commence in September 2017. The line should be finished by April 2018. GRN reports that the New South Wales government is splitting the project into 31 separate zones and intends for contractors to operate on a “get in and get out” basis to keep disruption of activity to a minimum.

Support pillars from Jakarta’s stalled monorail project (Photo by Davidelit)

Jakarta Pulls Plug on Monorail, Asks for LRT Instead
The city government in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta has thrown in the towel on its troubled plan to construct a monorail system. But it still wants to work with the monorail’s builder.

A news report in the Jakarta Post states that the city has asked PM Jakarta Monorail to relocate two stations on the monorail line currently under construction and to submit plans to the city for a light-rail network instead of building additional monorail lines. The system the city wants to build would have seven lines serving points within Jakarta and service to nearby satellite cities.

Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama told the Post that the city preferred LRT over monorail because it would be easier to expand the system: “There are seven planned corridors but we may add more corridors in the future for better connections, and the LRT system would be easier to expand.”

The city administration also pointed to continuing delays with construction of the monorail line and questions about Jakarta Monorail’s ability to fund the system as reasons to change course.

The two stations the city wants the company to relocate have problematic sites, Jakarta Legal Bureau head Sri “Yayuk” Rahayu said. One would cause too much congestion as it is located over a busy city street and the other would sit above a city reservoir that is off-limits to development.

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Next City contributor Sandy Smith is the home and real estate editor at Philadelphia magazine. Over the years, his work has appeared in Hidden City Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other local and regional publications. His interest in cities stretches back to his youth in Kansas City, and his career in journalism and media relations extends back that far as well.

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