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Sound Transit Explains It All for You (Slog)

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Friends of Seattle is in the news. Erica C. Barnett, "Sound Transit Explains It All for You," Slog: The Stranger's Blog (10 Sept 2008)

Last night, Friends of Seattle, a group that promotes urbanism and good environmental policy, hosted a Q&A with Sound Transit staffers, including chief spokesman Ric Ilgenfritz, at McLeod Residence in Belltown. The questions were generally thoughtful, unique, and even surprising—a pleasant change from what you usually hear at these events, which is more along the lines of “Is it going to go by my house?” and “How much will it cost me personally?” (Answers: Probably not, but it benefits the whole city; and about $69 a year.) Here are a few things you might not know about Sound Transit, in Ilgenfritz’s words. (Sound Transit haters, take note: This is all from Sound Transit’s perspective. If you disagree, feel free to let me know in the comments.) On ridership, and whether Sound Transit will pay for itself: “By 2030, we expect 360,000 daily riders with a capacity of more than one million. … No transit system anywhere fully funds its operations [with fare revenue].. We’re expecting to recover 45 to 50 percent [of costs] from fares, which is on the high end of the industry standard. … The system will reach a point where the benefits to the economy begin to exceed the costs in around 2034, which is about ten years after operation begins. So it’ll pay for itself.”

Read the whole thing.