Sound Move and Proposition 1

Reader Brant asked us to respond to the No Campaign’s argument that Sound Transit has come up short on the promises made for Sound Move in 1996. To a large extent, it’s fair to chastize Sound Transit as an organization for the failures it has experienced over its lifetime.  Voters were promised one thing, and thanks to several years of epic mismanagement, they’re getting the completion of that package quite a bit later than originally planned. There are two basic points here, though: (1) those failures are not the whole picture ; and (2) they’re essentially irrelevant to our current situation. It’s telling that their litany of light rail shortcuts totally ignores the other giant operations that Sound Transit is involved in.  The agency has operated an extensive bus system and two commuter rail lines for years, in addition to a short light rail line in Tacoma.  They carry 61,000 passengers per day and free up scarce lo...