Today, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers joined other Sound Transit Board members in announcing a new, revised Sound Transit 3 package. The revised plan calls for a light rail alignment that travels to Paine Field and then on to Everett Station. In addition, the timeline has been reduced by five years, from twenty-five years to twenty for completion of the entire line to Everett.

“I am in full support of the revised Sound Transit 3 plan and believe it is very good for Snohomish County and the region,” said Snohomish County Executive and Sound Transit Board member Dave Somers. “As presented, Link Light Rail will follow our preferred route, hitting Paine Field on the way to Everett Station District. While we would all like to have light rail reach Everett tomorrow, that is not realistic. These large construction projects do take time. We need to ensure that Snohomish County is not left out of our region’s mass transit system, since the consequences of that to our economy could be devastating. With this plan, the vision of Sound Transit and the region can be realized: we connect population centers to job centers and make the spine a priority.”

Sound Transit was able to reduce the projected completion times in Snohomish County by increasing financing capacity and by using I-5 instead of Evergreen Way (SR99) for alignment.

“We appreciate the five year reduction in the timeline, and I believe we can shave another year or two off of completion, because of our recently-signed MOU between Snohomish County, Everett, and Lynnwood. We believe these and other local efforts will get us to a better completion date,” said Somers.

The Sound Transit 3 revised plan also includes a study for extending light rail to North Everett/College Station, potentially serving even more of the city. The plan includes Bus Rapid Transit between Lynnwood and Burien, travelling along I-405, easing congestion on this key route into and out of Snohomish County.

The Sound Transit Board will be charged with formally adopting the new plan and then presenting it to voters this fall.