Oversight Panel Says Everett-Seattle Sounder Trains Don’t Justify Their Existence – Social Capital Review

Our friends at Social Capital Review have come out this afternoon with a story on how the Citizens Oversight Panel for Sound Transit is urging Sound Transit to make some changes to how it operates the Sounder rail line between Everett and Seattle. Here’s an excerpt from their report…

Its Citizen Oversight Panel said at half of original projected passenger levels, North Sounder commuter rail service running between downtown Seattle and the City of Everett in Snohomish County via Edmonds and Mukilteo isn’t drawing enough ridership now to justify its continued existence. “The status quo of low ridership and high costs on North Sounder is not acceptable,” a special working group of the COP stated to Sound Transit Board Chairman Pat McCarthy in a cover letter to the report. The COP said the markedly higher per-boarding costs for North Sounder are especially troubling when Sound Transit’s “Sound Express” buses to and from Snohomish County are often standing room only. COP’s North Sounder Alternatives Task Force in the report urged Sound Transit to work with Mukilteo and Edmonds on the difficult challenge of improving parking capacity near those stations; also to confront another big but more long-term challenge of adding a North Seattle stop; and to set a 2020 deadline for bringing average daily ridership to originally projected levels of 2,400 per weekday.

You can click here to read the entire article.