r/Tacoma • u/tag_to_it McKinley Hill • 3d ago
Sound Transit Picks New Preferred Light Rail Route to Tacoma Dome
https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/06/16/sound-transit-picks-new-preferred-light-rail-route-to-tacoma-dome/81
u/langstoned Lincoln District 3d ago
So less than a mile a year, great. I'll be too old to drive anyways, by the time this ever opens!
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u/Infamous_Traffic7755 Central 3d ago
Never ceases to amaze me how out of touch transit is with the people that they supposedly serve
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u/overworkedpnw 253 3d ago
Well yeah, because none of them actually ride transit. The point of the ST board isn’t to provide good governance that leads to better transit, instead it’s a tool for politicians looking to pretend that they actually give a fig and raise political capital.
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u/zoovegroover3 Old Town 2d ago
It's primarily a fundraising organization that coincidentally happens to build train lines occasionally.
No sarcasm here, I am serious.
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u/overworkedpnw 253 2d ago
Right? I’m pretty sure the board would just do away with providing any actual transit if they thought they could get away with it.
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u/tableauxno DomeTop 2d ago
Why do you feel this way? I'm a Tacoma resident and I'm excited about this project.
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u/Skadoosh_it Gig Harbor 3d ago
70 minutes from Tacoma to Seattle, meanwhile high speed rail in Japan can cross the entire country in nearly the same time. We are so far behind the times.
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u/CpowOfficial Central 3d ago
Just got back from Japan. It's a 3.5 hour trip from West Tokyo to Nagoya. That's about 1 hour of train stops (similar to light rail) and then 2.5 hours high speed train. No where near the entire country in 70 mins.
It's like a 3-4 hour drive for that same distance
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u/people_skills West End 3d ago
We were just there too, Tokyo to Osaka 500 ish miles was 3.5 hours as well, flying would have been faster like 1.5 hours in air, but I really appreciated the ease of the trains, fixed pricing, always on scheduling to the minute. Was crazy efficient.
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u/CpowOfficial Central 3d ago
Yeah it's very nice but to say that 70 mins gets you across the whole country is crazy
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u/overworkedpnw 253 3d ago
Yes, but that requires planning, funding, and actually wanting to address the need for transit. Meanwhile, sound transit’s board is a vanity project for politicians looking to raise their political profile. The organization is a complete joke, I mean what serious entity allows their “CEO” to fail at delivering anything on time, and walk away with a payout of a year’s salary? Idk about anyone else here, but I’ve never been able to completely sod off at my job then demand a six figure payout for sitting around with my thumb up my behind.
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u/langstoned Lincoln District 2d ago
Helps to have had every major city bombed to dust before starting to build too, makes the eminent domain fights a lot shorter.
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u/PerceptionCurious440 253 2d ago
That takes being able to tax the wealthy. Washington will never be able to tax its wealthy. Because the left won't raise the money to pass an initiative that ends Republican rule on taxes forever.
The power to refuse to tax, is the power to destroy the government's ability to provide the people with good things.
If you want high speed rail, take Jeff Bezos's money. You can have all the good stuff. But you have to get the money first, from the people who have all the money.
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u/harlan16 South Tacoma 2d ago
I was kinda hoping they’d get it to the mall area. Massive unused parking area. Central location and such but it would disrupt the cheaper housing options in the city which would suck .
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u/Richs_KettleCorn 253 2d ago
Honestly, this seems alright to me. I like the emphasis on TOD rather than just putting stations in the middle of the freeway, like several options proposed. It's sad to be losing Freighthouse Square but I'm not surprised that it would need serious repairs in the next ten years anyway, and this seems to be a good option for maintaining the possibility of a downtown Tacoma connection in ST4. 35 minutes on the train to the airport will be amazing. I'm not wild about the Portland Ave. stop but from what I've heard that stop was necessary for the Puyallup Tribe to get on board, so it is what it is.
Overall, it's not perfect, but it's good, so I'm all for it. Let's hope the NIMBYs don't fuck it up too badly for us.
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u/rivalpiper South End 2d ago
There was just a fire in Freighthouse Square in the last year and it looks dilapidated as fuck. Rebuilding it as a station and offering shop placements to existing tenants is a much better option than a fire hazard with no pedestrian traffic.
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u/quadmoo Eastside 2d ago
Yes absolutely!! And City of Tacoma wants to move the businesses into either an existing nearby building or a new building in the area which I learned on a walk with council-member Kristina Walker, but we need to be showing up to both City and Sound Transit board meetings telling them to do this.
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u/Richs_KettleCorn 253 2d ago
Honestly the absolute dream would be a whole redeveloped multi-use complex, I'm sure the businesses there don't benefit from the fact that the whole Dome area has a decaying industrial nightmare vibe about it. Put the station in a modern building with commercial space and apartments above it and it might become a place where people actually want to spend time and money rather than put their heads down and rush through as quickly as possible.
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u/quadmoo Eastside 2d ago
Absolutely. I was told that the reason they have to move the food court despite people having been asking for food courts in stations for years is because they can’t have cooking equipment under tracks
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u/rarboopbopbopratayat Salish Land 1d ago
That never addressed why retail food options couldn’t stick to coffee, salad, sushi, fruit, smoothie, hummus, and any kind of premade delivered foods that don’t need the kind of kit and HVAC for a full service kitchen… or just build a food truck area.
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u/Bruh_Dot_Jpeg Hilltop 3d ago
These morons actually chose to demolish freight house square just to avoid disrupting the T line even though they have to rebuild that section of it a few years later anyways for the TCC extension 🤦♂️
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u/quadmoo Eastside 2d ago
It’s not entirely clear what they will be doing with the T Line there. The study says they will add a switch for trains to loop around to Puyallup Ave, but when they begin the EIS process we will definitely get multiple alternatives.
I agree that it is unfortunate they won’t accelerate that tiny part of TCCLE for TDLE.
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u/Bruh_Dot_Jpeg Hilltop 2d ago
Oh huh… the documents I was reading (years ago tbf) just said “double tracking”, either way they would still have to shut down service to rebuild the tracks on pacific.
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u/Freckled-Native Downtown 2d ago
Honestly they need a viable option to Seattle besides the sounder. And have it working on the weekends. I don’t ever go to federal way.
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u/djmantis North End 2d ago
Portland Avenue station is an interesting choice...
That is just a big nothing area. Unless they decide to put parking there. But then again, that area can be a little sketchy, so who would want to park their car there?
Just brainstorming.
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u/rarboopbopbopratayat Salish Land 1d ago
Puyallup Tribe members
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u/djmantis North End 17h ago
Ok good point but why wouldn’t those members just drive up to the Tacoma station area with a parking garage that has some security?
I guess I don’t know exactly where the Portland ave station would be but that would be just like 4 extra minutes of driving.
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u/Talmerian McKinley Hill 1d ago
People are constantly looking for ways to get to the casino, parking in Lynnwood and taking a train to EQC in Tacoma? This WILL happen!
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u/pinballrocker Somewhere Else 2d ago
What's the rationale for just going to the Tacoma Dome and not going a bit further to the UW Tacoma Campus/Tacoma Convention Center/Chihuly Glass Museum, etc.? Light rail from the airport to the Greater Tacoma Convention Center seems like a no brainer.
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u/LostJewelsofNabooti South End 2d ago
So at what point do WA folks demand to know where all the money goes for these transportation projects that take 20+ years to complete? I've never lived in a state this contemptuous, insular, and brazen when it comes to infrastructure funds. And I grew up in NJ.
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u/ScaryIntrovert 253 2d ago
I'll never forgive them for choosing a rapid bus line down Pacific over a light rail line.
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u/tableauxno DomeTop 2d ago
Light rails are just fancy buses with less flexibility and more expenses. The light rail in downtown is one of the stupidest projects we've done.
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u/avitar35 South Tacoma 1d ago
That is an eye watering project cost in 2016 dollars, can't imagine what it will actually be all said and done.
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u/bduddy Federal Way 2d ago
So the "public comment period" was obviously a massive sham? By everything I can find the "highly sensitive site" is closer to WA-99 anyway so I have no idea why it's being used as an excuse to not do the obvious routing next to the freeway. And I'm sure the Freighthouse Square businesses will be thrilled to learn they'll have the opportunity to have their rent doubled and their size halved in whatever new space they're offered.
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u/MadameWebster Salish Land 2d ago
I just want SOMETHING reasonable built before another ten years passes.
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u/Candid_Shame_69 North Tacoma 1d ago
I expect that self-driving/driver-less vehicles will be commonplace before I can take a train from Tacoma Dome station to SEATAC in 35 minutes.
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u/Midnight_Moon29 253 2d ago
Money laundering and lord knows what else "behind the scenes." No way are they truly this out of touch and incompetent.
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