Sound Transit Board adopts updated ST3 system plan

Last edited Fri May 29, 2026, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Affordable plan includes Link Light Rail construction from Everett to Tacoma Dome, West Seattle and Ballard Link to Seattle Center, design of full Ballard project

May 28, 2026
A year after launching the Enterprise Initiative to address rapidly rising capital and operating costs and affordably deliver the objectives of the ST3 program voters approved in 2016, the Sound Transit Board has adopted an updated system plan. The new plan will keep light rail projects moving by building projects that are ready for construction and advancing projects already in the planning process.

The updated system plan incorporates cost savings from across the agency, including new revenue sources and financial policies to set the agency on a sustainable path going forward.

Sound Transit is committed to delivering the projects in ST3 as efficiently as possible. The agency will continue to search for cost efficiencies and ways to make projects more affordable and move projects forward in the delivery pipeline. The agency will aggressively compete for federal and state funding, pursue additional legislative tools to increase available debt and bonding capacity, and partner with local jurisdictions to improve permitting and construction to accelerate timelines.

https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/news-events/news-releases/sound-transit-board-adopts-updated-st3-system-plan

Sound Transit Board OKs Major ST3 Update, Casting Ballard into Limbo

At a marathon five-hour board meeting Thursday, the Sound Transit board approved a sweeping update to its rail expansion plans, choosing which transit projects to prioritize and which to delay or defer indefinitely. The big shakeup is in response to a precipitous $34 billion budget shortfall over the next two decades. The final vote to recalibrate the plan was approved 16-2, with Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci voting no.

The adjustments approved Thursday now leave agency leaders with a need to find $9.3 billion to $11.3 billion in cost savings (or new dollars) to complete the major projects included in the 2016 ST3 package approved by voters, with another $2.5 billion in projects fully deferred and unlikely to be built.

Among the projects that now have unclear futures: a commuter rail extension of the Sounder S Line to DuPont, additional off-peak trips on the broader S Line between Seattle and Pierce County, a 1 Line infill station at Boeing Access Road in North Tukwila, and the northernmost three stations of Ballard Link.

A number of board members portrayed deferral as a temporary setback, pledging all lines would be built eventually. The biggest task left for the board to tackle is how to complete Seattle’s next light rail line between SoDo and Ballard, with everything north of Seattle Center – including stations at Smith Cove, Interbay, and 15th and Market Street in Ballard – now unfunded and with a question mark for an opening date.

https://www.theurbanist.org/sound-transit-board-oks-major-st3-update-casting-ballard-into-limbo/

Sound Transit Board adopts resolution formally scaling back 2016 ST3 system expansion plan and declaring Ballard Link unfunded

After an unusually long meeting that stretched well into the evening hours, Sound Transit’s eighteen member board of directors approved a resolution revising the parameters for implementing the voter-approved Phase III system expansion plan, known as ST3.

The action comes in response to estimates that the cost to build, operate, and maintain ST3 as planned exceeds available revenue by $34.5 billion through 2046 as a consequence of factors like inflation, higher labor and materials costs, and revised revenue projections surfaced through the agency’s year-long Enterprise Initiative.

Rather than canceling projects outright, the Board sorted ST3 into tiers.

The resolution and its Substitute Attachment A reframe the situation as sequencing, not abandonment. Section 1 states the constraints “do not reflect a decision to permanently defer or eliminate any voter-approved project,” and the resolution repeatedly commits to delivering the full plan “as revenue becomes available.”

https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2026/05/sound-transit-board-adopts-resolution-formally-scaling-back-2016-st3-system-expansion-plan-and-declaring-ballard-link-unfunded.html

Sound Transit board approves plan keeping Everett Link on track

EVERETT — A newly approved Sound Transit plan will keep the Everett Link Extension on track to open on its current schedule while delaying light rail extensions in other parts of the network.

The board governing the regional transit agency voted 16-2 Thursday to approve an updated system plan for Sound Transit 3, the ballot measure voters approved in 2016 that promised light rail extensions to Everett, Tacoma, West Seattle, Ballard and Issaquah, along with new bus rapid transit service and expansions of the Sounder commuter rail network south of Seattle.

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The plan also calls for the Tacoma and West Seattle extensions to stay on schedule. Approving it now means that work on the West Seattle extension, like property acquisitions and pre-construction work, can continue without delay, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said Thursday.

Transit riders in the Ballard and Issaquah areas, however, will now likely face additional years of waiting for their rail connections to open.

https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/05/29/sound-transit-board-approves-plan-keeping-everett-link-on-track/