Following Saturday’s unveiling of the Federal Way light rail station, Sound Transit announced the Bellevue-to-Seattle train across I-90 is in its final phase of testing, forecasting service to be available before June 2026.
KIRO traffic reporter Chris Sullivan shared his thoughts on the long-awaited project and how Sound Transit handles its estimated construction timelines following rare positive news for an effort plagued by delays and budget problems.
“Our good friend, Dow Constantine, before the real opening of the Federal Way extension on Saturday, he said, ‘Oh, we’re coming in ahead of schedule and $500 million under budget,’ like, what?” Sullivan said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Here’s how the math and scheduling work at Sound Transit. For him to have actually said with a straight face, ‘we’re ahead of schedule.’ Yeah, it’s because you moved the schedule to next year, realized you couldn’t get across the lake in enough time, so you sped up Federal Way, but it was still supposed to open last year. You’re not early, you’re eight months late.”…