Yesterday the Everett Herald published this article on Snohomish County Council’s grilling of Sound Transit CEO about the delay in expanding rail to Everett. ST claims it is due to less revenue collected from that area and money is spent according to subarea equity rules (spending is done in the area it was collected.)
Meanwhile, the vast majority of money used to build the I-405 toll lanes was spent on the segment through Kirkland and nothing was done to improve the section north of SR522, yet the people of Snohomish county pay at least 10 times more in tolls than the people of Kirkland. And no, the money collected from the tolls is not being used to pay back the cost to build them. Gas tax money was used to build the tolls.
If you live in Snohomish County you might consider attending the public debate/panel discussion tonight at 6:30pm and ask your questions.
When: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Where: Meadowdale High School Great Hall, 6002 168th St SW, Lynnwood
What: League of Women Voters of Snohomish County sponsored panel discussion with transportation leaders regarding transportation issues in Snohomish County.
The full list of panelists includes:
Josh Brown, Executive Director of Puget Sound Regional Council
David Hablewitz, stop405tolls.org Activist, IBM Champion
Emmett Heath, CEO of Community Transit
Senator Steve Hobbs, WA State Senate Transportation Committee
Steve Marshall, Transportation Technology Partnership Manager, City of Bellevue
Senator John McCoy, WA State Senate Transportation Committee|
Roger Millar, WA State Secretary of Transportation
Peter Rogoff, CEO of Sound Transit
Stop405Tolls 
The worst part of this story is Snohomish County residents will lose their Community Transit comfortable seated ride express bus service to Seattle when the light rail line is completed to Lynnwood. All the Seattle destined CT buses will be truncated at the Lynnwood station where riders will deboard, wait up to seven minutes and then board the light rail train for a 1 hour ride (12 stops) with a good chance that is in standing mode or at best a seated ride in an uncomfortable seat to Seattle downtown.
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