Mayor Jenny Durkan put the project on hold in March 2018 for a review; the report itself and a decision on whether to proceed with or scrap the idea have been delayed for months.
Now, with updated numbers on its cost, Durkan says she’ll work with city council, transit agencies, businesses, and others “to move forward on this significant mobility project and identify resources to close the capital shortfall,” according to a statement released last week from her office.
The Center City Connector would run along First Avenue, from the historic Pioneer Square district past Pike Place Market to the Belltown-South Lake Union neighborhoods. It would connect two operating, but isolated streetcar lines. One to the north runs through the South Lake Union area that has been transformed in recent years by the growth of Amazon. The one to the south runs through the Chinatown/International District area to First Hill, which has a concentration of hospitals, to Capitol Hill.
“We have the opportunity to create a downtown with fewer cars and where residents, workers, and visitors can walk, bike, and take transit,” the mayor said. “A unified streetcar route provides a unique opportunity to build on our investments for the next generation.”
But to build that system will require more money than has been budgeted. The city’s 2017 budget had the capital cost of the project figured at $197.7 million. The latest review came up with an estimate of $252.2 million, a difference of $54.5 million. The latest number could grow still more, since the reviewers recommended “additional engineering analysis and design work to review necessary design changes to integrate the full streetcar system, including, but not limited to, platform design, rail vehicle suitability (rail car length, weight, and dynamic envelope), and impact on maintenance facilities.”
That $252.2 million is just for the streetcar itself. Once utility relocation and other costs are thrown in, the total balloons to $286 million.
And the numbers could get even worse. The city is counting on $75 million from the Federal Transit Administration. If the city doesn’t get that money, or has to prove it is good for the full amount, the gap grows to $140 million.
Last year’s hold and review were sparked when Metro, the King County agency that would actually operate the streetcars, warned that the Seattle Department of Transportation had underestimated the cost of running the system to the tune of millions of dollars. A memo from Metro officials said city council and federal agencies funding the project weren’t aware of the looming gap.
That memo also warned that “SDOT has not fully satisfied its obligation for the cost of operating the city’s existing South Lake Union and First Hill Streetcar lines.”
