Washington Policy Center Releases Third Installment of ST2/RTID Ballot Measure Studies

Seattle - The Center for Transportation Policy at Washington Policy Center (WPC), Washington's premier public policy research and education organization, released the third installment of its ongoing coverage of the ST2/RTID ballot measure appearing this November.  

Recently, Sound Transit completed a cost/benefit analysis on the light rail package that is on the ballot this November. Sound Transit concluded the benefits from light rail would finally exceed costs in the year 2034. But after an independent review of Sound Transit's analysis by Washington Policy Center, Adjunct Scholar John Niles found that the agency underestimated costs and overestimated benefits. Using more responsible assumptions, John's analysis found that costs exceed benefits and concludes, "there is no business case for investing $24 billion in expanded light rail."

Mr. Niles' Policy Note, Part III: Cost Exceeds Benefits in Sound Transit's Light Rail Expansion, is the third in a series of research papers covering the ST2/RTID ballot measure. Part I: The Cost of Sound Transit can be found here and Part II: Your Transportation Tax Burden can be found here.

Read the full Policy Note online here.

For more information on this ballot measure or for media interviews contact Lyndsey Hartje at lhartje@washingtonpolicy.org or call 206-937-9691.