Seattle’s Urban Light Rail Needed Transparency to Get Built

A shorter book review was first published by the Seattle Times.

I often read the inspiring tale of The Little Train That Could to my two year old granddaughter. When she gets older, I should read her Bob Wodnik’s book, Back on Track — Sound Transit’s Fight to Save Light Rail, because like that children’s book it is inspiring. Wodnik served as the senior communications specialist from 1999 to 2017, for the

Seattle region’s bus-rail agency, Sound Transit. He tells the inside story of how transit advocates fought against an array of formidable critics to build the multi-billion dollar Link Light rail train network, now running from north Seattle to the SeaTac Airport far south of the city for a total of 22 miles.

The book is not an analysis of how this system compares to other options that could have been pursued. Seattle would have been the only city in the country with a major monorail system but after passing four ballot votes, it was defeated on the fifth, and construction never began. There have also been proponents for building an alternative Rapid Bus System, using dedicated lanes. But it never came close to a city-wide vote, despite the critics providing details and statistics on how such a system could work. And finally, some relied on just paving more roads instead of laying down rail…