Editor,
Citizens of Washington are about to be fleeced by TriMet and the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program (IBRP). The $7.5 billion project contains multiple issues that are troublesome. These include $9.40 per day tolls and bringing Portland’s MAX light rail into Clark County.
News reports revealed TriMet is asking taxpayers to pay up to $15 million each for 19 light rail vehicles. They just paid $4.5 million each on four new vehicles for their 10-mile better red extension to Hillsboro. The IBRP management team doesn’t think paying triple the price for the vehicles is a problem. They merely accept whatever TriMet gives them.
The $2 billion 1.9 mile light rail extension puts the cost at just over $1 billion per mile, making it the most expensive rail project in the world on a per-mile basis.
TriMet says they need the 19 new light rail vehicles in order to offer Yellow Line departures every 7.5 minutes. But history shows they’ve made similar promises several times over the past two decades and never delivered on promised service.
The most the current system can handle is departures every 15 minutes or four times an hour. During rush hour, they have one train crossing the Steel Bridge over the Willamette River every 90 seconds. That is the real bottleneck on their entire light rail system. The IBR knows this and doesn’t care.
TriMet bought 26 new light rail vehicles in the 1980s. They are at the end of their useful life, and the agency is trying to get us to pay for replacement vehicles that will be used on their entire system.
TriMet is also demanding about $21.6 million in new taxes from both Oregon and Washington citizens, in order to pay for operations and maintenance of the new 1.9 mile extension. That’s absurd, as Oregon taxpayers have never contributed a penny toward either the cost of C-Tran buses, nor for the operations and maintenance costs of C-Tran’s bus service into Portland.
Once again, the IBRP doesn’t object. Neither does C-Tran’s Board, the Regional Transportation Council Board, nor the Vancouver City Council. Conspicuously absent are the elected legislators, especially from the 49th District.
Replacing an over-congested three-lane bridge with another three through-lane bridge will not save people time, nor reduce traffic congestion.
In fact, the draft supplemental environmental impact statement indicates there will be a 30% increase in traffic congestion after spending $7.5 billion.
Citizens on both sides of the river want to save time and reduce traffic congestion. This wasteful project delivers neither. It’s time for elected representatives to stop the fleecing of Washington taxpayers. It’s time for them to demand a cost-effective project that saves time, reduces congestion and is affordable.
That means a bridge high enough to protect marine traffic on the river. That means added vehicle capacity, just like the expansion of lanes on state Route 14 in east Vancouver. That means no tolls and no light rail. That’s what the people want and deserve.
John Ley
Vancouver
