iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 8h

Worth reading -- especially for @skubly.bsky.social arguing Sound Transit is not seriously interested in outside ideas, such as automated light rail. Or for the point that buying a 50-year old building is probably cheaper than tunneling deep under it.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This was a biggie. FFGA for SAS P2 took until November 2023 to get hammered out. That’s three years for a project that already had its approvals.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

the dominance of radial versus circumferential lines in the US says a lot about who (and the purposes) our networks are built for

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Page 24 of 205 platform LOS during peak period calls for fully free movement. When you dive into STs standards what you realize is that the problem is baked into the DNA of the agency. www.soundtransit.org/sites/defaul...

soundtransit.org

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Joe Cohen @cohenhouse.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Another dumb American code requirement! basin.la/articles/nin...

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Michael Schneider @michaelschneider.com · 22/09/2026

Buffoons for All !!

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Friday news drop from Sound Transit. 3 months ago @transportreform.bsky.social and I recommended this and @saveballardrail.bsky.social push the agency to do it. Thursday before Labor Day they issue, wait 1.5 weeks to publicize, give 30 days to respond www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-...

soundtransit.org

Sound Transit seeks cost-saving strategies for ST3 projects | Sound Transit

September 11, 2026 | Sound Transit opened a request for information (RFI) seeking responses from qualified sources on strategies that could reduce cost or speed delivery of ST3 proj

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Nice video on Madrid metro following up on earlier essay published in works in progress m.youtube.com/watch?v=utt-...

m.youtube.com

How Madrid Built the World's Best Metro

YouTube video by Hoog

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The lessons from CAHSR are broadly applicable to *all transit (and renewables projects)* no reason to keep learning the same lessons.

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Today @sound-transit.bsky.social published a Request for Information to solicit ideas for saving money on the Ballard link extension. Good right? Their approach is deeply flawed. Only 30 days to prepare responses, no industry day to answer respondents, to name a few docsend.com/v/2zkp2/rfi

docsend.com

DocSend - Simple, intelligent, modern content sending

DocSend helps you communicate more effectively by telling you what happens to content after you send them and letting you keep control in real time.

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Interesting side benefit. Beyond the clear safety benefit. Likely allows smaller tunnel. Reducing cost and improving constructability

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dereksagehorn.bsky.social @dereksagehorn.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This piece asks a lot of good technical questions of design, engineering and program management practice.

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Meanwhile, the US was the only country in the world to oppose a recent UN declaration about the need to reduce crash deaths. The vote was 162 to 1.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Golden campaign opportunity for an ambitious Sound Transit Board Member or Seattle official, light rail deserves this treatment. Great to see a candidate bringing infrastructure delivery into the mainstream

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Stephen Fesler 🧦 🥑🚶‍♂️🚌 🚊 🚆 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺🇻🇦🕊️ @safesler.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Cities were built through many temporary disruptions so that they could be improved. It’s exceedingly ahistorical to demand that transit investments never be disruptive and must have astronomical costs heaped on them to avoid offending a small number of weirdos

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

How can you tell the board knew West Seattle was already delayed prior to their big vote in May and the shovel ready rah rah BS. Not a single board member has publicly expressed any disappointment or anger. The public is getting played

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

@mclindblom.bsky.social did anyone at ST explain why the schedule is slipping another 3 years? Also did they just learn this in the last 2 months? Or was “WS is shovel ready and any questions will delay it further” all theater? www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

seattletimes.com

Light rail arrival in West Seattle delayed again

The original target to open a new Sodo-to-West Seattle line was 2030, but inflation and previously overlooked challenges added time and costs.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

And the Boeing Access Rd connection to Link!

Schematic of Sounder and Link station at Boeing Access Rd

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Posted without a hint of self-awareness or acknowledgment that they spent 12 months gaslighting people.

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Carter Lavin @carterlavin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

South Carolina is now the first state in the nation for the Democratic Primary and this just ran in The State, the newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina. Come out to the rally and lobby day next week in Sac and help get our legislators to undo the cuts! actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...

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Nick @nicksattele.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

To my fellow Seattleites - Ballard Link is alive and well. I can assure you I’ve been a good patient. At my age, doctor’s orders are not just a recommendation. We’ve done every test and multiple studies and trust, I am healthy. As much as this frustrates me, process takes time. - XOXO, BLE

Mitch McConnell dying meme with Dow Constantine and the Ballard Link

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Back in April @transportreform.bsky.social and I forecast 2059. This was a very simple exercise. This is not a 3.5 month exercise. People need to be less credulous of sound transit when they avoid answering questions or dissemble.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Having $18.1B in identified funding ($2.3B per mile) and it not being enough is the issue. Skytrain's Broadway Extension opening in '27 is delivering 6 underground stations over 3.5 miles (3.1 tunneled, .4 elevated) for $~600M per mile (US). www.broadwaysubway.ca

broadwaysubway.ca

Home - Broadway Subway Project

The Broadway Subway Project is a 5.7 km extension of the Millennium Line, from VCC-Clark Station to Broadway and Arbutus. It will provide fast, frequent and convenient SkyTrain service to B.C.’s secon...

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I wrote a piece in May estimating the impacts of these delays on West Seattle, given the faster approval and more generous (20-60% grant coverage) than typical assumptions by Sound Transit, we need updates on how these delays impact ST3 program delivery. www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-sound-...

theurbanist.org

Op-Ed: Sound Transit’s Board is About to Vote on a Fantasy

Given obstacles from the Trump administration, West Seattle Link will not break ground anytime soon. Before any vote overhauling the Sound Transit 3 plan, the board owes the region revised, evidence-b...

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The disconnect between voters and politicians on transit issues is pretty incredible: - Voters usually back funding and expansion, whereas politicians often could not care (particularly in states viewed as hostile to transit, like Texas) - Riders care *much much* more about service than fares.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This report is done by consultants, but it's notable just how heavy the agency's hand was shaping the end result: "The chief criterion established by the MCTA for the Modernization Program is the reduction in travel time for all passengers" (pg V-3) -- s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

s3.documentcloud.org

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Great comparison of traditional operations and the train length needed (450') versus Sepulveda's automated train length (280') SkyTrain's new Mark V are 280' Why in dismissing @skubly.bsky.social and my proposal did Sound Transit reference the oddly short 135' Canada Line versus common lengths?

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

No mention of the construction defects from bad project management that resulted in 3 years of delay Defects discovered in '19 and hid from the board until '22 usa.streetsblog.org/2026/07/15/d... Sound Transit Memo - www.soundtransit.org/sites/defaul...

usa.streetsblog.org

Doing Big Things: How Seattle Put Light Rail On A Floating Bridge — Streetsblog USA

An innovative project and a three-pronged approach got this job done.

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mclindblom.bsky.social @mclindblom.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Crossover tracks are an upgrade that a board of frequent transit riders would have grabbed by the horns at least five years ago.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

shorter and more frequent trains are the future. @skubly.bsky.social and my proposal assumed 90 seconds and would deliver 65% more capacity and able to support any ridership scenario

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Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Incredible: Sound Transit's monthly system expansion status report (out today) now states that the Ballard Link DEIS is not expected until *QUARTER FOUR* of this year. There was a time not that long ago when Sound Transit had hoped to get a record of decision by that time.

Cost: The new target publication date for the
Draft EIS is Q4 2026 (previously Q2 2026).
Based on cost trends, comparative cost
estimates are expected to exceed the financial
plan value. The project team is applying cost
savings opportunities identified through the Cost
Opportunity Workplan and continuing to identify
additional opportunities. Current estimates are
reflected in the Enterprise Initiative scenarios that
the Board is considering.
Schedule: Project is advancing design and
preparing to publish a Draft EIS pending final
FTA guidance regarding executive orders and
legal review. Board action to confirm/modify
Preferred Alternative will follow Draft EIS
publication. Overall project schedule is under
review. A Board update is planned following
publication of the Draft EIS.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Great op-ed by @nondriver.bsky.social "In the context of Sound Transit, this would mean asking why, with the ability to appoint 10 of the 18 board members, the King County Executive wasn’t able to negotiate more for King County access in the recent re-alignment" open.substack.com/pub/ericacba...

open.substack.com

How Do We Get Transit Champions on Transit Boards?

Sound Transit's board is dominated by elected officials who don't use the system they oversee. But it doesn't have to be that way.

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dereksagehorn.bsky.social @dereksagehorn.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

A lot to like in this Transit Abundance Playbook. ifp.org/transit-abun...

ifp.org

The Transit Abundance Playbook | Institute for Progress

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Cutting projects to preserve scope creep is Sound Transit's Achilles heel. Great call out on staying locked in on nice to have tunnels vs. delivering service. Local concern trolling > delivering transit. West Seattle voters, including the monorail, approved elevated transit 5x

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mclindblom.bsky.social @mclindblom.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Ouch! Retired transit service planner Jack Whisner accuses the @sound-transit.bsky.social board of taking a "ridership minimization vote" last month, by planning for years of a West Seattle-Sodo standalone rail spur less convenient than the WS bus services (until/unless Ballard/Sodo is built).

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skubly.bsky.social @skubly.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

My coauthor pulled their name because they couldn't risk losing funding from the project delivery industry. That is politics, but it should also raise big red flags. We need to start saying the quiet part out loud and we should be able to say it without fear www.seattletimes.com/opinion/soun...

seattletimes.com

Sound Transit needs a massive reset. Here's how that could work | Op-Ed

The governor and Legislature should stop treating Sound Transit as a normal agency with a temporary budget problem.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Sound Transit's 2003 FTA audit set up a decade+ of delivery success. California HSR is delivering major works after legislative reforms and creating a Inspector General. Better is possible, @skubly.bsky.social sets out the case for reforms to build the ambitious network approved by voters.

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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 11/06/2026

Including WA's own Rick Larsen, ranking Democrat on the committee, who is signing off on these huge cuts. One of the reasons Sound Transit's decision to scale back ST3 rather than find new financial tools or cost savings measures: makes it harder to get public support to fund it without the feds.

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

But once the never ending process ends... the outcome is often so burdened with compromises it doesn't achieve its original purposes It can't be implemented (starting the process over anew), Or it is implemented at massive cost and delay, Sound Transit's problems reflect all three

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Jerome Alexander Horne @jahorne.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Sound Transit’s $34.5B funding gap and delayed lines are a sobering reminder: the richest nation on earth has a systemic capital project delivery crisis. If we want a sustainable, mobile future, we absolutely must solve our project costs and controls problem. www.king5.com/article/news...

king5.com

'No longer affordable': Sound Transit outlines future of light rail projects

Sound Transit passes funding gap plan, prompting a sweeping overhaul of its ST3 expansion plan and delaying some projects while seeking new revenue sources.

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dereksagehorn.bsky.social @dereksagehorn.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Awful result. This is downstream of making commitments to projects at 0% design in ST3. It doesn’t matter how much construction money or program management you have if you’re making decisions out of sequence.

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The Urbanist @theurbanist.org · 29/05/2026

👀 “I really do think it’s time to start talking about governance. If we’re in this constant cycle of crisis, recovery, crisis, recovery, crisis, recovery, maybe a board full of people who are expert at transit running a transit agency and delivering transit projects would be more attuned.”

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Trevor Reed @transportreform.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

we're getting a 'range' for completing the project likely extending well into the 2060's and this counts as 'saved?'

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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 27/05/2026

Apparently some on the ST board are seeing this article as an attack on rail to West Seattle. I didn't write it, but I see it as fundamentally supportive. I want to build rail to West Seattle. That is going to be made *harder*, not easier, if Somers' anti-ST3 resolution passes tomorrow.

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