New option expands light-rail possibilities

Members of a committee studying light-rail possibilities in the region learned Wednesday about a new option to run rapid transit between downtown Spokane and Liberty Lake.

It would expand an alternative already under consideration – a bare-bones line from downtown to University City – to cover the additional miles to Liberty Lake.

It’s estimated the new option would cost about $227 million to build in 2008 – $70 million more than running light rail between downtown and U-City and then bus rapid transit from U-City to Liberty Lake.

That’s compared to an estimated $658 million cost for a dual-track system with all the bells and whistles between Spokane and Liberty Lake. The cheapest option, bus rapid transit along existing streets, would cost about $65 million to implement.

The basic system would include just a single rail line, with passing lanes at stations for trains traveling in different directions.

There would be 13 stations and it would take trains about 37 minutes to travel the 15.6 miles between downtown Spokane and Liberty Lake. Assuming daily operation between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. with 15-minute frequency during the day and 30-minute frequency in the early morning, at night and on Sundays, the single track option to Liberty Lake would cost about $5.6 million annually to operate.

At a $12.4 million per mile cost to build in 2004 dollars, this new option is one of the least expensive light rail proposals in the country right now. By comparison, other projects’ capital costs range from $23.1 million to $213.4 million per mile.

“We’re very much at the lower end of costs per mile across the country,” said Light Rail Project Manager K.C. Traver.

The Spokane proposals are less costly because most of the right of way won’t have to be purchased.

But light rail efforts here are somewhat stalled right now. The traffic and ridership models needed to complete an environmental impact statement on the different light rail alternatives are flawed, and so far efforts to fix them have failed.

But Traver said he’s confident those models will be operable soon.

Once the models are complete, the draft environmental impact statement can also be finished. But it won’t be until next fall at the soonest that all of the information will be available to make a local decision on whether to build a rapid transit system, and if so, which system.

Spokane should make a decision soon, said Light Rail Steering Committee member and Liberty Lake City Councilman Brian Sayrs.

“Inflation is currently our No. 3 cost,” Sayrs said, adding that delaying building the new option until 2009 would add another $9 million to its cost.