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One of five shared Renton bus stops used by Sound Transit busses
I’m going to begin a series of blog entries covering an important topic for Renton transit riders and taxpayers. Renton taxpayers have so far given Sound Transit over a BILLION dollars toward the Sound Transit System, a lot of money from a city that has had a population between 60,000 and 100,000 during Sound Transit’s life. To date the only Sound Transit infrastructure you can find in Renton is five shared bus stops. Even worse, Metro transit (a different agency we also fund) paid for the bus shelters; Sound Transit just put up the shared signage. The 560 and 566 ST bus lines go through our city and stop five places in downtown Renton on their trips between Bellevue and Seatac (560), and Auburn (566).
Renton taxpayers are currently being taxed over $50 Million a year for this bus service.
Five bus stops in Renton are shared by Metro Buses (listed on the left) and Sound Transit Buses (listed on the right). No other Sound Transit branded infrastructure appears in Renton.
In the mid 2000’s Sound Transit did give Renton about $19 million toward widening Rainier Avenue, but it was only about 20% of the money promised to Renton under ST 1, and it only happened because former Renton Mayor Jesse Tanner sued to get the money.
Many of Renton’s leaders, me included, have toiled to get Renton a more fair share of Sound Transit service, and have struggled against organizational obstacles that favored certain cities above others for light rail service and capital improvements. Sound Transit is its own agency, chartered by the legislature, and is not subordinate to every city leader. As Seattle is looking at adding more Light Rail Stations, and Bellevue is adding several of their own, Cities as far flung as Everett, Redmond, Issaquah, Federal Way and Tacoma are all designing their light rail stations. Renton taxpayers will be subsidizing these stations.
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