This may someday be remembered as the week that the train left the station. Sound Transit's board on Thursday decided that rail should be extended from Seattle across Lake Washington to Bellevue and Redmond.
The vote comes after the cities of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Issaquah decided to support rail over bus rapid-transit, monorail or other modes. It's the first time that the pluses of eventually knitting together the Seattle area together with transit won.
The decision to go with a permanent transit system is huge because the city is likely to grow around the stations -- just look at Vancouver and Portland as examples. It could eventually lead to more affordable housing and a better sense of community, this editorial notes.
Of course it could be remembered as yet another false start in the region's sad transport history. Building the lines depends on voters okaying a tax increase in fall 2007 and withstanding years of potential lawsuits and the politics of delay. Already some people claim their neighborhoods would be ruined by a train line. Remember that the current downtown-to-SeaTac line, which is supposed to open in 2009, was approved by voters in 1996.
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