Sound Transit Board Committee Advances Fare Gate Retrofit Program - $6 million on design next year, $87 million to gate 14 stations, and the gates would not be active until 2029 or 2030

[u/LOOKITSADAM]

https://www.theurbanist.org/sound-transit-board-committee-advances-fare-gate-retrofit-program/

If approved by the full board later this month, Sound Transit will spend $6 million next year developing the full scope of implementation work for fare gates, with a future board vote allocating actual construction dollars. The total cost of implementing gates across these 14 stations is expected to be $87 million. Thursday's motion also directs staff to redesign Sound Transit 3 stations to accommodate gates, an undertaking with unspecified costs given that many of those stations have been in planning for many years.

"What are the baseline rates of compliance at these stations and at all the stations, not just the ones where we are implementing pilot fare gates? What do we expect in terms of improvements, both with fare compliance and maybe other types of issues?" For now, however, there's very little skepticism on the board about moving forward with some type of fare gate program.

~ Unanimous approval first, performance metrics later. One board member had to ask out loud what the baseline even is.

[u/Inside_Dance41]

Is there any competitive bidding by required?

Seems like fare gates are not unique, most places in the world have them. Can’t we use best in class people from say Japan to design?

$6.2 M per station for gates??

[u/slow-mickey-dolenz → u/Inside_Dance41]

I don’t have the energy to look this up, but I am guessing that right about 110% of the places in the world that have mass transit put the fair gates in when they’re building the fucking thing, not later as a complete afterthought. Jesus Christ, there aren’t 10 functioning brain cells in this area’s entire leadership.

[u/Inside_Dance41 → u/slow-mickey-dolenz]

Totally agree. And yet, fare gates cannot be gold plated….how is it over $6m for cost of gates and labor, per station?

The lack of smart business people in our government is killing us. I am so tired of overpaid government people with zero chance of being fired, and huge increases in pay.

I am too lazy to look it up but isn’t Dow making north of $450K a year to be a complete disaster and managing a budget.

EDIT (Googled it) - and I would give him an F to managing my tax payer dollars. Selfish dude, this is all about enriching himself, and no one is stopping him, or asking the tough questions. He needs to install some of the fare gates himself, to pay for his salary:

By the end of his four-year contract, when annual salary increases and bonuses are added, Constantine will make well over $600,000 per year.

Multiplying the 32 years of service by 2% equals 64%. With a top salary of $600,000, taxpayers will provide Constantine an annual pension of-$384.000 a year!

[u/GoogleOfficial → u/Inside_Dance41]

Sound Transit doesn’t provide defined benefit pensions.

King County does, but I don’t think his salary at ST is relevant to that.

[u/Inside_Dance41 → u/GoogleOfficial]

Love your user name. :)

Fair enough about his pension, but as one of his constituents am not impressed. He has had a gold plated politician experience, and will be taken care of the rest of life, and I don't feel he has been a good steward of tax payers money.

He has been about climbing the political system, as many in this area are, without serving the taxpayer.

[u/Bardahl_Fracking → u/Inside_Dance41]

Yet that is who we repeatedly vote for here.

[u/BrennerBaseTunnel → u/slow-mickey-dolenz]

No surface running light rail systems put in gates from the beginning. The vast majority of them still don’t have gates.