By: News Team
KOMO-AM 1000
November 20, 2008
On evening drive time Wednesday Nov. 19 and morning drive Thursday Nov. 20, Cascadia Center Director Bruce Agnew was featured in a news segment on a new cost estimate for a proposed 42-mile Eastside commuter rail corridor in metro Puget Sound. Following are transcripts of two different versions of the radio story, and links to MP3 recordings of Agnew's on-air quotes.
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ANNOUNCER: "Planners hope that within five years a rail corridor will link communities on the eastside of Lake Washington. Sound Transit is estimating the cost at $1.2 billion. Bruce Agnew of the Cascadia Center, a local think tank, says that is high, compared tyo similar projects around the country, and he hopes to show policy makers."
BRUCE AGNEW, CASCADIA CENTER: "We are taking delegations of folks around the country to see other corridors, in Texas, and San Diego, and even Portland, where they're doing a corridor much like our corridor." (.wav file of sound bite).
ANNOUNCER: "Planners hope to have the system in place in five years, running from Snohomish to Renton."
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ANNOUNCER: "Voter approval of the Sound Transit measure gave a $50 million boost to the dream of an Eastside rail corridor. But Bruce Agnew of the Cascadia Center, a regional think tank, says that a feasibility study by Sound Transit of the eventual cost of the corridor is too high."
BRUCE AGNEW, CASCADIA CENTER: "Our estimates, based on comparisons with other corridors around the country, would indicate that the costs were somewhere between a third and a half of what they estimate." (.wav file of sound bite).
ANNOUNCER: "Agnew says that his group's estimates are in line with similar projects around the country."
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RELATED: "Feasibility Study's Eastside Rail Dollar Projections Too High," Cascadia Center, Nov. 19, 2008 (see also p. 2 chart - "Interurban Commuter Rail System Comparisons").
"Eastside Passenger Railway Would Cost $1 Billion," Seattle Times, Nov. 20, 2008.
