Light rail's million dollar launch

       Introducing light rail to Seattle could cost $1 million.

     Sound Transit’s “launch” budget for the $2.7 billion, 14-mile system – advertising it, promoting it, providing security and other amenities around this weekend’s startup – is budgeted at $1.1 million, according to figures from Sound Transit.

The final figure could be different, Sound Transit said.

     It’s a lot of money for a historic event. Why that much?

     Ron Klein, Sound Transit’s communications director, said: “If you look at the expenses, the vast majority is to make sure people have a comfortable, safe and enjoyable experience as possible. If tens of thousands show up and we don’t offer the information, guidance, security and amenities we are prepared to provide, what would be the repercussions? In our opinion, unacceptable.”

      The occasion is the startup Saturday morning of the agency’s light rail service between downtown Seattle and Tukwila.  The agency plans to call in essentially all its employees to help handle and assist a crowd that will contain many first-time rail riders and could number in the thousands.

     The agency said it based its estimates of the kickoff cost on dedication-day ceremonial experience at other rail agencies, though at least one managed to conduct a dedication at far less expense.  Another, more recent dedication may have cost close to what Sound Transit has predicted for its own.

      Sound Transit’s biggest budget items were for an event consultant ($195,000), and paid event staff and special security personnel were budgeted ($193,000). Equipment rentals were estimated to cost $145,000.

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      Staff at the consultng firm, The Workshop, “are experts in large crowd management. They handle Folk Life and the Fremont Fair,” Klein said. Rental equipment includes “porta-potties, tents, tables, line stanchions and miscellaneous for 12 different venues and thousands of people.”

     Other big items include additional bus service, including shuttles for returning stranded attendees, budgeted at $133,000. Extra police and crowd control was estimated at $188, 000, permits at $67,250 and promotional tabloid newspaper inserts were figured in at $46,000.

       Sound Transit has prepared for a crowd of up to 100,000, though it’s not clear that many could ride in the number of trains the agency plans to use this weekend. The agency said the number of trains will be re-evaluated once the crowd arrives.

       At least $754,000 was spent on the dedication of a 20-mile light rail line in Arizona in December, including $450,000 that was privately raised to finance the event and $250,000 provided by the Valley Metro transit agency to local cities for security and crowd control.

       Valley Metro spokeswoman Hilary Foose could not say how much the Arizona dedication cost overall, but she said member cities and various stakeholders helped provide additional financing beyond the $754,000. “It was a big day for us,” she said.

     The Salt Lake City-based Utah Transit Authority, by contrast, said it spent about $200,000 on the promotion and dedication of two rail extensions to its Salt Lake City station in April 2008. The event included a series of ceremonies at several stations including the one in Salt Lake City, attended by several hundred people at each point.

      Utah Transit spokesman Gerry Carpenter said the costs included several forms of advertising, equipment rental, transportation expenses, food, music and other related expenses, and the bill was paid completely by the agency, without any contributions by others.

      Klein, asked about the other experiences, said Sound Transit based its estimates on observing the Arizona dedication and on discussions with other rail system operators. “They provided general ideas of expenditures, but we agreed no two systems are alike, so the costs would be different,” he said.

      He said he knew “very little about the Utah system,” but “if Utah provided a level of service similar to Sound Transit and it only cost $200,000, it must be very cheap to live in Salt Lake City, at least compared to Seattle or Phoenix.” He said no one on his staff talked with the Utah agency about its dedication. But the Arizona system was more recent and uses the same type of trains as Sound Transit,  “so we closely followed their processes and procedures” and studied Portland’s system.

     Sound Transit’s police chief, Ron Griffin, said up to 100 police officers, including some of Sound Transit’s own, will provide law-enforcement presence at the event and help provide safety at street-rail intersections. But “if crowds don’t materialize or things slow down, we can send people home early.”

      Klein said the exact cost won’t be known until after the system opens this weekend. The total estmate now is $1,113,934 but he said outlays by event sponsors could reduce Sound Transit’s cost by $183,600 and bring the total to under $1 million.

        He said the Sound Transit light rail opening is an event worth commemorating and doing well.

      “We don’t have name entertainment, food, fireworks or parties –  just an opportunity to be one of the first to ride Link light rail,” he said. “It is a 14-mile segment with 12 unique venues (at stations). It costs that much to make sure the event is successful and people have a positive experience.”