Sound Transit’s funding for transit construction and operations comes from a combination of local taxes, federal grants and loans, borrowing through the issuance of bonds, interest earnings, fare income, and other miscellaneous revenues.
Funding sources and uses: 2017-2052
Why does Sound Transit calculate its revenues and expenditures from 2017-2052? That’s the program life of the voter-approved ST3 regional system expansion plan.
Sound Transit has one of the highest bond ratings of any transit agency in the country. That helps us get lower loan interest rates and stretch taxpayer dollars further.
Funding source | YOE$ in billions |
|---|---|
| Local taxes | $123.0 |
| Debt | $34.4 |
| Grants | $27.8 |
| Fares and other | $7.8 |
| Interest earnings | $2.3 |
| Total | $195.4 |
Funding uses | YOE$ in billions |
|---|---|
| Link light rail | $73.7 |
| Operations and maintenance | $52.6 |
| Debt Service | $33.6 |
| State of good repair | $25.5 |
| Sounder rail | $3.3 |
| Stride BRT | $2.6 |
| Systemwide | $0.8 |
| Tacoma Link | $1.9 |
| Reserves and other | $1.6 |
| ST Express Bus | $0.6 |
| Total | $195.4 |