U.S District Court rules in favor of Sound Transit, FTA

The lawsuit brought against Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) by the citizen group Friends of the Monorail was dismissed on Monday.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington, alleged that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Sound Transit's Central Link light rail project failed to sufficiently consider the use of monorail technology.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled that the EIS was correctly done. In his ruling, Zilly noted that the current light rail project came out of an extensive planning effort, including a 1993 EIS transportation study, analysis by an independent expert review panel appointed by the Governor, a Major Investment Study conducted by the FTA, and the joint Sound Transit and FTA EIS in 1999.

The judge also ruled that the Friends of the Monorail's challenge should have come earlier during the state environmental process when the decision to proceed with light rail technology was made.
Voter-approved in 1996, Sound Transit is implementing a three-county regional transit system plan known as Sound Move. Sound Move is an integrated regional transportation system that includes Sounder commuter rail, Link light rail, ST Express buses and improvements to transit centers, park-and-ride lots and HOV access. More information on Sound Move is available on the Sound Transit web site at www.soundtransit.or or by phone at (800) 201-4900.
 

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Sound Transit plans, builds and operates regional transit systems and services to improve mobility for Central Puget Sound.