Transit Coalition Charges Fimia Tunnel Report 'Deeply Flawed' People for Modern Transit says taxpayer money wasted by Transportation Committee

SEATTLE - People for Modern Transit (PMT), an organization of transportation professionals and advocates blasted the Chair of the King County Council's Transportation Committee, Maggi Fimia, for authorizing a deeply flawed report at taxpayer expense. PMT released an analysis of the report that was authored by DMJM+Harris, a New York-headquartered engineering firm. Entire report is available at the bottom of this page.

Fimia authorized the contract for one dollar below the $25,000 threshold that would have required full Council approval. The report ignored safety considerations, failed to analyze accident scenarios and completely ignored requirements for loading passengers with disabilities. Handicapped passengers are required to be accommodated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In addition, over a dozen errors in calculations were discovered in the report.

"Our analysis shows that the report is deeply flawed in many ways," said Richard Borkowski, President of the group. "Fimia has been a long-time opponent of light rail and this report reflects those biases. The DMJM+Harris report is filled with errors that lead to the conclusion that the transit tunnel can carry more people with buses. This result was quickly embraced by Rob McKenna and Fimia in another attempt to kill the light rail project."

Councilmembers Fimia and McKenna began criticizing Sound Transit's report on joint operations of buses and light rail trains in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel when it was released in July. McKenna, also a long-time light rail critic, is on the Council Transportation Committee as well as a member of Sound Transit's Finance Committee. McKenna is quoted in a press release issued on July 26th as stating that the tunnel capacity when running only buses would be 18,500 passengers per hour. However, the engineering report issued by DMJM+Harris calculated the capacity at 15,000 passengers/hour. The DMJM+Harris tunnel report was released in October and it generated a reaction by engineers and transit planners nationwide because of the errors and unrealistic assumptions. The purpose of the report was to calculate maximum bus tunnel capacity while ignoring real-world operating requirements or investments required for new buses and busways.

"The report manipulates numbers in an attempt to prove that individual buses could carry as many passengers through the tunnel as four-car light rail trains. This is a fantasy that could not be achieved under real conditions. Even if it could be achieved, potential passengers would not tolerate the serious overcrowding that the bus service would involve," said Charles Lietwiler, a Maryland-based transportation planner.

Some of the findings by PMT include:

1. Dwell time at stations (time required to load and unload passengers) for rail was inflated by doubling the passenger exit time over the exit time for buses.
2. Capacity calculations violated Metro's operational standards by having standing passengers on express buses. 3. Potential collisions, accidents and breakdowns of buses were ignored
4. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) boarding considerations were ignored

"It's an outrage that the taxpayers should pay for Fimia's personal crusade against light rail," said an angry PMT member. "I pay plenty of taxes and I have no interest in paying for McKenna's and Fimia's personal campaign against light rail," says William Bloxom, another PMT member. "These people are on the Transportation Committee, yet they're tapping the county treasury for their own personal causes and it needs to stop."