In today's blog post, Mayor Mike McGinn challenged the Seattle City Council to "be bold" and finance rail projects.

Looking at Portland's rail systems as an example, McGinn calls on the Seattle City Council to acknowledge rail opportunities in Seattle as the Council deliberates on a new transportation measure.

SDOT released the Transit Master Plan last month, recognizing that connecting neighborhoods to each other is Seattle's greatest weakness.

The plan called for two new rail or rapid streetcar lines that would connect Ballard, Fremont, the University District, Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and Eastlake to downtown by 2030.

"To some degree, we’ve all known this, but the rigorous approach of the Transit Master Plan clearly identifies the best corridors, and points to the better ways to serve each corridor," McGinn states in his blog post.

McGinn states that the rapid streetcar is the best choice. The rapid street car, unlike Sound Transit’s Link light rail, has high priority in the right of the way and is cheaper and quicker to build.

"For the distances served — neighborhood to neighborhood — it looks like the right choice for a number of corridors in Seattle. That includes Ballard to downtown via Fremont, the University District to downtown via Eastlake, and linking those to Seattle’s two initial streetcar lines to South Lake Union, the International District/Chinatown and Capitol Hill," according to McGinn.

To fund such a project, the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee suggested that the city could use its local taxing authority to create a dedicated transit.

The mayor support the committee's recommendation of an $80 vehicle licensing fee (VLF), of which 49 percent goes to implement the Transit Master Plan and the rest to catch up on our deferred transit needs.

McGinn believes this could fund the planning and alternatives analysis for all five high capacity corridors in the Transit Master Plan, planning and construction for connecting the two streetcar lines through downtown, speed and reliability improvements on half of all non-high capacity transit corridors, and substantial upgrades to our electric trolley bus infrastructure, all over the next decade.

Currently, the City Council is only considering a VLF for a limited amount of time, after which it expires.

"For this amount of money, all you can do is study a single corridor. You cannot finance long term infrastructure with a short term financing plan. You cannot get in the queue for federal, regional, or state funds because there will be no source of funds for us to put up our local match," according to McGinn.

McGinn calls for "boldness" from the City Council to make the VLF an ongoing, steady source of revenue.

McGinn says the funding source is there and the Council needs to be bold and "commit to a long term funding source that will begin building the rail system Seattle needs and wants".

Mayor McGinn's blog can be found at http://mayormcginn.seattle.gov/.