New light rail map shows transit Seattle only dreams of

Seattle has a history of running out of gas when it comes to building out a truly robust public transit system.

The Forward Thrust effort to get light rail in the late 1960s and early 1970s ran off the rails when voters twice said no to a transit system that would have been heavily subsidized by the federal government.

Earlier than that, in the early days of the 20th century, a man named Virgil Bogue offered an expansive plan for Seattle that would have created an extensive network of subways around the region, along with various other efforts all aimed to meet growth projected to surpass 1 million people.

RELATED: What would Seattle be like if the Bogue plan passed in 1912?

Seattle voters also pumped the brakes on that plan, deeming it far too expensive for a city then only cresting 237,000 people.

But today, just as outreach gets underway for Sound Transit 3 plans to expand light rail north, east and west around Seattle, the transit group Seattle Subway has offered up a map of what might be.

With extensions and whole new lines proposed around the city, the map is the group's effort at guiding development with the future in mind, said Keith Kyle, executive director for Seattle Subway.

"The purpose of our vision map is to get people in touch with what the system could be," Kyle said.

And he acknowledged the various failures to build out a big transit plan in Seattle's past.

"The best time to build this thing is 20 or 30 years ago, and the second best time is now," he said.

With Sound Transit's already planned expansions outlined in full colors, the map details possible extensions in partly transparent lines all around the city. The line to Ballard would extend north and then east all the way to Woodinville, for example.

The West Seattle line, currently set to terminate at Alaska Junction, would head farther south to White Center and then east to Tukwila International Boulevard, where it riders could connect to the existing Link light rail line.

From that station, another line, lined in pale brown, would head east and then north all the way to Kirkland. The East Link, currently set to end in Redmond, would extend north to Woodinville as well, under the map's proposed buildout.

But the biggest piece of the map's vision right now is the pink line, an extension that would head north from the new downtown Seattle transit tunnel up the Aurora Avenue corridor. That portion of the line alone would be hugely popular, Kyle said. But the line would also head northeast from downtown to serve First Hill and then head out to Madison Park before heading east across the state Route 520 bridge.

The bridge is, after all, already designed to take a light rail line.

From there, the pink line would connect with the already planned line at South Kirkland, giving riders the chance to have a one-seat ride from Issaquah to downtown Seattle.

First Hill's density make it a logical stop for light rail, and a line that could go that far without a connection would meet the high-value goal for whatever runs across the 520 bridge, Kyle said.

But the focus for his group now is the downtown tunnel.

"The biggest thing we want to influence in the short-term has to do with the downtown Seattle tunnel and making sure it's possible to expand that in the future," Kyle said.

The downtown tunnel is planned as part of the Ballard and West Seattle expansions already, and making sure the system can expand easily should be foremost in the planning, he added.

Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, city hall, and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.