Imagine my surprise reading The Wall Street Journal editorial on Dec. 22 entitled "You Can't Hear Those Rails A- Humming," written by Ted Van Dyk, a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial page columnist.

Mr. Van Dyk let the Genie out of the Bottle by stating the obvious to many of us, that Washington and specifically Seattle are guilty of the "misallocation of public money and obsessed with building a cost-ineffective light-rail system" ($3,400 per inch), and now the shut down cost for the brief fetish with a Monorail ($1 million per week).

He further names the culprits in this Rail Madness fiasco as being Messrs. Sims, Nickels, Sen. Murray and Rep. Norm Dicks (funny, he left out Gary Locke), who with their strong allegiance to local law firms, unions, financial institutions, consultants and builders, seemingly believe the hype as generated by Sound Transit at taxpayers’ expense.

Mr. Van Dyk also attacks the technical practicality by contrasting Sound Transit’s Phase Two proposal for the five-mile twin tunnels northward and the corresponding 121,000-167,000 dump-truck loads of dirt with Boston's Big Dig learned experience that tunnels through water crossings and unstable soil conditions are not the best option.

What is that old adage? Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it. Mr. Van Dyk even dares to suggest that there are two other higher priority transportation infrastructure projects involving public safety -- the Alaska Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Point Bridge that would be a more appropriate utilization of our transportation funds.

Bravo and plaudits to Mr. Van Dyk for his bravery and due diligence in writing this piece (I hope his resume is up to date.) which, of course, would never see the light of day in the Post-Intelligence or The Seattle Times.

This factor of transportation priorities is missing from Julia Patterson's opinion as stated in the Times/News (12/28/2005), "Tukwila light rail a gift to Highline residents." First of all I do not believe that Tukwila wants to take any responsibility for this "gift" but if they do, the Highline residents should politely refuse this "gift" as being too expensive and wasteful.

Messrs. Sims and Nickels, also members of the Sound Transit Board like Ms. Patterson, have given up trying to justify light rail as a transportation system that would provide any relief to the congestion and view it strictly as a "jobs program."

As for the statistics of a daily ridership of 45,000, perhaps Ms. Patterson should review the ridership on the wildly acclaimed success of the Commuter Rail from Everett to Seattle that is now up to 70 riders per day after a year in operation. She might discover just how perverted this statistical hope for ridership really is!

She says this Sound Transit project is under budget by $2 million but she should review the original statement of work as she will find that stations and other functionality have been removed from the project.

Also, she should be aware cost containment was "claimed" with the construction of the Big Dig in Boston that ultimately ended up in an overrun to costs and schedules in the original estimate by an unbelievable order of magnitude. By the way, the Big Dig is still not finished as they still repairing water leaks in the tunnel.

She says we should be enjoy seeing the progress rise right before our eyes. Well, I've got news for you, Ms. Patterson, I would much rather see the pillars at the south end of the airport and the associated $2.4 BILLION being spent in support light rail Phase I project be used to repair or replace the unsafe Alaska Way Viaduct.

That is a worthwhile and needed project that is used by Highline residents, and would also provide jobs for our citizens.

This light rail project and the commuter rail will do absolutely nothing to relieve traffic congestion except feed the Rail Madness that has infected our politicians. The Seattle to Everett Commuter Rail is creating deficits in the operation budget daily and will have to be subsided in perpetuity much like Amtrak. So much for gifts! Thanks but No Thanks!

Gary L Kennedy

Des Moines