Re: “Sea-Tac must modernize to meet the needs of a growing region” (Dec. 31, Opinion):
The enlargement of Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport is warranted, together with acceptable mitigation of impacts to surrounding cities. Elevated airport calls for will proceed sooner or later. Nevertheless, growing terminal and gate capacities are usually not the one methods to handle this difficulty.
Airport capability may also be elevated by lowering short-hop regional air service and changing them with high-speed rail. France is a pacesetter on this method and has eradicated short-haul air service to locations that may be reached inside three hours by high-speed rail.
It’s incumbent on state and regional transportation authorities to take a look at air and rail service in tandem, and never as separate transportation silos.
Subir Mukerjee, Olympia
