By Tom Nelson, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

I just returned from a few days in the Seattle area; always, if you like cities, pleasant, instructional and impressive. Seattle, this year, opened a light rail transit line and became, by my count, the twenty-second city in the US to have such a system, most of them built in the last three decades.

And that does not count the big cities with heavy rail systems and the numerous cities with modern or heritage trolley lines. (Seattle also, this year, opened a modern trolley line! – from Downtown to Lake Union.) And the pattern with these twenty-two projects around the country is consistent: a starter line gets built, ridership almost always exceeds predictions; the public clamors for extensions; the extensions get built.

I think that pattern describes success.

Seattle has always been a great transit town. They have always understood the essential link between strong public transit and a great dynamic city. So the move to light rail and a modern trolley was not a huge leap, even though Seattle’s system, mainly due to topography, is the most expensive per mile in the US.

Isn’t there something to be learned from these twenty-two success stories? Hasn’t the risk been reduced by their experiences? Aren’t we a little bit envious? Yes, this may be about “me-tooism”, but is it completely stupid to take an objective look at something that has worked over and over and emulate it?

Kansas City surely holds the world record in the number of times we have turned down fixed rail transit. So you may think it is finally dead in KC. But for twenty-two reasons – with more to come – it’s not going away.

Click here to go to the Seattle transit website.