Enough to Make You Buy Vista?

A just published article by the Seattle Times, Bellevue eyes Sound Transit train tunnel; Microsoft wants surface route, Jim Stanton, Microsoft senior community-affairs director goes on record explaining why "the company" wants Sound Transit to spend the money on extending Link Light Rail to Redmond instead of burying it in Bellevue.

Transit staffers say tunneling through downtown would take a year longer than a surface route — if a financial plan can be patched together by 2010.

Microsoft believes the goal must be "getting the line built as quickly as possible," Jim Stanton, senior community-affairs director, told the transit governing board. "The success of East Link is directly tied to our ability to deliver regional mobility in a coordinated and cost-effective way."

Among other motivations, the company doesn't want the line to end in Overlake, drawing park-and-ride traffic toward its campus there. If tracks go farther to Redmond, employees from Sammamish, east Redmond and Woodinville can step aboard there, he said.

OK, maybe I'm not ready to ditch Linux quit yet but perhaps I'd consider an XBox Sounders jersey :-)