Deputy Mayor Kevin Wallace apologized to his Bellevue constituents Nov. 24, for what he called an unwillingness by the city council to stand up to Sound Transit and “protect the city” from light rail impacts.

The council reacted last week to an update by Sound Transit on operating times for a rail yard that’s likely to be constructed in the Bel-Red corridor of Bellevue, and were particularly concerned about how noise impacts from East Link light rail service will be mitigated.

Light rail service won’t start up in Bellevue until 2023, but the added train cars will need to be located somewhere on the Eastside. The Sound Transit Board tapped the former Burlington-Northern Santa Fe site as the preferred option for an operations and maintenance satellite facility in July. The city and Sound Transit continue to discuss ways to mitigate the impact a 20-acre rail yard may have on transit-oriented development near the future Spring District and 120th Avenue Northeast station.

Paul Denison, Sound Transit’s director of light rail operations and maintenance, told the council last week light rail service will begin around 5 a.m., requiring some trains to leave the rail yard around 4 a.m. to meet that schedule. Service ends at 1 a.m., at which point trains would begin returning to the rail yard.

“I know that’s on everybody’s radar,” Denison said, “what time are these trains going to start going through people’s neighborhoods.”

Mayor Claudia Balducci told Denison the council needs to understand how the number of trains — operating at various points during service — used at the rail yard will impact the city and the cost of reducing impacts like noise, which she said the city would use during continued mitigation talks with Sound Transit. Those costs should be compared to former options for a rail yard, she said, such as a Lynwood site deemed not feasible by Sound Transit because of its planned use by the school district there.

Wallace said last week he was considering “throwing in the towel,” as light rail trains are planned to run through Bellevue at all hours of the night, but the transit agency still has not explained how it will reduce the noise heard in surrounding neighborhoods.

Since the transit board chose the BNSF site as a preferred option in July, the deputy mayor has maintained a new memorandum of understanding between the city and Sound Transit must be reached in order to move forward with East Link and revise Bellevue’s share of the cost to make light rail happen. Those discussions are also now underway.

“I’m a fighter, and I take on projects and I intend to win,” he said, adding he’s just not sure the rest of the council is as determined to stand up to the transit agency.