Presently, the Seattle regional transit agency operates a 22-mile north-south line from the University of Washington through downtown to Angle Lake, south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It also operates a 1.6-mile light-rail line in Tacoma, from Freighthouse Square to downtown.
But Sound Transit is expanding in multiple directions, extending the north-south line and building a new line to communities on the east side of Lake Washington. That line is to open in 2023.
The Tacoma line is getting an extension too, with a 2.4-mile segment from downtown to the Stadium and Hilltop districts.
To avoid confusion over what trains are going where, Sound Transit is shifting to color designations for its lines.
The Angle Lake-University of Washington route is now known as the Red Line, and the Tacoma segment is the Orange Line.
Those will be joined in 2023 by the East Link Blue Line, running to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond. Blue Line trains will originate and terminate at Northgate, meaning that route will overlap with the Red Line for the portion from north of the city to downtown.
Although it has already begun using the new designations in press releases, Sound Transit said it will phase in name changes at stations slowly, with new signs on the Red Line in 2021 when three additional stations open. Orange Line signs will change in 2022 when six new stops open with the line extension.
Sound Transit’s long-range planning maps show a Green Line running from the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard to the Tacoma Dome, a Yellow Line circling Lake Washington to the east from Burien and Renton in the south to Lynnwood in the north, and a Purple Line from Bellevue to Issaquah.
Those aren’t the only name changes Sound Transit is contemplating. It’s also looking for a new name for its University Station in downtown Seattle, because of potential confusion with the University of Washington station and a planned U-District station. Candidates for a new name include Seneca Street, Midtown, Downtown Arts District, Arts District, Symphony and Benaroya Hall, the latter two referring to the performance hall for the Seattle Symphony that sits above the station.
A new name is expected to be unveiled in January.
The station (in the downtown transit tunnel) whose name will change is currently University Street Station, not University Station. A bit of history–the original site of the University of Washington (a single building) was located in downtown Seattle on what became known as University Street. The current sprawling campus, a few miles to the northeast across the Ship Canal, opened in 1895. The name University Street remains in downtown Seattle. The UW still owns large tracts of land in downtown Seattle and collects rent on buildings in the tract to this day.
The Yellow line is BRT, not rail.