LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Sound Transit opened the latest piece of its light rail network on Friday, an 8.5-mile, four-station addition that extends the 1 Line north into Snohomish County and to Lynnwood for the first time. In addition to the Lynnwood City Center station, the new extension includes a station at Mountlake Terrace and two in Shoreline, as well as three new parking structures.
The project began construction in 2019 after being approved by voters in 2008. The $3.1 billion project is the third extension to the Sound Transit light rail network in a year, following an addition in Tacoma last September and the opening of the 2 Line between South Bellevue and Redmond in April [see “Sound Transit launches …,” Trains News Wire, April 28, 2024]. KOMO-TV reports the line is projected to carry about 50,000 riders daily, and will offer a rider from Lynnwood to downtown Seattle in about 28 minutes. Trains will operate at 4- to 6-minute intervals.
“Opening the 1 Line to Lynnwood is a major milestone in the growth of light rail,” Sound Transit Board Chair Dow Constantine said in a statement. “For the first time, the light rail system is joining two counties, bringing voters’ vision for our region’s integrated transit system one step closer to reality.”
The website The Urbanist reports the rail line has spurred nearby growth, with nearly 10,000 new residential units built or in development near the four stations.
Now that the line is open, they can drop their “equity” based fare pricing out of SeaTac.
I took this out of SeaTac to get downtown for a cruise and no one was checking fares and the gates were open. I asked a local why no one is checking fares, they said it was for “equity during covid”. I responded that covid was over and they just shrugged their shoulders.
As I drove up to Vancouver I saw the segments in various states of completion all the way up to Lynnwood at Alderwood Mall.
Additional comment on this route. This light rail line goes through the transit tunnel in downtown Seattle and on to SeaTac Airport. The line also goes past the Airport to the Angle Lake Station at South 200 Street in the City of SeaTac. There is a line currently under construction from Angle Lake to the City of Federal Way at about South 320 street which should be opening up in the next year or two.
Snohomish County is the county north of King County where Seattle is located. The line extension is from Northgate station about 10 miles north of Seattle to Lynwood about 7 miles north of the county line. Shoreline is the City between the Seattle City Limits and the Snohomish County Line. Mountlake Terrace is a city between the King/Snohomish county line and Lynwood. The light rail line mostly follows the I-5 freeway corridor.
This article desperately needs a map. Disappointed no one on “Trains Staff” figured that out:-(
The print edition of Trains Magazine is very good on maps. This web site is more based on breaking news.
I don’t know where this new line is either, Neil, and I don’t know where Snohomish County is. I rode Seattle light rail earlier this year and was greatly impressed. But I wasn’t in Washington State long enough to get the lay of the land for the whole area.
Light rail in Seattle is a raging success. The crowded train I rode out of SeaTac Airport reminded me of MBTA’s D-Riverside branch of the Green Line.
Snohomish County is just North of Seattle. Home to Amtrak Stations in Edmonds, Everett, and Stanwood(first two serve the Empire Builder, all served by Cascades). It’s also home to the massive Boeing plant in Everett. Some kind of alternative to the automobile commute had existed for a long time. First it was the Interurban, then various private bus operators. Metro inherited some, but after a few years those were handed off to Community Transit in Urban Snohomish County outside of Everett.(Everett has its own bus system, both have their pluses and minuses, every few years a merger is proposed). ET as a city system, has adopted electric buses, but CT is going for a mix of Electric and Hydrogen,
While Las Vegas caught the Double Deck bus bug after hosting the APTA Convention where one was displayed before being delivered to Victoria BC, Community Transit borrowed one from Victoria. Worked great on Commuter routes, and although a few have been retired, the rest will be deployed to the new intracounty feeder routes that will replace the commuter routes, They also launched the first Bus Rapid Transit line in Washington, and as a Seattle resident, I say it’s better than Metro’s answer. King County Metro drivers I spoke to agree, especially the bike rack. On SWIFT, they are inside, on KCM’s RapidRide, externally mounted.
Right now two transit authorities North of Snohomish County serve Everett. I have taken Skagit Transit’s 90X from Everett to Mount Vernon (love the challenge). For an agency Skagit Transit’s size and population/taxing base, they do a good job. I would not mind them running a bus to Lynwood, would be ironic.
On the approach to Lynwood City Center Station, LINK passes over a bike trail, Interurban Trail-North, it’s the right of way of the Seattle-Everett Interurban that shut down in 1939, same company also had a Bellingham -Mount Vernon line, and the gap was never plugged by rail.