LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Sound Transit’s next addition to its light rail system — the Lynnwood Link extension of Line 1 — will debut on Aug. 30, the agency announced Thursday.
The 8.5-mile addition into Snohomish County will add four stations to the north of the current endpoint of Line 1 at Seattle’s Northgate station. In announcing the planned opening, Sound Transit noted that, because of the delays in opening the full route between Seattle and Redmond, Wash. — which will include access to a new storage and maintenance facility in Bellevue — it will face equipment limitations when the Lynnwood extension opens and will “be working creatively” to provide as much service as possible.
Plans are to continue to offer trains on approximately 8-minute headways, as Sound Transit explained in this blog post. Part of that plan calls for less frequent off-peak service, as well as running a shorter route late nights. Bus service changes that were planned for Aug. 31 will also be pushed back to Sept. 14 to aid in the transition period for the new light rail service.
“Opening the 1 Line to Lynnwood is a major milestone in the growth of light rail,” King County Executive and Sound Transit Board Chair Dow Constantine said in a press release. “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. Thanks to the collaboration between our region’s transit agencies, we are ready for the start of service, with increased capacity for Link riders and a smooth service transition for other riders.”
The agency also said that, with the start date approaching, the extension will see a significant increase in activity as of April 15, when it begins “pre-revenue service” testing, which includes training for operations and maintenance personnel, as well as continued tests of trainsets, right-of-way, and stations.
While some segments of Sound Transit’s ambitious light rail expansion are well behind schedule, the website The Urbanist notes that the Lynnwood project has seen a relatively minor delay: the agency announced in 2017 that its opening would move from 2023 to 2024.
This is the second addition to the Sound Transit light rail network planned for this year. Service will begin on a portion of the East Link extension on April 27 [see “Sound Transit to launch Bellevue-Redmond light rail …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 16]. The rest of that route, providing the connection to downtown Seattle (and linking the Bellevue maintenance facility to the rest of the system) is expected to open in 2025.
