USA: A ribbon cutting, food trucks, face painting, live music and prizes for people who visited all four new stations were among the celebrations marking the opening on August 30 of a 13·7 km extension of Seattle’s light rail 1 Line north from Northgate to Lynnwood City Center in Snohomish County.
There are intermediate stations at Shoreline South/148th, Shoreline North/185th serving a stadium and conference centre, and at Mountlake Terrace. An infill station at NE 130th was deferred and is now expected to open in 2026.
‘The opening of Lynnwood Link is the biggest thing to happen in Snohomish County since the first 747 rolled out of the Boeing plant in 1967’, said Washington State Senator Marko Liias. ‘Light rail will enhance mobility, reduce congestion on critical corridors, and empower all of us to make new and different transportation choices.’
Voters approved the extension in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure. The $74m final design contract was awarded to the HNTB Jacobs Trusted Design Partners joint venture in 2016, and construction began on September 3 2019.
The Stacy & Witbeck/Kiewit/Hoffman L200 joint venture and Skanska Constructors L300 JV undertook the civil works. Mass Electric installed the electrification, signalling and communications.
The $3·1bn budget included $1·17bn from a Federal Transit Administration Full Funding Grant Agreement. The US Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau provided a $658m low-interest loan to support the project, including new light rail vehicles and support facilities.
Services between Lynnwood City Center and the southern terminus at Angle Lake run every 8 min during the peaks and every 10 min during the day and at weekends. Late night and early morning services are every 12 to 15 min. The journey time from Lynnwood City Center to central Seattle is 28 min.
‘The arrival of light rail marks the start of a transformative regional transit system that will change how we get around and that will provide widespread opportunities for our residents’, said Sound Transit Board Vice-Chair and Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers . ‘It’s not just that we can get off of I-5, get out of our cars and enjoy a fast and reliable trip to our destination. Light rail is also helping our environment and ensuring that our economy remains strong for generations to come.’
Other upcoming milestones for the Sound Transit network include completion of the 2 Line route to central Redmond early next year, followed by the opening of the rest of the 2 Line later in 2025 and the start of service to Federal Way in 2026.
