In the next five years, Link will add 22 stations and expand to more than 50 miles of rail service.
Sound Transit
2 min to read
In the next five years, Link will add 22 stations and expand to more than 50 miles of rail service.
Sound Transit
Sound Transit marked the 10th anniversary of the start of its Link light rail service. Over that time, Link has had more than 134 million total boardings and has seen ridership grow from an average of just over 15,000 weekday boardings to about 77,000 today.
On its opening day in 2009, Link covered 14 miles of service between the Westlake and Tukwila International Boulevard Stations. Since then, Link has grown to 22 miles. Service to Sea-Tac International Airport was added in December 2009, to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington in March 2016 and to Angle Lake in September 2016.
“Because of Link, riders have been spared countless hours sitting in ever-worsening traffic,” said Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff. “Link’s tenth anniversary comes at a time when we are expanding the network to the North, South and East. By the time Link’s fifteenth anniversary comes around, we expect that more than twice as many riders as we have today will have discovered the advantages of fast, effective light rail.”
In the next five years, Link will add 22 stations and expand to more than 50 miles of rail service. In 2021, Sound Transit will begin light rail service to the U District, Roosevelt, and Northgate. In 2023 trains will reach Mercer Island, Bellevue and Overlake. Next up will be the extension of light rail to Lynnwood, Federal Way and downtown Redmond in 2024. By 2026, daily weekday boardings are projected to be between 257,000 and 303,000.
Future Link extensions approved by voters in 2016 as part of ST3 are planned for West Seattle (2030), Tacoma Dome (2030), Ballard (2035), Everett (2036), South Kirkland (2041), and Issaquah (2041). With these additions, the system will grow to 116 miles and is projected to serve about 600,000 riders every day.
Amtrak will open grant applications March 23 for community projects near the Frederick Douglass Tunnel alignment in Baltimore as part of a $50 million investment tied to the B&P Tunnel Replacement Program.
The Denmark Station $2.3 million construction investment project includes a new 280-foot concrete boarding platform, built eight inches above the top of rail, for improved accessibility for passengers with disabilities and families with small children and much more.
Caltrain and its partners have implemented safety improvements at specific locations in response to known risk conditions, operational needs, and available funding since the agency’s founding.
On a recent episode of METROspectives, METRO Magazine’s Executive Editor Alex Roman sat down with Ana-Maria Tomlinson, Director of Strategic & Cross-Sector Programs at the CSA Group, to explore a bold initiative aimed at addressing those challenges: the development of a National Code for Transit and Passenger Rail Systems in Canada.
Competitive FTA grants will support accessibility upgrades, family-friendly improvements, and cost-efficient capital projects at some of the nation’s oldest and busiest transit hubs.
The 3.92-mile addition will soon take riders west beyond its current Wilshire and Western station in Koreatown, continuing under Wilshire Boulevard through neighborhoods and communities including Hancock Park, Windsor Square, the Fairfax District, and Carthay Circle into Beverly Hills.
Under the plan, all long-distance routes will transition to a universal single-level fleet, replacing today’s mix of bi-level and single-level equipment.
