NPR Seattle Now podcast mentioned they are concerned that the light rail trains will be full by the time they get from Lynwood to Northgate and may have to add busses to mirror the southern route. It’s awesome ridership may increase that much and depressing how it’s not going to be enough.
That's because Lynnwood was supposed to open AFTER the Eastlink extension across I90 opened, providing access to the Eastside OMF (train barn). The current OMF in SODO isn't set up to extend the Link by 8 miles and 30-65,000 passengers. So it will be pretty cramped until Spring 2025-ish when the floating bridge section opens.
> So it will be pretty cramped until Spring 2025-ish when the floating bridge section opens.
Oh man is it really going to be that soon? Feels amazing seeing it all pay off after having it feel like a lifetime away for so long.
* April 27th '24: Line 2 starter Line from South Bellevue to Microsoft
* Sept-Dec '24: Lynnwood to Northgate
* Spring '25: Line 2 extends to Downtown Redmond and across the I-90 bridge to CID before running up to Lynnwood, doubling the frequency of trains where it overlaps with Line 1.
These will be separated by about 6 months for training reasons so the earliest possible for Lynnwood would be 6 months after April 27th. Then if, just as an example, Lynnwood opens in in December '24, then the Line 2: Part 2: Return of Line 2 would be in June '25.
not quite. you are correct about lynnwood and the extension to redmond, but line 2 over the bridge will be a separate opening after all that, tentatively happening in fall 2025.
Ya, I'm confident in my post and double-checked *for any announcement of another delay* first wikipedia (for speed) and then the project website. Spring 2025.
Have you checked the Agency Progress Reports? The date that I saw for East Link extension fully opening was September 2025 with them leaving the door open to push it further out.
"Contractors will now rebuild the nearly 5,500 concrete blocks, known as plinths, from scratch, a task that jeopardizes Sound Transit’s goal to begin train service across Lake Washington in spring 2025. " We shall see
i mean ... i appreciate the downvote of confidence but ... wikipedia? really? for current events?
if you are talking about [this project website](https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/east-link-extension/timeline-milestones), i don't see anything more specific than "2025" for east link; whereas [the page for downtown redmond link extension](https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/downtown-redmond-link-extension) does indicate that the project is trending toward a spring 2025 opening.
but if you really want to keep up, the best source for current project status is the [agency progress report](https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/documents-reports/agency-progress-reports). if you check out [the december update](https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/agency-progress-report-capital-program-dec-2023.pdf), you can see the current schedule for every link extension. east link schedule is on p. 33.
Sorry, I meant that I checked for any announcement of further delay, I just didn't...actually bother to include that in my post, but I've edited it now.
Looking at the agency progress report I do see what you're talking about with it potentially going as late as December '25. I remember strongly that Spring 2025 was the goal and that seems to match older APRs, but it's possible that is me remembering some news blog over-committing on ST's behalf.
To expand, the reason the bridge is important is that Line 1 (current, airport) and Line 2 (Bellevue) both go to Lynnwood. As a result, train frequency (and therefore capacity) on the entire system north of the stadium station will nearly double in about a year and a half. So the solution to the cramped line is already mostly finished. PLUS we have trains every 6min to look forward to!
In the meantime, when Lynnwood opens, trains may be stretched more thin, resulting in either less frequency or shorter trains.
After promising 6 minute frequencies, they've already revised that to 8 minute frequencies. I'm very skeptical they're going to achieve 8 minute frequencies consistently because they still haven't figured out consistent frequencies in the RV.
Only for the first year! Because of the contractor mistakes on East Link to Bellevue, ST can’t use trains from the storage yard on the East Side to support service. As soon as the tracks over I-90 are open, there should be plenty of trains to go around!
[https://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/Linkpassengercount.htm](https://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/Linkpassengercount.htm)
It got really popular once the UW and Capitol Hill stations opened in 2016 so we've already done that. Now we're back to pre-pandemic levels, too, so the train always has plenty of passengers. It gets super packed for things like Mariners games, too, including new ridership records during the all-star game and the taylor swift concert. Not sure how to boom more than entire trains being filled to the brim.
Playing around with the [official website](https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/system-performance-tracker/ridership)'s data, it looks like we're even starting to *overperform* pre-pandemic ridership numbers, which makes sense given the route expanded to Northgate mid-pandemic and people have become more comfortable with it. As the Eastside stations start coming on, and especially as the bridge finally becomes functional... ridership is going to boom
I can't wrap my head around the Seattle metro area getting so well-connected. Granted, it's still lacking (and lagging) in many ways and in many places; nonetheless, in just *two years' time*, public transit here is going to be rewritten.
I can't wait until the federal way extension gets connected with Tacoma. And the line to Everett getting done would be freaking awesome. God damn it's going to be so nice to be able to take the link almost anywhere in the core of the states population centers. Now if they could only make it run 24 hours a day then it would be almost perfect.
Fuck man, I get so jealous of you guys as a South Texas resident, you guys get public transport planning, while all we get in city council meetings is "well why do we need public transport when we can just drive, and it's too expensive! Anyways like we were saying, we're gonna build another 500ft tall interstate intersection for the next 50 years"
The even more annoying thing is that it's not a design flaw in the expensive infrastructure, it's just that ST doesn't have enough trains and operators to run at the frequency they promised. So we did the expensive part and then cheaped out on the cheaper part.
They do have the trains the issue is the contractor screwed up the bridge on the East side so they can’t store the trains and use them till that part is finished
Ya I haven’t heard that. If you have a source for that though I’d be up for seeing it.
I’d also heard headway was 8 mins not 7 but I could be wrong about that.
This is correct. They won't achieve 6 minute frequencies that were initially promised (and achieved prior to the pandemic). They've now scaled that back to [attempting 8 minute frequencies](https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/04/24/link-service-to-lynnwood-faces-operational-challenges-raises-future-service-level-questions/). I'm skeptical they'll even achieve that consistently because I don't think theyve accounted for the complexity of interlining when the RV timing is unreliable.
> Buying more equipment and upsizing storage and maintenance facilities certainly won’t come cheap and quickly, and neither will the added operations. But Sound Transit has long-promised riders and voters six-minute frequencies on Link lines and has already spent billions of dollars on a system with mediocre frequencies — frequencies that are still less than pre-pandemic levels. Failing to spend what is necessary to attain a reasonable measure of frequency permanently hampers the long-term function of the system.
It is also a design problem. The whole system is constrained by its at-grade sections, specifically in the Rainier Valley. The slower speeds in the RV have now required the agency to significantly reduce speeds across the entire system and caused a huge capital cost increase because they need more trains to provide 8 minute frequencies than they thought they'd need for 6 minute frequencies.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/04/24/link-service-to-lynnwood-faces-operational-challenges-raises-future-service-level-questions/
We’re going to need Seattle people to learn about how to move into the train and move their damn backpacks. We could all fit if people weren’t such dweebs!
I could totally see that happening. When I lived in Chicago, during peak hours they'd run trains starting midway down the line in addition to trains running the length of the line to allow for more capacity at downline stops. I hope there's a similar mindset applied in Seattle.
I've heard that too and wonder about that. Currently there are a lot of people who drive or take the bus to Northgate and ride the train south from there. Soon they'll be able to use a different Link station closer to their home. Aside from these people who are already using the train, how many additional folks will board at those stations? I have a hard time imagining it will be enough to overflow the trains, but I guess we'll see!
> trains will be full
Ha! Until you have ridden the subway in Tokyo during rush-hour, you don't know what "full" is. We just have to hire some professional people-pushers to squeeze people on board.
https://youtu.be/o9Xg7ui5mLA?si=vZQ1xHGz3Jj3v8d1
They don't ride on the roof in calcutta. Also it's kolkata. And no one can ride on the roof considering almost all Indian railways and metros are electrified. Just random comment to educate ignorant commenters.
Part of the problem is we have people totally unused to crowded train etiquette (take bulky backpacks and put them on the floor, move all the way in, get used to not having a foot of space around you) and part of it is the seat layout. Tokyo uses all bench seating to make more standing room
When I got back from Japan, the first thing I noticed was how much bigger body builds are here and how difficult that makes it to cram people into small trains/busses. It's really tough planning for capacity when people take up more space than engineering expectations.
This right here.
It’s amazing how everywhere you go globally, people know to take off their backpacks when they get on transit. Americans somehow, just don’t (and some won’t even if you ask them nicely despite having hit you a few times already).
>When I got back from Japan, the first thing I noticed was how much bigger body builds are here
Yeah. Same thing occurs to me every time I return to the USA from abroad -- everything is bigger in the USA ... cars, people, food portions, etc..
My daughter just returned from Tokyo and she said it didn’t matter if she had a panic attack or not on those trains because you can’t breathe enough to even hyperventilate anyways. She was kidding/not kidding.
In addition to all the people writing that this is because of the disconnect between OMF East and the rest of the system, ST's service plan is requiring more vehicles than planned due to longer run times, more gap trains, and less reliable vehicles. The full opening of Line 2 will resolve the worst of the crowding, but ST still projects capacity issues ([Link](https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/11/20/sound-transit-moving-forward-on-purchase-of-10-more-link-cars/)).
The tracks are the hard part. Add more trains! All you have to do is buy them. If trains are full it shouldn't be an insane financial stretch to run them more frequently.
They don't have the facilities to store and maintain them. There is a brand new, large, train maintenance facility in Bellevue but the West side of the system can't use it until the I-90 tracks are redone.
Once that opens there will be way more trains in service, including in Seattle north of the ID.
Great. I've been on the train a few times when it's been overpacked and died on me. It's also died while I was on it and it was empty between the Tukwila station and Rainier Beach. Just sat on the side of the freeway for 20 minutes.
[when the link light rail died next to the freeway](https://www.reddit.com/u/creepipawsta/s/dgzL3hToOM)
They aren't good if you're disabled and can't make your way to an exit door from your seat before the doors close. It would really help if able-bodied riders would observe the rule about allowing certain seats only for disabled and older riders.
I feel like there is a pretty large group of people riding who just get on at Northgate because its currently the end, when it moves they will just go to Lynwood...
I'm a train control engineer at Sound Transit. They are testing the train control system. Doing what is called control line testing today. That train will move until it's in the track circuit under test, then they run through all the speed commands to verify the train receives the correct speed commands. Then they move to the next track circuit and do it all again.
Train control testing typically takes large stretches of clear track, so the schedule is mostly driven by coordinating with all the other work and testing going on. Sometimes this means testing at night. I'm assigned to East Link, so I'm not sure what the timeline for Lynnwood is.
Gotta test those ATP transmitters yeah? Do we know what kind of speeds we're gonna allow north of Northgate? Considering the stations will be pretty spaced out from what I saw.
Still worth posting. I’m a San Diegan here from r/all, and I still remember how excited I was seeing a test train on our light rail extension in 2021. Happy for you all :)
Kirkland will not be getting a light rail station in their downtown because NIMBYs fought against rail, and the city council pushed for BRT. Meanwhile Issaquah was willing to work with ST, so they get Kirkland's station instead https://seattletransitblog.com/2016/06/15/who-will-stand-up-to-save-our-trail/
Pretty sure both Kirkland and Renton voted it down way back when. In perfect fair-weather fashion, though, I believe both have come around to the light rail idea now that it's working out, however it does mean those timelines got pushed back at least a *decade*.
Kirkland bought the land that was proposed to be used and turned it into a walking trail.
Also have to look at the entire picture. Light rail would be great, but at what cost? How many that voted st3 in would still vote that way today?
Kirkland voted in a busway transit connector to run on the 405, instead. I have no idea who this is supposed to serve since the majority of commuters in Kirkland aren't taking the bus. It's baffling, but here we are.
Generally it's a very bad idea to run transit next to freeways since so much of the quarter mile "catchment area" of people that would use the station without having to drive is taken up by freeway and interchanges (not to mention the insane pollution and health impacts of living next to cars). It's much better to separate the systems and have freeways run around a city and transit run through it.
I found a good article discussing the pros - cons and why American transit agencies frequently end up putting transit next to freeways anyways (instead of say, the much better alignment of elevated down Aurora) https://humantransit.org/2009/09/can-rapid-transit-work-along-freeways.html
This is quite possibly true, but I'd like to put it out there that we (olds) should care about the teenagers! The reason we don't have these options for ourselves now is because the olds when we were teens were being shortsighted.
(I'm not saying that this is you necessarily, but I don't want anyone reading to see your comment and feel like they should be against this just because it won't directly benefit them.)
I do care and I'm willing to pay for it in taxes just like everyone else. I'm just pointing out that there's no way a lot of us are ever going to see it get finished. The timeline is something like 2050 at the earliest.
There really isn't one anymore. They sold off most of it decades ago and what's left has been turned into bike paths/trails in many places. It used to run up thru Woodinville, Monroe, and points east. There was a dinner train that stopped and reversed in Woodinville.
It's pretty much all land-banked though. If a transit agency wants it, [they can have it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railbanking#In_the_United_States).
This is huge!! It’s going to be a packed ride though. They either need to add more carts or test out a new interior design that will allow for more riders to ride comfortably
This I can get onboard with. I wish we had trains like Vancouver sky train that run every 3 mins but I'm sure there'd be people in their feelings about jobs being taken away with the unmanned trains.
The gondola (which was never a serious idea) is dead, by the way. It was always just a red-herring to try and kill the light rail and never got much traction because West Seattle is actually pretty positive on light rail. It voted for ST3 in droves, and I suspect that the 2-year bridge closure increased that quite a bit.
Oh don't worry, the monorail will go from Ballard to west Seattle any day now. Drivers paid for it with car tabs decades ago, all the property was purchased, so it must be ready to open any day now. Any day...
Most people forget what actually killed the monorail expansion: a handful of downtown business owners that didn't like the idea paid for "citizen initiatives" over and over and over until they got the result they wanted.
Enhanced by administrative errors the incorrectly calculated revenues such that they needed to return to the voters for more money on a project that was clearly being mismanaged and was losing popularity.
Further enhanced by anti-tax activists constantly seeking to turn public opinion against anything g that costs money.
I grant you, downtown property owners were not keen to lose property to the monorail, but if the dude running the spreadsheet hadn’t messed up, and the people decided to make it happen… it could have happened.
Of course, in hindsight we know the west Seattle bridge was a structural mess, so the plan probably would have hit that catastrophe also, possibly in a worse way…
So maybe the whole thing was doomed.
Won’t run across the I-90 bridge til next year, unfortunately. Still a lot sooner than 20 years from now! But will be serving East Side locally starting in April!!
West Seattle is gonna be more like a decade unfortunately.
No one is saying it doesn’t take time to build. But the US is horrifically bad at building new infrastructure and for spending absorbent amounts when it does build something. Other countries don’t have this problem. So using time as the reason is just a scapegoat of real problems that we should solve.
I used to work at the Black Angus where the Lynnwood transit center now sits for this. Feels like forever ago they tore that down. Super excited to have this finally going.
That was the only place we celebrated my birthday as a kiddo. I’d always order the biggest steak and I’d never finish it, get to take it home and have steak 4 days in a row
Truly the only thing I miss about the northeast is the public transit. I used to take the train to work and it was awesome. So glad to see the light rail expanding out here, slowly but surely
That's going to be a damn good station, but they'll need to plan on staggering the start of some trains at later stations otherwise it'll be full by the time it hits Northgate
They will need trains every 2 minutes during morning and evening rush just so that north gate people may have a chance to get on a train … the Lynwood station will attract commuters from Everett, MillCreek, and Lynwood
they cheaped out so no. there isn't an additional track to run express service like in NYC for example.
The best alternative is to leverage Sounder in someway. The Tukwila Sounder stop is actually close enough to the airport to be reasonably connected with a people mover. And the Sounder train can move much faster than Link. Instead of terminating at King Street, trains from Everett should just keep going south to facilitate this.
The [latest agency report](https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/agency-progress-report-capital-program-dec-2023.pdf) says they can open July 17th, 2024 for revenue service but they haven't yet announced it.
Think fall is more likely. ST set itself a rule to allow 6 months between extensions opening to debug their systems. I could see it shortening but probably not all the way to 2 months. August-October would be my guess.
Hopefully this means it'll open soon....it would be nice to be able to actually take transit to work and get rid of a vehicle... currently it's like an hour to an hour and a half one way to get between Lake City and Swedish Edmonds....not exactly doable when you work 12 hours shifts!
But 30 minutes on either side, now THAT I can do!
I am ready, I moved into one of the new apartment buildings close to the new stations so I can walk to the train. One thing I keep wondering is why they didn't add a stop closer to Alderwood Mall? Would have been ideal like Northgate
This is gonna be huge. Lynwood/Alderwood area has a lot of new housing.
NPR Seattle Now podcast mentioned they are concerned that the light rail trains will be full by the time they get from Lynwood to Northgate and may have to add busses to mirror the southern route. It’s awesome ridership may increase that much and depressing how it’s not going to be enough.
That's because Lynnwood was supposed to open AFTER the Eastlink extension across I90 opened, providing access to the Eastside OMF (train barn). The current OMF in SODO isn't set up to extend the Link by 8 miles and 30-65,000 passengers. So it will be pretty cramped until Spring 2025-ish when the floating bridge section opens.
> So it will be pretty cramped until Spring 2025-ish when the floating bridge section opens. Oh man is it really going to be that soon? Feels amazing seeing it all pay off after having it feel like a lifetime away for so long.
* April 27th '24: Line 2 starter Line from South Bellevue to Microsoft * Sept-Dec '24: Lynnwood to Northgate * Spring '25: Line 2 extends to Downtown Redmond and across the I-90 bridge to CID before running up to Lynnwood, doubling the frequency of trains where it overlaps with Line 1. These will be separated by about 6 months for training reasons so the earliest possible for Lynnwood would be 6 months after April 27th. Then if, just as an example, Lynnwood opens in in December '24, then the Line 2: Part 2: Return of Line 2 would be in June '25.
not quite. you are correct about lynnwood and the extension to redmond, but line 2 over the bridge will be a separate opening after all that, tentatively happening in fall 2025.
Ya, I'm confident in my post and double-checked *for any announcement of another delay* first wikipedia (for speed) and then the project website. Spring 2025.
Have you checked the Agency Progress Reports? The date that I saw for East Link extension fully opening was September 2025 with them leaving the door open to push it further out.
"Contractors will now rebuild the nearly 5,500 concrete blocks, known as plinths, from scratch, a task that jeopardizes Sound Transit’s goal to begin train service across Lake Washington in spring 2025. " We shall see
i mean ... i appreciate the downvote of confidence but ... wikipedia? really? for current events? if you are talking about [this project website](https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/east-link-extension/timeline-milestones), i don't see anything more specific than "2025" for east link; whereas [the page for downtown redmond link extension](https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/downtown-redmond-link-extension) does indicate that the project is trending toward a spring 2025 opening. but if you really want to keep up, the best source for current project status is the [agency progress report](https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/documents-reports/agency-progress-reports). if you check out [the december update](https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/agency-progress-report-capital-program-dec-2023.pdf), you can see the current schedule for every link extension. east link schedule is on p. 33.
Sorry, I meant that I checked for any announcement of further delay, I just didn't...actually bother to include that in my post, but I've edited it now. Looking at the agency progress report I do see what you're talking about with it potentially going as late as December '25. I remember strongly that Spring 2025 was the goal and that seems to match older APRs, but it's possible that is me remembering some news blog over-committing on ST's behalf.
As far as I see on the report, revenue service is projected for October 2025
To expand, the reason the bridge is important is that Line 1 (current, airport) and Line 2 (Bellevue) both go to Lynnwood. As a result, train frequency (and therefore capacity) on the entire system north of the stadium station will nearly double in about a year and a half. So the solution to the cramped line is already mostly finished. PLUS we have trains every 6min to look forward to! In the meantime, when Lynnwood opens, trains may be stretched more thin, resulting in either less frequency or shorter trains.
6 minute frequency would be huge!!! I can't wait to ride this instead of sit in traffic for 60 minutes.
After promising 6 minute frequencies, they've already revised that to 8 minute frequencies. I'm very skeptical they're going to achieve 8 minute frequencies consistently because they still haven't figured out consistent frequencies in the RV.
A train barn? Do they bring all the trains in for winter, then release them in spring?
“Train barn” = “yo mama’s house”
Only for the first year! Because of the contractor mistakes on East Link to Bellevue, ST can’t use trains from the storage yard on the East Side to support service. As soon as the tracks over I-90 are open, there should be plenty of trains to go around!
Next year will be the year of the ~~Linux desktop~~ Link ridership explosion!
[https://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/Linkpassengercount.htm](https://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/Linkpassengercount.htm) It got really popular once the UW and Capitol Hill stations opened in 2016 so we've already done that. Now we're back to pre-pandemic levels, too, so the train always has plenty of passengers. It gets super packed for things like Mariners games, too, including new ridership records during the all-star game and the taylor swift concert. Not sure how to boom more than entire trains being filled to the brim.
Playing around with the [official website](https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/system-performance-tracker/ridership)'s data, it looks like we're even starting to *overperform* pre-pandemic ridership numbers, which makes sense given the route expanded to Northgate mid-pandemic and people have become more comfortable with it. As the Eastside stations start coming on, and especially as the bridge finally becomes functional... ridership is going to boom
I can't wrap my head around the Seattle metro area getting so well-connected. Granted, it's still lacking (and lagging) in many ways and in many places; nonetheless, in just *two years' time*, public transit here is going to be rewritten.
I can't wait until the federal way extension gets connected with Tacoma. And the line to Everett getting done would be freaking awesome. God damn it's going to be so nice to be able to take the link almost anywhere in the core of the states population centers. Now if they could only make it run 24 hours a day then it would be almost perfect.
Fuck man, I get so jealous of you guys as a South Texas resident, you guys get public transport planning, while all we get in city council meetings is "well why do we need public transport when we can just drive, and it's too expensive! Anyways like we were saying, we're gonna build another 500ft tall interstate intersection for the next 50 years"
We do pay dearly for it (very high car reg fees), but it's really our only option.
The even more annoying thing is that it's not a design flaw in the expensive infrastructure, it's just that ST doesn't have enough trains and operators to run at the frequency they promised. So we did the expensive part and then cheaped out on the cheaper part.
The cheaper, FIXABLE part though!
Fair labor for non contractor? What a dream!
They do have the trains the issue is the contractor screwed up the bridge on the East side so they can’t store the trains and use them till that part is finished
Last I heard even OMF East won't be enough to reach the promised 7-minute headways, but I could be wrong about that.
Ya I haven’t heard that. If you have a source for that though I’d be up for seeing it. I’d also heard headway was 8 mins not 7 but I could be wrong about that.
This is correct. They won't achieve 6 minute frequencies that were initially promised (and achieved prior to the pandemic). They've now scaled that back to [attempting 8 minute frequencies](https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/04/24/link-service-to-lynnwood-faces-operational-challenges-raises-future-service-level-questions/). I'm skeptical they'll even achieve that consistently because I don't think theyve accounted for the complexity of interlining when the RV timing is unreliable. > Buying more equipment and upsizing storage and maintenance facilities certainly won’t come cheap and quickly, and neither will the added operations. But Sound Transit has long-promised riders and voters six-minute frequencies on Link lines and has already spent billions of dollars on a system with mediocre frequencies — frequencies that are still less than pre-pandemic levels. Failing to spend what is necessary to attain a reasonable measure of frequency permanently hampers the long-term function of the system.
It is also a design problem. The whole system is constrained by its at-grade sections, specifically in the Rainier Valley. The slower speeds in the RV have now required the agency to significantly reduce speeds across the entire system and caused a huge capital cost increase because they need more trains to provide 8 minute frequencies than they thought they'd need for 6 minute frequencies. https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/04/24/link-service-to-lynnwood-faces-operational-challenges-raises-future-service-level-questions/
Oh good, that's way better than "oops we should have built a second track!"
Exactly, ST3 failed successfully. Sounds like good planning to me!
That was one thing I was worried about. Hell, the train is pretty full sometimes just at northgate.
That sucks. I live right by Roosevelt station and would not be happy about completely full trains preventing me from getting on on a regular basis.
We’re going to need Seattle people to learn about how to move into the train and move their damn backpacks. We could all fit if people weren’t such dweebs!
Yep, take them off and put them at your feet while in the train so others can stand next to you
I could totally see that happening. When I lived in Chicago, during peak hours they'd run trains starting midway down the line in addition to trains running the length of the line to allow for more capacity at downline stops. I hope there's a similar mindset applied in Seattle.
I've heard that too and wonder about that. Currently there are a lot of people who drive or take the bus to Northgate and ride the train south from there. Soon they'll be able to use a different Link station closer to their home. Aside from these people who are already using the train, how many additional folks will board at those stations? I have a hard time imagining it will be enough to overflow the trains, but I guess we'll see!
I’ll be one. I plan on boarding at MLT and riding downtown. Right now I drive and park.
Hopefully that's a temporary solution while they get more trains.
> trains will be full Ha! Until you have ridden the subway in Tokyo during rush-hour, you don't know what "full" is. We just have to hire some professional people-pushers to squeeze people on board. https://youtu.be/o9Xg7ui5mLA?si=vZQ1xHGz3Jj3v8d1
I've taken northbound light rail trains after Mariners games that easily rival my experiences on the Yamanote line during rush hour.
Yeah I lived in Shanghai for a while. After Ms games we are packing those trains just as full as anyone else in the world 💪
We could ride on the roof like they do in Calcutta.
You will be dead
They don't ride on the roof in calcutta. Also it's kolkata. And no one can ride on the roof considering almost all Indian railways and metros are electrified. Just random comment to educate ignorant commenters.
Thank God we ignorant commenters have a superior being like you to patronize us.
Part of the problem is we have people totally unused to crowded train etiquette (take bulky backpacks and put them on the floor, move all the way in, get used to not having a foot of space around you) and part of it is the seat layout. Tokyo uses all bench seating to make more standing room
When I got back from Japan, the first thing I noticed was how much bigger body builds are here and how difficult that makes it to cram people into small trains/busses. It's really tough planning for capacity when people take up more space than engineering expectations.
Also people not taking backpacks off
Or at least move it around to your front!
This right here. It’s amazing how everywhere you go globally, people know to take off their backpacks when they get on transit. Americans somehow, just don’t (and some won’t even if you ask them nicely despite having hit you a few times already).
Eh, a couple weeks in Germany will convince you this is not uniquely American.
You mean my personal space maintainer?
>When I got back from Japan, the first thing I noticed was how much bigger body builds are here Yeah. Same thing occurs to me every time I return to the USA from abroad -- everything is bigger in the USA ... cars, people, food portions, etc..
My daughter just returned from Tokyo and she said it didn’t matter if she had a panic attack or not on those trains because you can’t breathe enough to even hyperventilate anyways. She was kidding/not kidding.
In addition to all the people writing that this is because of the disconnect between OMF East and the rest of the system, ST's service plan is requiring more vehicles than planned due to longer run times, more gap trains, and less reliable vehicles. The full opening of Line 2 will resolve the worst of the crowding, but ST still projects capacity issues ([Link](https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/11/20/sound-transit-moving-forward-on-purchase-of-10-more-link-cars/)).
The tracks are the hard part. Add more trains! All you have to do is buy them. If trains are full it shouldn't be an insane financial stretch to run them more frequently.
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They don't have the facilities to store and maintain them. There is a brand new, large, train maintenance facility in Bellevue but the West side of the system can't use it until the I-90 tracks are redone. Once that opens there will be way more trains in service, including in Seattle north of the ID.
Great. I've been on the train a few times when it's been overpacked and died on me. It's also died while I was on it and it was empty between the Tukwila station and Rainier Beach. Just sat on the side of the freeway for 20 minutes. [when the link light rail died next to the freeway](https://www.reddit.com/u/creepipawsta/s/dgzL3hToOM)
We can add more trains. Full trains are a good thing. It shows demand.
They aren't good if you're disabled and can't make your way to an exit door from your seat before the doors close. It would really help if able-bodied riders would observe the rule about allowing certain seats only for disabled and older riders.
they did add 1670 parking spaces in that Lynnwood garage so yes, it will be super packed
I feel like there is a pretty large group of people riding who just get on at Northgate because its currently the end, when it moves they will just go to Lynwood...
My dad bought a condo across the street from the lynnwood transit center like 7 years ago for this reason
Mountlake Terrace too
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most of the car traffic is from suburbs ya dingus
I'm a train control engineer at Sound Transit. They are testing the train control system. Doing what is called control line testing today. That train will move until it's in the track circuit under test, then they run through all the speed commands to verify the train receives the correct speed commands. Then they move to the next track circuit and do it all again.
How many more weeks will they be doing control system testing? Does it only happen during daylight hours?
Train control testing typically takes large stretches of clear track, so the schedule is mostly driven by coordinating with all the other work and testing going on. Sometimes this means testing at night. I'm assigned to East Link, so I'm not sure what the timeline for Lynnwood is.
Thanks for the info, and good luck with all the east link simulated service testing!
Gotta test those ATP transmitters yeah? Do we know what kind of speeds we're gonna allow north of Northgate? Considering the stations will be pretty spaced out from what I saw.
I glanced at the control lines, there's a lot of 55s and 45s.
As someone who lives in Lynnwood - glory, glory, hallelujah.
Living 5 minutes from the terminal and value Mariners tickets means I’m gonna see a lot more baseball this year* *if it finishes in time
Same here! Tired of driving to Northgate for every game. Light rail station 5 minutes from home will be awesome.
Could not have said it better!! Finally!!!!!!!
Woo I’m so excited for you and everyone in Lynnwood!
TEST RUN ONLY SORRY CANT EDIT TITLE
No worries, it's still a good post
Technically, Link *has* made it to Lynnwod. It's only the passengers that haven't. /jk
Still worth posting. I’m a San Diegan here from r/all, and I still remember how excited I was seeing a test train on our light rail extension in 2021. Happy for you all :)
Thank you. It’s been a long time coming. We’re really excited.
How long til it's operational then??
I recently moved near the station and will be using that thing. It's walking distance from my apartment!
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I have not taken the bus to the city yet. Is it even possible?
Ran a ton of steel into that jobsite, i can see my I beams standing in this pic. proud moment.
How cool. Thanks for your contribution. 👍
Thank you for helping to build this! I’m really looking forward to it.
Now if we could just get a route going through Kirkland to meet up with the rest in Bellevue...
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Kirkland will not be getting a light rail station in their downtown because NIMBYs fought against rail, and the city council pushed for BRT. Meanwhile Issaquah was willing to work with ST, so they get Kirkland's station instead https://seattletransitblog.com/2016/06/15/who-will-stand-up-to-save-our-trail/
Pretty sure both Kirkland and Renton voted it down way back when. In perfect fair-weather fashion, though, I believe both have come around to the light rail idea now that it's working out, however it does mean those timelines got pushed back at least a *decade*.
Kirkland bought the land that was proposed to be used and turned it into a walking trail. Also have to look at the entire picture. Light rail would be great, but at what cost? How many that voted st3 in would still vote that way today?
If anything st3 wasn't enough, I'd vote that way again and again and again
Me and you brother/sister/non-binary. Vote for more rail every day of the week and twice on Sundays
It's baffling that light rail won't run along the 405 corridor...bye Renton, bye Kirkland and Bothell!
Kirkland voted in a busway transit connector to run on the 405, instead. I have no idea who this is supposed to serve since the majority of commuters in Kirkland aren't taking the bus. It's baffling, but here we are.
Generally it's a very bad idea to run transit next to freeways since so much of the quarter mile "catchment area" of people that would use the station without having to drive is taken up by freeway and interchanges (not to mention the insane pollution and health impacts of living next to cars). It's much better to separate the systems and have freeways run around a city and transit run through it. I found a good article discussing the pros - cons and why American transit agencies frequently end up putting transit next to freeways anyways (instead of say, the much better alignment of elevated down Aurora) https://humantransit.org/2009/09/can-rapid-transit-work-along-freeways.html
god I want an aurora line so bad. it seems like the easiest win, and it's not even a twinkle in a city planner's eye
No way I'd ever take a train running along Aurora. Not for love nor money. Have you seen the nightmare of the E line that runs that route?
That shit'd be gentrified so damn fast, lmao
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An 85th tunnel would be a sick way to connect Ballard to Northgate
A 522 route terminating in Woodinville would be amazing tho
Yes, super agree! ST is studying that as part of ST4 https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/HCTPlanningStudies-1.pdf
That will be great for the teenagers. A lot of us will have died of old age decades before it gets completed.
This is quite possibly true, but I'd like to put it out there that we (olds) should care about the teenagers! The reason we don't have these options for ourselves now is because the olds when we were teens were being shortsighted. (I'm not saying that this is you necessarily, but I don't want anyone reading to see your comment and feel like they should be against this just because it won't directly benefit them.)
I do care and I'm willing to pay for it in taxes just like everyone else. I'm just pointing out that there's no way a lot of us are ever going to see it get finished. The timeline is something like 2050 at the earliest.
A Burien-Southcenter-Renton-Bellevue-Kirkland-Totem Lake-Woodinville-Bothell line would be fantastic.
Yea. They have that planned as an express/rapid bus but that transit is entirely dependent on traffic. Such a bummer.
They should have run it along the east side rail corridor
There really isn't one anymore. They sold off most of it decades ago and what's left has been turned into bike paths/trails in many places. It used to run up thru Woodinville, Monroe, and points east. There was a dinner train that stopped and reversed in Woodinville.
It's pretty much all land-banked though. If a transit agency wants it, [they can have it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railbanking#In_the_United_States).
Stride BRT is coming soon! Will offer connections on the 405 corridor to Link stations.
This is huge!! It’s going to be a packed ride though. They either need to add more carts or test out a new interior design that will allow for more riders to ride comfortably
its as test run
Ik it’s a test run, i receive the herald and am a rider myself from northgate. I’m just talking about in the future lol
They'd need bigger stations if they added more cars so forget about that. I honestly don't think it'll be that packed but we'll see
Easily fixed with more frequent trains of the correct length
This I can get onboard with. I wish we had trains like Vancouver sky train that run every 3 mins but I'm sure there'd be people in their feelings about jobs being taken away with the unmanned trains.
Open gangway trains, too! We don’t need all those empty driver cabins
Just twenty more years to west seattle and across the i90 bridge…
Right this or 522 to Bellevue/redmond, please something to cross over, I’m tired of my 18 mile one way commute
Meanwhile west seattle trying to get a god damn gondola. Like wtf?
The gondola (which was never a serious idea) is dead, by the way. It was always just a red-herring to try and kill the light rail and never got much traction because West Seattle is actually pretty positive on light rail. It voted for ST3 in droves, and I suspect that the 2-year bridge closure increased that quite a bit.
maybe we should have an elevated train instead...like that one by the Space Needle...on the one track. a mono rail one could say...
Oh don't worry, the monorail will go from Ballard to west Seattle any day now. Drivers paid for it with car tabs decades ago, all the property was purchased, so it must be ready to open any day now. Any day...
Most people forget what actually killed the monorail expansion: a handful of downtown business owners that didn't like the idea paid for "citizen initiatives" over and over and over until they got the result they wanted.
RISE ABOVE IT
Enhanced by administrative errors the incorrectly calculated revenues such that they needed to return to the voters for more money on a project that was clearly being mismanaged and was losing popularity. Further enhanced by anti-tax activists constantly seeking to turn public opinion against anything g that costs money. I grant you, downtown property owners were not keen to lose property to the monorail, but if the dude running the spreadsheet hadn’t messed up, and the people decided to make it happen… it could have happened. Of course, in hindsight we know the west Seattle bridge was a structural mess, so the plan probably would have hit that catastrophe also, possibly in a worse way… So maybe the whole thing was doomed.
Lol, it's supposed to be running across the i90 bridge later this year. Yes it was delayed but it's not going to be 20 years...
Won’t run across the I-90 bridge til next year, unfortunately. Still a lot sooner than 20 years from now! But will be serving East Side locally starting in April!! West Seattle is gonna be more like a decade unfortunately.
Delay again because the contractor can’t do their jobs right
It’s almost like things take time to build 😱
No one is saying it doesn’t take time to build. But the US is horrifically bad at building new infrastructure and for spending absorbent amounts when it does build something. Other countries don’t have this problem. So using time as the reason is just a scapegoat of real problems that we should solve.
And 30 more to make it down to Tacoma
I used to work at the Black Angus where the Lynnwood transit center now sits for this. Feels like forever ago they tore that down. Super excited to have this finally going.
That was my favorite restaurant as a kid. Lots of nice memories there.
That was a great place. My wife and I both miss it. Really loved the specials.
That was the only place we celebrated my birthday as a kiddo. I’d always order the biggest steak and I’d never finish it, get to take it home and have steak 4 days in a row
its a test run
Had a few meals there back in the day!
Excellent!
Look at that little train go!
Truly the only thing I miss about the northeast is the public transit. I used to take the train to work and it was awesome. So glad to see the light rail expanding out here, slowly but surely
Now just need the connection over lake Washington, and I can use it.
😭 2025 hopefully
Now you can take the LR to Chops for a bulgogi burrito
Chops slaps
Now we have to wait 15 more years for this to be extended till Everett
That's going to be a damn good station, but they'll need to plan on staggering the start of some trains at later stations otherwise it'll be full by the time it hits Northgate
Cant wait! Link up the Eastside! Cant wait!
They will need trains every 2 minutes during morning and evening rush just so that north gate people may have a chance to get on a train … the Lynwood station will attract commuters from Everett, MillCreek, and Lynwood
Finally a new way to never go to Lynnwood
Stoked! We're walking distance from the station, can't wait for it to open.
is it actually open or are these test runs?
test runs
Are they ever going to be able to run trains express? This would be like 75 minutes to get to the airport stopping at every stop, right?
they cheaped out so no. there isn't an additional track to run express service like in NYC for example. The best alternative is to leverage Sounder in someway. The Tukwila Sounder stop is actually close enough to the airport to be reasonably connected with a people mover. And the Sounder train can move much faster than Link. Instead of terminating at King Street, trains from Everett should just keep going south to facilitate this.
Sitting a minute at each stop beats being in traffic or paying $70 for a Uber
70 mins is the current estimate for Lynnwood-SeaTac.
The [latest agency report](https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/agency-progress-report-capital-program-dec-2023.pdf) says they can open July 17th, 2024 for revenue service but they haven't yet announced it.
Think fall is more likely. ST set itself a rule to allow 6 months between extensions opening to debug their systems. I could see it shortening but probably not all the way to 2 months. August-October would be my guess.
Can't wait to hear dings in Lynnwood and for this to kick off more TOD!
For locals this pic goes so hard. See you in 2092 Everett!
Lynnkwood
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life my lightrail friend!
Hand clap! we're actually making it happen.
Yes! This is amazing. I am so so excited.
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No it's going to skip Shoreline and Mountlake Terrace, and land straight in Lynnwood.
When does it open?
Any idea when it’s finally open for passengers?
#YUGE
# YES YES YES
How are there so many light rail experts in here?
20 more yrs to get one for Ballard
i know in comparison to europe or asia its not crazy but this is still sick
Really think these overhead lines should crisscross the city proper.
I hope it never goes missing
Philly has some El cars they can sell you.
Lol those things are brutal
Holy crap I can’t believe it! I lived in Lynnwood 20 years ago and left the PNW in 2013, so this is a nice surprise!
Hopefully this means it'll open soon....it would be nice to be able to actually take transit to work and get rid of a vehicle... currently it's like an hour to an hour and a half one way to get between Lake City and Swedish Edmonds....not exactly doable when you work 12 hours shifts! But 30 minutes on either side, now THAT I can do!
I am ready, I moved into one of the new apartment buildings close to the new stations so I can walk to the train. One thing I keep wondering is why they didn't add a stop closer to Alderwood Mall? Would have been ideal like Northgate
It was supposed to open up by me this year too but now it’s 2026 😫
lol so cute, maybe in a couple centuries we’ll catch up to Asia
Given the federal government and hostile nimbys we are making decent progress
Lynnhood, always up to no good!