What you’ll find at Redmond’s new light rail stations

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Sound Transit’s new Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations, which open at noon Saturday, will provide more than a launchpad for commuters heading toward Microsoft’s campus, downtown Bellevue and someday Seattle.

The 3.4-mile, $1.2 billion extension also will deliver the masses to a cornucopia of walk-bike trails, a vast shopping center, local restaurants and Marymoor Park, the busiest in King County. Outdoor concerts at Marymoor, which now produce traffic lineups and a struggle for parking spaces, will be easier to reach from afar.

All those destinations, along with that four-to-six minute trip from new stations to Redmond Technology Station at Microsoft headquarters, should make the Eastside 2 Line’s now-empty trains more versatile.

Two-car trains arrive every 10 minutes between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., on a mostly grade-separated path at speeds up to 55 mph.

When Sound Transit completes its overdue segment across Lake Washington into Seattle, aimed at this winter, travelers from the big city can skip Highway 520 traffic to check out what Redmond has to offer. At that point, trains will run until shortly past midnight.

Here’s what awaits:

Marymoor Village Station

The trains stop on a convenient, street-level platform one minute’s walk from Marymoor Park, at the northeast corner near the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome.

A fresh segment of paved trail, along the backside of the velodrome, leads into the whole 640-acre park, which draws 3 million yearly visitors.

Most people will meander to the existing 1.6-mile Marymoor Connector Trail inside the park, or other paths toward the 12 soccer fields, a cricket ground, radio-controlled model aircraft field, gardens and wetlands. Outdoor concerts, five of the eight baseball fields and an off-leash dog area require a longer, three-quarter-mile trek toward the park’s main (west) entrance. Sound Transit is considering new policies to allow dogs aboard trains.

With bicycles allowed on light rail, visitors can cruise park trails to reach the 11-mile East Lake Sammamish Trail to Issaquah or the 10-mile Sammamish River Trail to Woodinville and Bothell.

Within the station, Point of Connection, a set of panels by Seattle artist Yegizaw Michael, depicts West African birds in trees to represent freedom, a mandala for interconnectedness and a peloton of racing bikes.

This station, providing 1,400 garage stalls, is expected to be a draw for commuters who live in Sammamish, 3 miles south. Parking is free until the 2 Line extends to Seattle in 2026.

Drivers will notice two left-turn lanes from Highway 202 (Redmond Way northbound) into the station area, absorbing heavy traffic. Bus and car drivers should scan for pedestrians, where broad entryways into the garage pose a crash risk.

Buses will circulate on the garage’s ground floor, where King County Metro Route 269 connects Marymoor Park to Sammamish.

Light rail riders will be amused to see eastbound trains disappear into the parking garage, before they turn beneath a Highway 520 interchange, then cross Bear Creek into downtown Redmond.

New sidewalks and street trees make the evolving neighborhood more accessible. Blazing Bagels, across Northeast 70th Street, provides more than 100 seats to rendezvous over coffee and sammies.

Offices and small businesses like dog day care and auto repair still dominate the roadside, and they’re surrounded by new midrise apartments and restaurants. The Muslim Association of Puget Sound mosque, two blocks south, draws 2,600 people for Friday prayers and hundreds more each week, now accessible by trains. A Redmond Community Center branch and Whole Foods Market are three blocks away.

Sound Transit’s 3 ½ acres of leftover construction land, now a dirt lot, will be redeveloped as affordable apartments.

Downtown Redmond Station

The 2 Line’s terminus stop abuts the five-block Redmond Town Center shopping district, where Mayor Angela Birney hopes rail riders will bring an economic stimulus.

Walk south on 166th Avenue Southeast, below the elevated station, to reach 120 shops, three hotels, 20 restaurants, a plaza, a two-block pedestrian roadway and the upscale iPic Theaters serving dinner and cocktails. Flatstick Pub, a local chain that features beer and mini golf, and apartment-construction zones are next to the station entrance.

To enter the station, travelers ascend from lobbies to a central boarding platform, where trains depart either side to Bellevue, The open-air, illuminated layout allows transit riders, apartment dwellers, pedestrians and shoppers to see each other, considered a crime-prevention benefit. Redmond’s first crosswalk scramble, where people “walk all ways” including diagonally, begins Saturday at Cleveland Street.

Redmond Central Connector park and trail, under the station, leads west to City Hall and the Sammamish River. Bear Creek Trail winds through leafy groves to a heron rookery. Downtown Park, home to a water wall, light shows and community celebrations, is a quarter-mile northwest.

Two dozen billboard-shaped murals, which celebrate bike races, benevolent Asian monsters, immigrant families, bursts of colors and break dancing, loom over the trail. Among them, five boards by Seattle artist Lauren Iida depict Japanese American children playing rock-paper-scissors while the U.S. government incarcerated them at a World War II compound. People bicycling on the trail will perceive the boys’ arms moving.

There’s no station parking. Redmond Town Center garage is reserved for shoppers only.

For added safety, two rows of seven steel-cladded bollards protect the twin station lobbies from runaway cars, while a plaza west of the station is protected by sitting a couple steps above street level.

Bus connections include the King County Metro B Line to east Bellevue, Route 930 to Totem Lake, Route 224 to Duvall and Route 250 to downtown Kirkland or Redmond’s Avondale area. Sound Transit Route 545, to downtown Seattle via Highway 520, stops on Redmond Way, a brief walk north of the trains.

Sound Transit and Redmond decided not to build restrooms at either new station.

Both provide paratransit stops, elevators, escalators, bicycle parking and curbside passenger drop-off zones. Standard fares using ORCA fare cards or paper tickets are a flat $3 regardless of distance, senior and low-income ORCA Lift pass holders pay $1 and youth ride free. Fares will be charged on opening day.

Correction: Sound Transit’s Route 545 bus from Redmond to Seattle, along Highway 520, skips the University of Washington on its way to downtown Seattle. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said it goes to UW.