When will light rail reach Lynnwood? Sound Transit sets opening date

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 light rail service will extend another 8½ miles on Aug. 30, when two stations open in Shoreline and trains finally cross the Snohomish County line into Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood.

The $3.3 billion corridor took 15 years to design and build, since voters approved higher sales taxes in 2008 for the project, along with extensions in East and South King County.

The Lynnwood extension will transform commuting for many in Snohomish County, where the population of 859,000 is up 42% since 2000. Trains will arrive eight minutes apart most hours and every 12 minutes after 8 p.m.

Thousands who currently transfer from buses to trains at Northgate Station will take Link the whole way, from the four new stations to the University of Washington and beyond. Trains will go from Lynnwood to U District Station in 18 minutes, to Westlake Station downtown in 28 minutes, and SeaTac/Airport Station in 65 minutes.

The Aug. 30 debut, announced Thursday, comes a few weeks earlier than Sound Transit recently forecast. The Northgate-Lynnwood extension nearly met its campaign promise to open in 2023, unlike typical transit and highway megaprojects that experience longer delays.

Full-speed test trips have begun on the ground-level and elevated tracks, mostly visible from I-5. Spokesperson John Gallagher attributed the timely startup to a sharp focus by transit staff and contractors, who withstood COVID-19 and a concrete trucking strike, and kept heavy construction going smoothly.

Community Transit and King County Metro agreed to postpone changes in connecting bus routes two weeks, until Sept. 14, to make the light rail launch simpler, according to Sound Transit. The Swift Orange Line bus, which will meet Lynnwood trains, began service last weekend.

Train crowding is a worry.

Sound Transit’s master plan was to have all Eastside trains cross Lake Washington and bend north to Lynnwood, but they’re stuck in Bellevue until the overdue I-90 rail segment is finished in late 2025. An eight-station East Link Starter Line will open this April 27.

Transit operators will park 32 railcars overnight at elevated stations between SeaTac and Northgate and four more in the Sodo train base, which should guarantee enough trains to make all trips between Angle Lake and Lynnwood. Despite that effort, staff predict possible crowds of 150 to 200 people per railcar in the busiest area, between Capitol Hill and Westlake stations, in late afternoon.

To reduce crowds, a special Route 515 bus will serve Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and downtown Seattle until trains from Bellevue, also known as the 2 Line, can cross the lake to Seattle and Lynnwood.

Buoyed by four new Lynnwood Link stations, and metro-area growth, Sound Transit forecasts an additional 5,000-to-38,000 average daily boardings during late 2024, for the entire 32-mile corridor from Lynnwood to Angle Lake. That’s how much the 1 Line’s 72,000 daily trips in late 2023 would increase. It’s a broad range virtually impossible to be wrong, and far below estimates issued during the booming 2010s, that the Northgate-Lynnwood segment would add 50,000 riders.

 “People are hedging their bets,” Gallagher commented, because of unpredictable conditions post-pandemic. Employers’ back-to-work rules, traffic congestion changes, parking fees, and the economy all affect future ridership, he said. (Post-pandemic, transit staff now emphasize “daily” or monthly instead of “weekday” rider counts, as weekend events flourish and five-day commutes wane.)

Link’s distance-based fares will change to a flat $3 when Lynnwood Link opens. Free youth fares and the $1 fare for low-income, senior and disabled ORCA passholders will continue.

Sounder N Line commuter trains, which carry fewer than 400 daily riders from Everett along the coastline to Mukilteo, Edmonds and King Street Station, will increase from two weekday round trips to four round trips.

Lynnwood Link costs soared since 2008, as local governments spent years negotiating route nuances and permits, and rapid inflation hit. The initial range of $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion in 2015 has increased to $3.3 billion, according to the Federal Transit Administration.

The next endpoint heading north is the Paine Field industrial area in 2037, followed by Everett Station in 2041, based on the transit board’s current route decisions and finance plan.