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Early this morning, in the quiet hours before sunrise, Sound Transit opened the doors to three new light rail stations north of Lake Union and Montlake Cut, completing a 25-year effort to deliver high capacity, high frequency and quality transit services in Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood.
The inauguration of the revenue service on Northgate Link marks the end of work to deliver the original Sound Move plan, which was approved by voters in 1996 and included an initial light rail line from SeaTac to Northgate.
This line, originally referred to as the “Central Link”, was eventually built and opened in stages rather than all at once. The first stage opened in July 2009 and consisted of twelve stations in Seattle and Tukwila.
Sound Transit then added four more stations: SeaTac in December 2009 (Airport Link), Capitol Hill and University of Washington in March 2016 (University Link) and a second SeaTac station in September 2016 (Angle Lake Link).
Today’s entrances are most of the new train stations that the region has opened at the same time since the first stage in 2009.
Passengers exit a Line 1 train at Northgate Station on the first day of the journey towards the U District, Roosevelt and Northgate (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve / NPI)
“This is a historic day and the beginning of three years that will change the way people get around our region,” said Kent Keel, Chairman of Sound Transit. “Northgate Link will enable thousands of drivers to get to their destination on time without sitting in the awful traffic. We can celebrate this milestone with the support of the Federal Transit Administration, our congressional delegation, and regional voters who have voted to build world-class transportation systems for our growing communities. ”
“The opening of Northgate Link is a huge leap forward for Puget Sound commuters, the first of many advances for Sound Transit in the years to come,” said Peter Rogoff, CEO of Sound Transit. “As Sound Transit intends to almost triple our light rail network in the next three years, we are grateful for the hard work and commitment of the employees and construction workers to achieve this monumental achievement in the middle of a pandemic.”
Due to the importance of the occasion, the agency’s pre-release press release officially commemorating the start of the revenue service for Northgate Link included quotes from over a dozen executives:
- Governor Jay Inslee
- US Senator Patty Murray
- US Senator Maria Cantwell
- US Representative Pramila Jayapal
- US representative Rick Larsen
- FTA administrator Nuria Fernandez
- King County Executive Dow Constantine
- Seattle’s Mayoress Jenny Durkan
- Paul Roberts, member of Everett City Council
- Debora Juarez, Seattle councilor
- The vice chairman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Donny Stevenson
- Mark Riker, Labor Liaison to the Sound Transit Board and Executive Secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council
The agency held a speaking ceremony at Northgate Station yesterday to celebrate the completion of the project, followed by a preview ride on a train that included elected executives, Sound Transit staff and representatives of the NPI and other local media representatives as well as representatives of the NPI and other local media promoted contractor’s staff.
Regular users of the UW / Husky Stadium and Capitol Hill stations will see some important boarding and alighting improvements at these three new stations.
All were constructed with non-emergency stairs leading all the way down (or up) to the platform, as well as heavy-duty “transit-grade” escalators.
The U District and Roosevelt are light rail subway stations that feel like siblings of the University of Washington, Capitol Hill, and Beacon Hill stations, all of which are designed for light rail rather than light rail and buses.
Northgate is an air station that feels like a sister to the Tukwila International Boulevard, SeaTac, and Angle Lake stations at the south end of the line. (And maybe Mount Baker, too, which is in the middle of the system.)
Sound Transit has been running a simulated service for Northgate for some time to ensure operators are familiar with the new station and tracks, and to allow the agency to obtain final permits and certifications.
This video, captured from the air last month, shows a train pulling into Northgate Station on a warm September day during the final weeks of simulated service.
And these photo galleries show the new stations before they were opened to the drivers.
Now that the stations are open, it’s your turn, Seattle! You can now move around the city in ways you’ve never had before. Line 1 is the rock-solid connection to downtown, Capitol Hill, and points south, which Northgate, Roosevelt and U District have long used but had to do without.
Like University Link, Northgate Link will transform mobility in Seattle.
And that too quickly: Metro and Community Transit introduced a large number of timetable and route changes parallel to the station openings this morning in order to use the city’s latest multimodal transport hubs.
To see which routes are affected, visit this page on the King County Metro website and this page on the Community Transit website.
We congratulate Sound Transit and its contract partners (JCM Northlink, Hoffmann Construction, Absher Construction, Stacy and Witbeck and Mass Electric) on this enormously important achievement. Sound Move’s vision has finally come true! To many wonderful trips today, tomorrow and in the years to come, which Northgate Link makes possible.
