The date is set for a transportation milestone that could impact how thousands of Seattle-area commuters travel between home and work, especially at the region’s major tech hubs.
Sound Transit announced Friday that the “Crosslake Connection” of the Link light rail system will open to the public on March 28.
The route will carry light rail passengers across a floating bridge for the first time, serving as a 7.4-mile extension of the 2 Line and ultimately connecting downtown Seattle to downtown Bellevue and the Redmond Technology station at Microsoft’s headquarters campus.
- Are you a tech worker looking forward to using light rail to commute between Seattle and the Eastside? We’d love to hear from you: [email protected]
Testing of trains on the bridge, between new stations at Mercer Island and Judkins Park, began in September. A 6.6-mile East Link segment of the 2 Line, including eight stations, opened last April.
The entire Seattle-Eastside line — plagued by planning, construction and cost issues — has taken nearly 18 years to deliver, The Seattle Times noted after a test ride this week.
The region has changed substantially in that time.
The tech boom and subsequent population explosion in Seattle clogged area roadways, turning a roughly 13-mile commute between Seattle and Microsoft HQ into an often time-consuming headache.
Bellevue has also grown, thanks in part to Amazon, as the tech giant has shifted thousands of workers to various buildings in that city. Roughly 50,000 corporate employees work in Seattle.
While Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia and other companies run private buses between offices in Seattle and Eastside cities for their employees, light rail service adds another wrinkle to the commute landscape.
Sound Transit projects that the fully integrated 2 Line will serve about 43,000 to 52,000 daily riders in 2026.
Trains over Lake Washington will operate at speeds of 55 mph, running every 10 mins, 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week.
It’s no small engineering feat to run tracks and get a train to cross a floating bridge. The Seattle Times explained some of the challenges related to fluctuating lake levels and existing bridge infrastructure. This video also breaks down what goes into it:
Read the full article here
