EVERETT — Sound Transit’s long-awaited Link light rail connection across Lake Washington will open on March 28, the regional transit agency announced in a press release Friday.
The opening of the 2 Line, first approved by voters in the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure, will complete a nonstop connection allowing travelers from Lynnwood to reach downtown Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond without making a transfer.
Along with the new crosslake bridge, added service will also make trains arrive more frequently for travelers going between Lynnwood and downtown Seattle. As the existing 1 Line and 2 Line will both operate with eight-minute frequencies at peak hours, travelers taking the trains as far south as the International District can expect to see a train every four minutes.
“After decades of hard work, creative design, and world-class engineering, we are finally linking the east and west sides of Lake Washington with rail,” Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, also the chair of Sound Transit’s Board of Directors, wrote in the press release. “I applaud all those who worked on this project, and I appreciate the patience of the traveling public as the project worked through many barriers. Today is a very important milestone, and we look forward to Link light rail connecting Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, and Bellevue in the not-too-distant future.”
The Sound Transit 2 package is the same measure that funded the northbound Link light rail expansion to Lynnwood that opened in 2024. But construction of the rail line across Lake Washington was marred by a number of delays — caused primarly by the need to rebuild thousands of concrete rail ties, according to The Seattle Times — pushing its expected 2023 opening date back by years.
The 2 Line is the first light rail line in the world to operate on a floating bridge, in what was formerly I-90 express lanes. In the release, Sound Transit wrote that the project required “innovative engineering to address the unique challenges of running electric trains across a moving body of water.”
The crosslake connection will also open two new stations: one in the east Seattle neighborhood of Judkins Park and another on Mercer Island. The total light rail network will increase from 55 miles in length to 63.
Both the 1 Line and 2 Line will operate from approximately 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday to Saturday, and from 6 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.
In 2024, because of delays to the work on the floating bridge, Sound Transit opened a portion of the 2 Line on the Eastside, serving an area between South Bellevue and south Redmond. Stations serving as far north as downtown Redmond opened in 2025.
Sound Transit expects to open additional light rail expansions to Everett in 2037, reaching the city core by 2041, funded by the voter-approved Sound Transit 3 ballot measure. The agency is looking for major cost savings on its Sound Transit 3 projects, which have grown in price since voters first approved them in 2016, largely due to inflation, tariffs and added right-of-way costs, among other reasons, according to the agency. The Everett Link extension is unlikely to see significant effects from those cost savings, however.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
