EVERETT – For some Seattle Mariners fans, there’s only one way to get to the game.

Now that the Sounder trains are running for weekend Mariners games this season, those fans are back watching their team play in person.

Niki Desautels / The Herald Chris Langsea (left) sits with his daughters, Grace (center) and Madeline, both 7, on the Sounder’s inaugural Home Run Service train to Sunday afternoon’s Seattle Mariners game.

“Having the train here makes me want to go to more games,” Penny Parker of Marysville said Sunday morning at Everett Station. She was waiting with friends for the Sounder train to the Mariners’ game against the Oakland Athletics.

Parker has taken the train to some Seahawks games as well. Her attendance at the games of both teams has increased since Sound Transit started running the trains from Everett in 2004.

“Before that it was hit and miss,” Parker said.

The trains to Safeco and Qwest fields, which started running from Tacoma a couple of years before the north end service, have been very popular, spokesman Lee Somerstein said. The trains run to afternoon games on Saturday and Sunday through the baseball and football seasons.

Ridership figures weren’t available for Sunday, but about 20 people were in the Everett Station lobby half an hour before the train’s 11:15 departure.

“It works out very well,” said Ed Lannan of Everett, making his third trip to a game on the train. “It’s really convenient for us.”

After leaving Everett, the train stops in Edmonds and leaves there for Seattle at 11:40, arriving in Seattle at 12:13 p.m. for a 1:05 p.m. game. The round-trip cost is $6 for adults, $4.50 for kids and $3 for seniors or disabled individuals. The train makes its return trip 30 minutes after the end of the game.

Niki Desautels / The Herald Ashlyn Burgess, 5, looks up to the Sounder Home Run Service train that took Mariner fans to Seattle on Sunday.

“I don’t like to drive down there and mess with the parking,” said Paula McCarty of Monroe, making her first trip on the Mariners train with her three kids, Mary, 14, Katy, 12, and Nate, 3.

She said the cost breaks even between parking and train tickets, and “the kids like to ride the train. Nate can’t wait to get on the train.”

Ange D’Andre of Mill Creek, making his second trip to a Mariners’ game, likes “the quietness and friendliness of the train and cleanliness of the cars.”

Rick Cockerill of Marysville and his friends sometimes take Amtrak rather than Sounder, though Amtrak costs $20 round trip compared to the $6 for Sounder.

“We like Amtrak because they have a bar car,” Cockerill said.

The Amtrak Cascade leaves Everett for Seattle at 11:30 a.m. and leaves Seattle for Everett at 5:35 p.m., he said. Cockerill has taken Sounder and the bus as well.

Taking Amtrak, he said, is “kind of a special treat. First game of the season.”

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.