Trains up and running on Lynnwood Link — but no passengers quite yet

LYNNWOOD — Trains have arrived at the Lynnwood Transit Center.

Sound Transit announced Friday afternoon it will begin “pre-revenue service” on the Lynnwood extension of the Link, slated to open Aug. 30. This means Sound Transit will begin training operators on the new route. Outside of those trainings, the only major hurdle left for opening is a safety certification, officials said.

The $1.2 billion, 8½-mile track extension will add four new stations on the 1 Line, with a new last stop in Lynnwood.

“We’re taking one of the last critical steps before we extend light rail service to Lynnwood later this summer, something the voters called for 16 years ago,” said interim Sound Transit CEO Goran Sparrman at an announcement event Friday. “The voters of this region told us to build hundreds of miles of light rail, the biggest mass transit expansion in the country. We are doing just that.”

Sound Transit also offered media members an early look inside the Lynnwood station. An escalator and stairs lead to the top, in a design that mirrors the current terminus in Northgate. Sound Transit parked a train at the station during the event.

A countdown clock — 83 days and some hours — was also prominently placed in the station.

That got a quip from Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, who is also the vice chair of Sound Transit’s Board of Directors.

“At my age, countdown clocks kind of make you nervous,” he said, before adding, “It’s really an exciting day, and it’s not August yet, but very soon, you will be able to take light rail from Seattle, or as I refer to it, the southern gateway to Snohomish County.”

Colorful artwork from Preston Singletary and David Franklin, titled “Generational Confluence,” covers the windows around the station.

“When we think about home and heritage, we must always remember our ancestors,” Singletary said in a Sound Transit press release in April. “It is critical for a person to have an understanding about where we come from. Recently, I lost my father, which also brought the importance of family to the forefront of my thinking. The artwork at the Lynnwood Light Rail Station is about my family, as seen through the lens of my Tlingit heritage.”

While the public will have to wait a few more months to check out the station for themselves, trains will be moving.

“In mid- to late June, you’ll start seeing a train on average, every 10 to 15 minutes as we go through our operator certification, that’s going to last for a period of about three weeks,” said Randy Harlow, an executive project director with Sound Transit. “And then you’ll see a simulated service stretch with similar time frames.”

As Sound Transit runs different simulations, Snohomish County residents will start seeing train cars moving around on the tracks.

Federal Transit Administration Regional Administrator Scot Rastelli called it “an extremely important project.”

“I don’t need to tell this group, but the I-5 corridor between Lynnwood and Seattle is the most congested, unreliable corridor in the entire state,” Rastelli said. “This light rail extension will provide thousands of new riders with a fast, frequent, reliable mode of travel.”

Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jordyhansen.