By Dave Somers, Cassie Franklin and Christine Frizzell / For The Herald
Over the next year, Snohomish County will be reaching some exciting and important milestones on the road to bringing Link light rail to our community.
As Sound Transit’s three board members from Snohomish County, we are fully committed to bringing service here as quickly and responsibly as possible. With the full routing approved by voters in 2016, we are realizing the vision of an accessible and efficient regional mass transit system. A key part of this work is providing opportunities for the community both to engage with the process and understand the big changes to come, some of which have been decades in the making.
Voters approved ST2 in 2008 and ST3 in 2016 to create a more connected region and to prepare us for a more sustainable future. Expanded mass transit, including Link light rail, will add additional options for how our residents travel throughout the county for entertainment, education, work, shopping and more while improving our connectivity to Seattle and beyond. It will also bring more economic opportunity from King and Pierce County residents visiting our unique businesses, traveling out of Paine Field Airport, and attending our festivals and other great local attractions.
With the rapid population growth we anticipate throughout Snohomish County in coming years, light rail, bus rapid transit, and Sounder Rail service will be critical transportation assets, providing alternatives to congested roads and lengthening commutes. As board members and as elected officials, we must be prepared for a growing demand for transit-oriented development and more travel options, which will take cars off our most travelled roads, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and congestion.
We are closer than ever to bringing the Link to our county. Light rail service to Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood is scheduled to start in 2024, and we will continue to advocate for delivery without further delay. We also recently opened a new transit parking facility in Lynnwood that is already giving people more options for moving around the region.
Transformative projects like regional light rail are complex and take many years to complete. As Sound Transit board members, we will always prioritize our community’s needs while ensuring we work within the region’s broader needs to complete the system. We will continue to listen to Snohomish County residents and businesses and advocate for the options that will minimize negative impacts, maximize transit-oriented development, and expedite the delivery of the system to as many people as possible.
Today, we are at a critical point with the Everett Link Extension, determining what station site options should be studied in depth, what precise routings the rail may take, and moving us another step closer to getting light rail from Lynnwood to Everett. We are transitioning from the theoretical to the practical steps of the project. As board members, we are committed to making decisions based on data and public needs, and that’s why we will be studying the environmental impacts of multiple routes, station locations, and operations maintenance facility sites. Once we get the results of those studies, there will be additional opportunities for public engagement, and we will then be able to make a definitive decision about what we will support.
We know that there will be difficult decisions ahead. As we move forward, we remain committed to working with the community, especially our communities of color and those that may be affected by light rail, to make sure these changes are happening with them, not to them. Link light rail is already bringing billions of dollars of investment to southwest Everett, south Snohomish County and Lynnwood, areas that have not historically received this kind of attention. We are seeing increased development and improved community space around Lynnwood Link, and we expect the same economic growth around Everett Link station locations.
Light rail is going to be a game changer for us: providing a much-needed boost to our local economies, supporting our regional sustainability efforts, and improving our quality of life. We are looking forward to all that this new, more efficient and sustainable regional transportation system will bring to our county and are very excited for what our future holds.
To subscribe for project updates, share feedback, or learn more, go to: soundtransit.org/system-expansion/lynnwood-link-extension or soundtransit.org/system-expansion/everett-link-extension.
Dave Somers is Snohomish County Executive. Cassie Franklin is mayor of Everett. Christine Frizzell is mayor of Lynnwood. All serve on Sound Transit’s board of directors, representing Snohomish County.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
