Editorial: Light rail reshaping the future of Snohomish County

By The Herald Editorial Board

The scene in recent weeks has been tantalizing for those inching along in heavy traffic on I-5 between Lynnwood in Snohomish County and Seattle’s Northgate: Sleek light rail trains zipping by the congestion during test runs of the new 8.5 mile extension of Sound Transit’s Link 1 Line.

The wait to ditch that congestion and instead ride the rails ended Friday with the opening of the line’s two Snohomish County stations in Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood, as well as two Shoreline stations in north King County. Along with ribbon-cutting and other events, the launch of service increases commute options for those with or without their own vehicles and establishes Lynnwood as the new gateway to mass transit and points south.

The arrival of Link light rail in Snohomish County is a major milestone, said county Executive Dave Somers in an interview this week. Since Sound Transit’s first voter-approval of a light rail system in 1996 and the subsequent approval of ST2’s planned service to south Snohomish County in 2008, it’s been a long wait to see steel wheels rolling into the county.

“Our ratepayers in the district have been very patient and have been investing in this system,” said Somers, who serves as vice chair of the agency’s board of directors and will move up to chair in 2025. “Finally, we’re going to have a major transportation hub in Lynnwood.”

Even the relatively short distance of the 8.5-mile line between Northgate and Lynnwood will be consequential, he said. Many of those heading to events in Seattle or the Sea-Tac airport have been making car or bus trips to Northgate to ride Link, but that has had its own inconveniences for those in Snohomish County with recent construction at that station and limited parking.

“With the Lynnwood Transit Center, you’re going to be able to get to light rail from local bus service, Community Transit bus service, their bus rapid transit service,” he said. “It’s going to be — if not the — one of the most heavily used stations in the system for quite some time.”

Sound Transit’s expectation is that the extension north to Lynnwood will see between 50,000 to 70,000 additionally daily round-trip riders, bringing ridership on the full 32-mile line to its south-end terminus at Angle Lake to up to 136,000 daily riders.

There’s debate about what impact the light rail system has and will have on reducing congestion on I-5. A recent Seattle Times look at that question notes that Link’s share of riders accounts for only 1 percent of regional travel.

But what light rail is bringing to the region — and Snohomish County in particular — amounts to more than fewer single-occupancy vehicles on I-5 and eventually I-405 and I-90 as the system expands with the start of service on the 2 Line along the I-90 corridor from Seattle to south Bellevue in 2025.

For the cities of Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline, the work to bring light rail service to the county’s south has been disruptive but transformational, as residential and commercial development has been planned and built in preparation of growth that was going to come with or without Link. Within walking distance of the four new light-rail stations, about 10,000 new apartment units have been built, with another 41,000 planned, permitted or under construction.

The planning for light rail has fostered work that has finally provided for a city center for Lynnwood, said Mayor Christine Frizzell, in an interview this week.

“With the addition of apartments and storefronts and new businesses, all of that happening in Lynnwood over the last few years” has transformed the city, said Frizzell, who also serves on the Sound Transit board. “We had the mall, but not a downtown.”

Light rail’s encouragement of housing is key to that transformation, as state lawmakers have spent a good portion of recent sessions focused on finding solutions to a shortage of affordable housing, especially avenues to increase the supply of housing and lower its costs. Encouraging what’s called “transit-oriented development,” such as that now seen near the four new stations, means a personal vehicle and its costs are no longer a necessity for many.

It’s also opening opportunities to address the region’s struggle with homelessness, Frizzell said. One piece of property near Lynnwood’s transit center could eventually feature a new housing complex by Housing Hope, with a cafe that would employ residents and help develop job and other life skills, a project similar to Housing Hope’s HopeWorks Station in Everett.

There’s a cultural change, too, Frizzell said.

During a demonstration of the line Tuesday for local officials. Frizzell said she chatted with a Sound Transit security worker about what the new line meant for him and his family, who live in Lynnwood. An immigrant, the job with Sound Transit has been a stepping stone for his family, he told the mayor.

“It’s meant the world to him and his family,” she said. “This can really open doors for people.”

Among those who have worked years to see light rail come to Snohomish County has been Paul Roberts, who while he was on the Everett City Council served with Somers on the Sound Transit board, sometimes struggling to keep the agency’s focus on its founding promise to prioritize “building the spine” of the system from Everett to Tacoma and east to Bellevue.

It’s easy to focus on what Link will mean for travelers. Roberts said he noted that himself during a recent return north from an appointment in Seattle as he was watching the “green line” of light rail in comparison to the “red line” of congestion that showed on the map app on his phone.

Yet, the effects on travel emanate out from the Link rail line, Roberts noted. In September, Community Transit, which has for years offered bus service into Seattle serving what the Link system will now provide, will redeploy its buses to routes within the communities it serves, allowing it to increase the frequency of its routes and adding to its Swift bus rapid-transit lines, including the new Orange Line between the McCollum Park-and-Ride in Everett and the Lynnwood center station.

Nor should the point be lost on what the light rail system means as a climate and air-quality solution, said Roberts, who also served on the board of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. With transportation responsible for about 45 percent of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state, each light rail rider adds to a significant combined reduction or carbon and other pollutants.

“I saw years ago the importance of building these systems to give us alternatives from an environmental and climate point of view. That has only become more critical as time goes by,” he said.

The line’s arrival in Snohomish County also ramps up the anticipation for Link’s eventual extension north to Paine Field and Everett Station as part of ST3. Although still years away — there’s hope that the current arrival date of 2042 can be shortened to 2038, Somers said — there’s ample opportunity now to begin planning to make the transition easier, prepare for growth and re-imagine communities and neighborhoods along the planned route.

Looking at the changes that came to Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace, Somers said, hints at the possibilities. Somers and other officials held a little victory part in Mountlake Terrace on Tuesday night in a new neighborhood with apartments, condos, restaurants and shops, all because of the new light rail line.

“Light rail triggers a bunch of other activity,” Somers said. “It really will change the face of those communities in Snohomish County. Frankly, Snohomish County will never be the same. This is really shaping the future.”