Sound Transit board narrows focus for North Corridor expansion to along I-5

The Sound Transit Board of Directors Thursday took a major step toward expanding mass transit to Snohomish County, unanimously directing staff to move ahead with environmental studies to identify a light rail route along the Interstate 5 corridor.

Sound Transit will now examine routing and station details between Northgate and Lynnwood as it prepares a Draft Environmental Impact Statement.”This is a big step for thousands of commuters who travel between Snohomish and King counties every day,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon. “After extensive study of alternatives, it is clear that light rail is the right technology and that I-5 is the right corridor.”

Sound Transit recently concluded an 18-month process to analyze comparative bus rapid transit service and several different light rail alignment alternatives. The Alternatives Analysis concluded that extending light rail along the I-5 corridor would have the fastest travel times, the highest ridership and the least cost of comparable routes and service levels.

The analysis estimates the line will carry 52,000 riders a day by 2030 and take about 14 minutes to travel between Lynnwood and Northgate, with four stations and trains running every four minutes during rush hours.

For more information see: www.soundtransit.org/nctp

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2018 and open for service in late 2023. Voters approved the project as part of the 2008 Sound Transit 2 package of light rail extensions to the north, east and south of Seattle. The project is estimated to cost between $1.4 and $1.6 billion. Sound Transit believes the project will be competitive for federal funding because of its high ridership potential through one of the most congested corridors in the country.

Early next year Sound Transit will begin the next phase of analysis and public outreach to help determine the best potential locations for stations and track. Carefully selected criteria — such as station accessibility and property impacts — will be used to ensure the most important questions are asked and answered.

By 2023, the line will connect with the light rail station at Northgate and travel south through the University of Washington to downtown Seattle where riders can continue on to Sea-Tac International Airport and further south or ride east across Lake Washington to Mercer Island, Bellevue and the Overlake/Microsoft campus area.

  1. Smart move. Hope the construction picks up a bit faster than that, though. With the pace of mudslides picking up over the past few years, the Sounder is becoming quite unreliable. Having a rail option that is less vulnerable to the vagaries of weather would be a boon!

  2. As someone who uses public transportation almost exclusively to commute to and from work in Seattle, this is very exciting news!

  3. This is wonderful news!! The more convenient options we have to get from A to B without having to use our cars, the better off we all are, and it greatly increases our quality of life. I also wish it would happen a lot faster, but it is also great to see that our region is moving in the right direction.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.

By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.