What’s next for light rail in Snohomish County after the Lynnwood Link extension — with light rail stations in Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood — opens in 2024? Sound Transit has launched a website to invite community members to learn more about the upcoming Everett Link Extension project.

The website, available at everettlink.participate.online, provides additional information about the Link light rail service from Lynnwood City Center heading north through Snohomish County, with stops close to regional destinations.

Sound Transit’s Everett Link Extension will add 16 miles and six new stations, plus one provisional (unfunded) station at SR 99/Airport Road, connecting Snohomish County residents to the regional light rail network. The project will also build an operations and maintenance facility to support the regional network.

In conjunction with the website launch, Sound Transit is also looking for members for a Community Advisory Group. The group will provide a forum for community members to inform the development of alternatives for the project. The group will include residents, transit riders, business owners and representatives of community organizations that reflect the diversity throughout the corridor, particularly communities of color, historically and institutionally underrepresented communities, the systemically disadvantaged, and others whose voices may not have always been heard or prioritized.

The Sound Transit Board will consider recommendations and feedback from the Community Advisory Group when making decisions. Anyone who would like to be involved with the group should complete an interest form online at https://bit.ly/CAGInterest by Oct. 18. Interest forms are available in Spanish, Russian and Korean.

In the fall, the project team will seek public input on different route and station locations to study in more detail through a process called “scoping.” Scoping is an important milestone in the Everett Link Extension project. It is an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts on the Link light rail project and help Sound Transit develop, evaluate and compare different route, station and operations and maintenance facility locations.

In August, the Sound Transit Board adopted a plan that identifies 2037 as the timeframe when the agency can afford to open service to SW Everett Industrial Center and 2041 as the timeframe for service to Everett Station, based on current revenue projections and cost estimates.

However, the board also identified a more ambitious target of achieving a 2037 service opening to Everett Station through intensive efforts to secure expanded funding and control project costs. This target schedule, which is one year later than the original schedule for reaching Everett Station, requires additional funding and/or savings, and intensified commitments of support from partners at the local, state and national levels.

More information on the Everett Link Extension project is available at: www.soundtransit.org/everettlink.