SEATTLE — After years of delays and debate, Sound Transit says riders will finally be able to take the Link light rail across Lake Washington via the Interstate 90 bridge starting March 28.
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That’s the opening date for the Crosslake Connection, and the last major piece of the 2 Line.
Once it opens, trains will run from Redmond to Lynnwood and connect directly with the 1 Line at International District/Chinatown Station, creating a fully integrated regional light rail system for the first time.
The new segment includes stations at Mercer Island and Judkins Park and marks a major milestone in the voter-approved East Link project. With this final connection in place, Sound Transit’s light rail network grows from 55 to 63 miles, completing a system expansion first approved by voters in 2008.
The Crosslake Connection is notable not just for where it goes, but how it gets there. Engineers designed and built the world’s first light rail system to run on a floating bridge, carrying trains across Lake Washington. Sound Transit says that innovation was key to finally linking the Eastside and Seattle by rail.
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Service on both the 1 Line and 2 Line will generally run from about 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 6 a.m. to midnight on Sundays. During peak hours, trains will arrive about every eight minutes at the new stations, with service every 10 to 15 minutes during much of the rest of the day. Through the busiest stretch between Lynnwood and International District/Chinatown, combined service on the two lines will run about every four minutes.
Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine called the opening a long-awaited turning point for the region.
“This extension connects east and west, connects the 1 and 2 Lines, vastly improving mobility and quality of life in our region,” Constantine said. “It’s a transformational achievement that took grit, persistence and ingenuity, and it fulfills a generational promise of uniting both sides of Lake Washington with high-capacity transit.”
The announcement comes after years of missed deadlines and rising costs tied to the Cross-Lake portion of the East Link project.
The project is more than five years behind its original schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget. Those overruns have helped fuel renewed debate about how Sound Transit should fund future expansions.
Even so, agency leaders say the March 28 opening marks the completion of the 2 Line and another step in a rapid period of system growth. Sound Transit has opened six light rail expansions in the past five years, with Pinehurst Station still expected to open later this year.
Sound Transit says more details about opening day celebrations and service will be released as March 28 approaches.
