SEATTLE — Sound Transit light rail service resumed Sunday afternoon, after an out-of-service train derailed late Saturday night near the International District/Chinatown station.
Sound Transit said the train derailed just before midnight as it was traveling to the southbound platform at the International District/Chinatown station. The derailment happened as thousands of people were leaving an Ed Sheeran concert at Lumen Field, according to several videos posted on social media.
There were no passengers on board the train, and no injuries were reported.
Recovery efforts and an investigation into the root cause are continuing. This is only the second recorded derailment of its kind since a similar incident in 2009, Sound Transit officials confirmed.
At the start of service Sunday morning, Sound Transit said that parts of the 1 and 2 Lines are suspended due to derailment recovery causing major disruptions for passengers.
“Usually when it’s happened before, they’re doing maintenance on the line, so this is the first time we’ve heard of an actual accident,” Rudy Vaughn said after getting off the bus to get to Sunday’s Mariners game.
1 Line service was suspended from Capitol Hill Station to SODO Station, and 2 Line service was suspended from Capitol Hill Station to Judkins Park Station for roughly eight hours Sunday.
Busses shuttled passengers between the impacted stations while service was down.
“They [the busses] are literally packed,” said Robert Gardner. “I mean, the door’s barely closing on everybody.”
Gardner stood at the International District/Chinatown Station with his family of seven and several pieces of luggage as they attempted to reach the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He said they left their hotel early that morning after learning service was down.
“Praise the lord we did. If we didn’t, we’d probably miss our flight,” he added.
Nikki Rainey is in town visiting from Los Angeles and similarly had her travel plans disrupted by light rail service suspension Sunday.
“I bought my little light rail ticket and then heard there’s changes, and I was like ‘please, God no,'” Rainey continued, “and now I’m suffering a little bit.”
Several Sound Transit employees were at the International District/Chinatown Station on Sunday helping impacted passengers get on the correct shuttle busses.
Sound Transit is still investigating what caused the train to derail.
