The Washington State Fair is coming September 5-21.
There will be plenty of options for taking transit to the Fair, but none more fun than taking the Sounder train. Sounder will be providing special weekend service to Puyallup Station on Saturday, September 13 and Saturday, September 20. There will be a couple new features for this year’s service:
(1) Two of the fair-bound trains will start in Everett, and go all the way to Puyallup, without passengers having to change trains, and two home-bound trains will return all the way to Everett. This is the first time Sounder trains in revenue service will be through-routed at King St. Station. See the link above for the schedule.
(2) Sound Transit and the Fair will be honoring package-deal tickets, which include the cost of the round-trip train ride and the cost of admission to the Fair.
There are several options for getting those last few blocks between Puyallup Station and the fairgrounds:
(1) Walk to the east end of the station, turn south on Meridian Ave N, and walk south a few blocks.
(2) Catch the Pierce Transit shuttle to the Red Gate. The shuttle is free for anyone with an ORCA card or a Sounder ticket applicable to the correct day.
(3) Take Pierce Transit’s new route 425, the Puyallup Connector. You will recognize the bus by its beautiful, artsy paint job.
Sounder will not be providing service on September 13th and 20th between Puyallup Station and Tacoma Dome, South Tacoma, and Lakewood Stations. Instead, Pierce Transit will be running express shuttles between Lakewood Towne Center, Tacoma Community College, South Hill Mall, and the Fair’s Blue Gate. The PT shuttles will charge regular Pierce Transit fare, and run hourly 9:30 am to 10 pm Monday-Thursday, and half-hourly 9:30 am to 11:15 pm Friday-Sunday.
Pierce Transit regular routes 400, 402, and 425 serve the fairgrounds. Routes 425 and 503 serve Puyallup Station, along with ST Express route 578.
For all public transit services, up to four kids age 5 and under ride free with each responsible adult.
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All aboard the Fun Train!
And the plain ol’ 578 runs to Auburn, Federal Way, and downtown Seattle all dayif your schedule doesn’t match the limited Sounder runs. The last northbound leaves Puyallup Station at 9:04pm weekdays and 8:01pm Saturdays and Sundays.
Is this the same deal as last year, where the fair reimbursed ST 100% for the cost of the service?
Not sure about sound transit but pierce transit is getting reimbursed by the fair for its part
Argh! Sounds like a great way to get from King Street Station to Puyallup, but sadly there is no reasonable way to get to King Street Station for anyone living north of the ship canal. It’s a 1-hour transit ride from Magnuson Park to King Street for (making an astonishingly terrible 7.6 miles per hour), already far longer than the time to drive directly to Puyallup.
Perhaps those numbers will change in 2016 when you can connect to Link.