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Trains are now running in revenue service to and from Angle Lake Station. The party goes until 2:00 pm.

Enjoy the ride, come back check out the booths, and hear the world’s only (as far as I know) football club marching band, Sounders FC Sound Wave!

Check out Sound Transit’s webpage dedicated to the new station.

Link is running 3-car trains all day today and tomorrow, as per weekend tradition. Follow the advice of one of the ST Board members at the party, and board the third car, as it is often less full than the front two.


Thanks to Bruce, Dan, and Oran for tweeting from the event.

60 Replies to “Angle Lake Station Opening Party Liveblog”

  1. Yaaaaa! Way to go people! Nice progress, too bad it is four more years until the next stations open!

    (will be interesting to see how full that parking garage gets on Monday and several months from now).

    1. Monday? How about tomorrow? There’s a game on downtown and that stop has over a thousand parking spots.

  2. How much TOD will there be at this station? There needs to be several thousand units built in the walkshed of this station for it to male sense. What is the plan to improve bus service to this station? The failure to do both will make this an obscenly expensive park and ride…

      3. Do you know anyone who lives in senior housing? My mom does. The senior housing where she lives has their own bus that takes them shopping, to M’s games, on other “outings”, etc. She never uses public transit and never would, like the vast majority of seniors in senior housing. Do you ever see buses driving around Seattle from retirement communities? That is how seniors living in senior housing get around, if they can’t drive any more.

        Most “active seniors” like to stay in their own homes until they are too old to be “active” any more. Then they move into senior housing.

        People who don’t drive because they are too old to drive safely are not going to take public transit.

      5. Are those seniors who comment on this blog living in senior housing? Or, are they still living in their own homes?

        There are several seniors over 70 living in my building who are “active.” But my building is not senior housing. It is just a regular apartment building. As I said, most people who live in senior housing are people who are no longer very “active.” Because as long as seniors can take care of themselves, they generally stay in their homes. They don’t move into senior housing until they have to, because they can no longer take care of themselves in their own homes.

        The point is this — if you have a 5-story residential building near a light rail station, the worst type of building it could be to generate a lot of light rail trips is senior housing. Those people are not going to be taking many trips at all on Link light rail. And, as I also said, most senior housing has its own private buses to take residents where they need or want to go, so they don’t need to take public transit. They have their own private transit provided by the senior housing.

      6. It’s not like the entire walk shed of the station is being filled with such housing. There’s plenty of room around the station to develop and redevelop. A diversity of land use, businesses and residents is a good thing.

      7. “Most “active seniors” like to stay in their own homes until they are too old to be “active” any more.”

        Not everyone has their own house. So if it’s a choice between a regular apartment and a senior apartment, some may prefer the senior apartment.

    3. It’s not just about what’s at the station either. This station and section of track is a step toward future expansion toward FW and Tacoma if ST3 passes (and toward Highline College whether it passes or not).

    4. I’m an active, disabled senior who uses Metro, Link and FHSC for more medical appointments than you can shake a waking stick at.

      Imagine First Hill without all those barely driving and parking seniors :-) Today’s transit riders are tomorrow’s senior transit riders (sooner than they realize now)

      I’m planning to ride down to Angle Lake Station this week just because it is there.

      1. It’s like some people never ride transit outside weekday commuting hours so they never see the diversity of people, young and old who take transit for non-work purposes.

      2. Where do you live? In senior housing? If so, don’t they have their own bus to take seniors where they need to go?

      3. It’s understandable that some would think that Senior Housing and Assisted Living, for example, are the same thing.

        I believe this is the referenced new senior housing:

        http://reserveatseatac.com/

        People who would *need* to ride in a provided shuttle bus would have either needed paratransit otherwise … Or specifically choose to ride with old fogies :-)

        All sorts of surveys (not just transit) do mature people a great disservice by topping out with “over 65” as if that’s homogneous.

      4. I have no idea where these people get the idea seniors don’t want to leave the house. I work and will continue to do so until my death or disability prevents me from doing so. I live in a retirement mobile home park and love the quiet. No more listening to screaming, fighting tenants. To all you people out there. Being 60 is not different than 40 years old. I do the same things I did before, travel, have fun, join clubs. You really need to get over the idea we are old. My neighbor is 85 and she is never home. She stays out later than I do. LOL

    5. Seems to be totally missed that this building is “means tested” “senior housing”, thus a part of “affordable housing”

      A similarly conceived and administered building in Lake City is right at ST522 bus stop etc

  3. Just pulled off an amazing Link-to-RapidRide transfer from the arriving train at Angle Lake at 2:28 to the southbound A line at S. 200th scheduled at 2:25 (but running 5 mins late).

    When the train was at TIBS, the next A-line was 8 mins away, so the train was able to catch up to a bus that left 7 mins earlier.

    1. Are you telling me the train-to-bus transfers can work better when the bus stays on the nearest arterial? Heresy!

  4. I saw Oran and Atomic Taco at the opening. The station area is coming along; I’m more positive about its potential. There’s a five-story senior housing building in the last stages of construction, with retail spaces beneath per SeaTac law. There are at least five other parcels with tired one-story buildings that could be redeveloped. Secondarily there’s a gas station and newer Hope Church buildings, but maybe it’s not a good idea to put housing on top of a gas station in case the tank explodes or the ground is contaminated.

    I got a take-out kebab and samosa at the mediterranean deli across the street and went to Angle Lake Park for a picnic. A handful of people there, some children playing, and a barbecue group. The park entrance is at 195th, five blocks from the station. In between is a garden apartment, an empty lot, and another garden apartment; across the street is the senior building, two hotels, and a Horizon Air building.

    There were some Port environmentalist prochures, ST brochures, and a map of south King County trails and parks. I didn’t have time for the Des Moines Creek Trail which starts at the bottom of the hill west of the station. But as I was going down the woman next to me said she lives within walking distance of the station so I asked her about the trail, and she said you just go down the hill on the street and then the trail is flat. She got out at TIB; she said she’d driven to TIB because she wasn’t sure if she’d get back before the station opened.

    The southbound train still said “last stop” at SeaTac station, and the station signs at Angle Lake were idle, so not everything is turned on yet. The TVMs at Angle Lake are different, with a different menu and more compact screen width.

    Rainier Beach Station has a new multistory condo building one block northwest with a big “Live at Light Rail” sign. So development has started there.

    1. On my northbound train, the annunciator said the next stop was TIB station, not Airport station. It correctly said TIB station next when pulling out of Airport. It seems like that one was one they could have fixed during the time the train was doing its test runs.

      I wonder how long it will take to fix little bugs like this and the last stop announcement.

      1. Some SB trains had still had SeaTac/Airport Station as their destination. A southbound train I got on at the airport around 3pm showed Airport on the destination sign. It then proceeded to Angle Lake with no automatic announcements.

      2. The Link’s Announcment System has been acting up lately, so this doesn’t surprise me. I was riding a link train the other day and when arriving at each stop, the announcement system would glitch out. For example” No-…arriving…at Inter..China..Station.” I hope they fix it soon, though I would also like if they changed the announcement voice. As I haven’t like it ever since it showed up after the U Link Expansion.

      3. My train had Sea-Tac/Airport showing in the window, but the driver manually announced at every stop (over the train’s outdoor speakers) that the train was going through to Angle Lake.

    2. When I got back to Angle Lake a couple ladies had to jump back on the North train since they hadn’t realized South was an option. Fairly painless mistake. Probably be a lot of that next week until people get used to it.

      1. Although it’s weird that they didn’t get that figured out during the month or so of simulated service to Angle Lake.

      1. I thought it said condo on the sign. Are we talking about the same building? It’s white or light gray, and to me it didn’t look like townhouses.

      2. They are both – a “condominium” is a legal mechanism, not simply “apartments for purchase.” These are townhomes that are condominiums.

    4. And speaking of the deli, Mike, and also the Rapid Ride, Alex, I wonder if future business and residential community can incorporate a foot-bridge across the highway to make everything not only transit oriented, but transit-reachable-alive.

      Calvin and Hobbes, in their futile comic strip competition with Suzie in the class safety poster contest, did think of an idea to with great promise for promoting the structure: An official crossing-discouraging outline on the pavement, only smeared with raspberry jelly both for realism and to attract flies.

      Maybe the impressive blue structure only used up 99 percent of the Federal one percent for the Arts. And any prospective outdoor cafes will be grateful for yellow-jackets having someplace else close by to eat lunch.

      Mark

    1. There wasn’t really any swag to be had. Certainly no cardboard train models, no special orca cards…

      1. Thanks Charles B, I appreciate you. Every day, not just Sound Transit Seahawks BEAT NoST3 Forty Whiners Day.

        KUOW and the Santa Clara Times at SeattleTimes.com, not so much. Especially on “Sound Transit Seahawks BEAT NoST3 Forty Whiners Day”.

  6. I had fun. I went with a someone who hasn’t used Link much. We got on the first ride and went all the way to UW and then checked out a few stations on the way back.

    Definitely need some TOD around this station.

  7. Gentrification has hit SeaTac. I talked to a teacher who told me some trailer parks are closing for redevelopment and she didn’t know where here students were going to go. She is and ELL teacher.

    1. Trailers are one-story buildings. While we need to provide affordable housing, we also need to recgnize that one-story buildings are the sprawl that make it hard for more than a few people to live near frequent transit, and why they bid up the price of the few places that are fortunately situated.

      1. Height matters not. It’s the density. Will more people be able to live within the same footprint, and will the landlord help the tenants move?

  8. Wouldn’t worry about development around Angle Lake Station. ‘Til today, there hasn’t been any reason for it. But the new buildings a few blocks north look like a trend.

    But Dave raises a long overdue point. To count for truly “Transit Oriented”, development around stations should include places for people not only to live, but also to earn a living. I’d rather see things like small machine shops, and also establishments like the Middle Eastern market across the street.

    BTW, Mike, thanks for the word about the kebab. It’s good to know there’s food just across from the station. Maybe business district about a quarter mile north of Tukwila International can start to grow its way to the station.

    Some really great Somali food there. Several cab drivers eating in front of one of them at all times are good recommendation. If somebody official has a problem with incorporating the station- with the north terminal of a Rapid Ride line- into that neighborhood, it should also be to somebody’s commercial advantage to get it solved.

    These restaurants deserve some business out of that station, and us passengers deserve that food.

    Mark Dublin

  9. True to form, the Seattle Times has exactly zero mention of the opening in today’s paper. What a joke.

    Congrats to ST on this. And they got it done in time for today’s big game.

  10. So, another party. How much taxpayer money did Sound Transit flush down the toilet to pay for this one?

    1. Alaska Airlines (which has several offices near the station), the Museum of Flight, and the City of SeaTac were among the event sponsors. City of SeaTac appears to have been in charge of the musical entertainment.

      After a long-time litigator who has wasted lots of taxpayer money harassing Sound Transit with lawsuits complained about ST not accepting corporate contributions for the well-attended party in March, ST responded to its die-hard critics by going the opposite direction this time. I’m waiting for the forced outrage over the acceptance of corporate contributions by same.

      2. Hey I am all for corporate sponsorship of these events. It saves the taxpayers money.

      3. I’m glad Alaska Airlines cares about the station, and that some of its staff will presumably use it.

    2. Thanks for the correction, “…Dawg.” But for an accurate accounting, though, we have to calculate the price difference for chunky spaghetti sauce versus raspberry jelly. And comparing it to which one yellow-jackets like better.

      Another complicating factor is that, since yellow-jackets are predators, they may also like meat. However the effect of tomato sauce is not yet known. So given closest existing food source, ST had to cut to the chase and start directly offering them Middle Eastern kebabs.

      Because the Station-Opening part was really a cover for an ongoing NSA experiment to see whether we should load our artillery shells with local specialties to make the wasps attack the enemy, or whether our own pizza and cheeseburgers are more effective.

      Since after deducting the cost of the contractors’ bribes, I mean Constitutional campaign contributions, ST service area taxpayers come out ahead. Downside is that now those police in black uniforms (how come the right wing Conspiracy theorists aren’t afraid the King County Sheriff will take their guns?) will have to click everybody reading this with one of those things they use to make people forget then saw space aliens.

      So, before I forget I saw it, could be Angle Lake Station is a lot more memorable than I remembered it a minute ago.

      Mar (click!)

    4. Mathew,

      So apparently spending money on a community celebration that brings people to a community is a waste of money?

      I await your complaints about Seahawks community celebrations. Especially as I suspect you’re a 49ers Faithful and if that’s ad hominem, well then we can’t tease the trolls on Official Sound Transit Seahawks Beat Anti Transit Forty Whiners Day.

      Joe

      1. Well Joe, I am a Seahawks fan. Been since I knew what football was. I am against taxpayer money for any event like this.

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  13. I just saw it this morning. Tuesday 7:55am. Almost nobody was there. One thing I would like to see is a “Next train to UW via downtown” with an arrow pointing to it. I knew which train was next but 3 others asked me. It could be on the LED station boards. Just in case they don’t see staff in time. Just a thought. Otherwise, nice station.

    1. TriMet has been trying that type of thing with the new LCD screens at Park Avenue MAX station. Half the time it points to the wrong train.

      Making this work means the sign has to know which trains are there, then looks them up in the timetable to see which slot in the timetable leave in what order, and then figure out which track each train is on.

      This can be done, but it is a lot more than a sign alone can do.

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