Lynnwood Link Festivities

191 Replies to “Lynnwood Link Festivities”

1. This Eastsider had his fun on the 2 Line’s opening (though I still wish my mother were still alive to experience it). This day is for the Snohomish County and North King people. I’ll let them enjoy it, and check out the new stations later on.

   BTW, that Mountlake Terrace poster looks a lot like those 1950s-era posters airlines used to promote their exotic destinations.

   1. “This day is for the Snohomish County and North King people.”

      It’s for everybody. It won’t be so overcrowded you’ll displace locals. Maybe wait an hour for the first trainloads of “I went first” people to go through. That’s what I did in Bellevue and would do in Lynnwood. Of course, if you just don’t want to go there the first day but would rather explore it sometime in the first week or first month, that’s fine too. I’ve done that sometimes. I toured Swift Orange on the second day, simply because that was the best day my friend and I could arrange our schedules.

      1. Also, I have to work today. Not the first time I’ve had to miss out on a civic celebration because of employment.

2. Does anyone know what time/where ST will be distributing the commemorative orca cards tomorrow?

   1. I haven’t heard of commemorative ORCA cards. My guess would be at the night markets.

   2. For the 2 Line Starter Line opening, the commemorative ORCA cards were found at the Bellevue Downtown Station, where the ribbon cutting took place. I think it’s safe to assume ST’s main booth will be at the Lynnwood City Center Station, and that’s most likely where you’ll find ORCA cards and other commemorative merch.

      1. Thanks.

   3. Ambassadors and staff are supposed to be handing them out

3. I’ll be there for the Night Market part from 4-8pm. I will get my map stamped at each station and return to Lynnwood to turn it in (I regret not doing the map adventure for East Link).

   Thanks Nathan for providing these maps! I wasn’t expecting so many booths, especially the one at MLT. That looks almost like the night market in Richmond BC. I’ll bet they will have some great food as well.

   I will probably not go to the brewery since I’ll have my wife and elderly mother with me and they will enjoy the night markets more. I’ll have on a dark grey T-shirt with a black heavy rail train on it and some visible tats. Tomorrow will be a great day!

4. I am sorry this is off topic, but how do I post a page two? I have written one on the concept of Northup Infill station on the 2 Line.

   1. Hi, I just sent an email to you the email you listed. If you didn’t receive it, please reach out to our contact address (contact at seattletransitblog dot com)

5. I probably won’t make it to the festivities since I’m getting over an illness, but I’ll be with you in spirit, and eager to hear your reports. Somebody count the crowds for me.

   Lynnwood Link has always been a particular interest of mine, and I was effectively the “Lynnwood Link reporter” during early planning and the EIS process. It’s not my primary travel area (between downtown and Northgate) but I could tell the potential in geography, ridership interest, a strong Snohomish/Shoreline to North Seattle travel market, and a pretty intact street grid in Shoreline — moreso than in the east or south corridors. So I’ve long been looking forward to Lynnwood Link’s opening. Now that I might not be able to see it in person, I find I’m not as bothered by that as I might be, since I’ve already attended three openings in the past two years (Northgate, 2 Line, Swift Orange — although the latter I rode the day after).

   1. Mike, unless you’re dying, get some rest during the day and at least come to the night market. You don’t want to break your streak, you will probably regret it later. You’ve invested a lot into LLE, and it would be a shame to miss out on the big day.

      1. It depends on the motive. If someone mostly wants to enjoy the festivities and have an experience, then go on opening day. But, if someone just wants to check out the new line and stations, opening day probably isn’t the best day to do that.

      2. @Sam,

         The best part of these events is always the speeches by the politicians. Always a crowd pleaser.

         And there will probably be more speeches at 4 on the main stage at LCC.

         So if you miss the main gaggle of politicians speaking at 11, don’t fret! There will be additional opportunities. At least at LCC.

      3. Always a crowd pleaser.

         You forgot the “/snark”.

      4. The second-best part of these events is reading the comments thread at STB.

6. I do plan on being after ribbon cutting in Lynnwood on that date and I think that what’s going to happen is that there will be a lot of people at that ribbon cutting. However, I plan on getting there early to avoid the crowds! But if you plan on going to the ribbon cutting before 11:00 make sure you can leave early and make sure you have plenty of time to grab something to eat.

   1. The ribbon cutting is later. ST’s media advisory says, “Speaking program begins at 11 a.m. Trains will begin running at approximately 12:30 p.m. following a ribbon cutting.”

      That’s consistent with the 2 Line, where the ribbon cutting came after the speeches. The speeches started late or went long — I forget which — so the ribbon cutting came after that. The speakers and front rows of listeners were inside a tent. I was just outside it, so I couldn’t see the speaker most of the time, although I found I recognized some of their voices (Balducci, Cantwell, etc). At the end the ribbon cutting suddenly came and went and I somehow missed it. Then the VIPs got on the first southbound train and a line formed at the station entrance.

7. Although I think going farther north at this time is folly, I am very hopeful that the ability to free oneself from the freeway chaos will make the Lynnwood extension a smashing success and that ST will be forced to run Line 1 through the existing tunnel even if they complete the West Seattle madness, in order to meet the demand north of Westlake.

8. Google Maps shows the 1 Line in green all the way to Lynwood now.

   Also slightly off topic, I noticed they are stringing the high voltage electrical overhead on I-90 between IDS and the Central District. This to me indicates the rails in that section below are repaired. Would really love to see that progress on the bridge.

   1. I noticed the wiring progress on the bridge east of IDS this week from the 550. Exciting!

      I read elsewhere on this site that the East Channel bridge is ready for testing and noticed that the temporary fence at the east end of that bridge has been removed.

      Unfortunately, the floating bridge remains considerably behind that pace. The plinth repair appears to be done, but the rail isn’t yet affixed and the east and west high rises are very much still construction zones.

9. For those who want to ride the first train from Angle Lake to Lynnwood, that starts at 11:39 am from Angle Lake, and departs Northgate at 12:36 pm per the schedule on ST’s website.

   If you want to get north from Northgate earlier, on transit, catch ST Express 512 at Northgate, just southwest of the station.

   There are ways to get to the first partial northbound trains from North Shoreline and then South Shoreline, on transit, but the easiest way to get on one of those is to get off the 512 at Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station, and head up to the new station area to the east (the only way you can exit the freeway station on foot).

   The bus route restructures, except for Pierce Transit, do not happen until September 14.

   Practically speaking, getting to the starting point of one of those two first northbound trains is driving, biking, walking (but not on 145th), or catching a taxi/Lyft/Uber. I assume the brand new car parking garages are now open at each station and the bike parking infrastructure is accessible.

   I won’t be on the train until Sunday at the earliest, but I’ll be with y’all in spirit today.

   1. That schedule can’t know whether the ribbon cutting will be on time. But at worst if you get kicked off at Northgate you can wait on the same platform until a train lets you on.

10. I wonder how many people will do their first northbound commute this afternoon, after having come southbound some other way.

    1. I will be riding southbound home from 148th after riding to Northgate then taking the 347 in this morning! Reverse commute I know, but I am excited to drop one seat from my commute that has been three seats for the past three years!

       1. @Dijibell,

          Your commute just got a whole lot better. Congrats.

          You are unique in that apparently you have a reverse commute, but people all up and down the line are going to see similar improvements.

          And my in-laws are also excited about the Swift Blue extension to NSS/185th. That will be a really great improvement for a lot of people.

       2. There isn’t that much reverse commuting going on north of Northgate, and I would imagine your commute is fairly unusual. Most of the folks that are heading north in the morning are headed to Everett. Lynnwood has some reverse commuters, but Shoreline has even fewer. Very few are close to the stations. You hit the commuter lottery!

          By the way, that happened to me once. I live west of Lake City. They used to run a commuter bus from Lake City to the UW, then to Downtown Bellevue. It never got that many riders, but the folks who rode it loved it. I used to call it “my private bus”. They cancelled it eventually (it was a nice idea, but it didn’t get enough riders).

11. My coworker just tried using the train at Lynnwood for his morning commute. He arrived, as did several others, and were angry that service didn’t start until 1130a. “Aug 30th, Aug 30th, Aug 30th…. that’s what everything kept saying”. In hindsight, ST should’ve clarified the actual start-time more.

    1. It does seem strange to have a ribbon cutting on a Friday, especially for a line that is focused very heavily on commuters. It seems like they should have waited until Saturday. Some commuters would be in the same boat, but far fewer. A Saturday opening also implies that the opening is an event (which it is) which at least hints that it won’t open first thing in the morning.

       1. As you said, Saturday would make so much more sense, Ross.

          Opening at midday also is awkward for people wanting to use it for commuting today too.

          And the Mariners are away today, so Link won’t need to serve a game later.

       2. I think Labor Day weekend explains the Friday opening. A lot of people will be out of town on vacation, so the crowds would likely have been thinner for a Saturday opening than on a non-holiday time, like East Link’s opening. With a Friday opening on a three-day weekend, you’ll get commuter traffic, and perhaps some families checking it out before driving to Lake Chelan.

       3. Sounder has been focused on commuters and stadium events; Link is for two-way all-day travel for all purposes; office employment is down. Weekend ridership is relatively strong.

       4. @Al S,

          “Saturday would make so much more sense”

          Ah, no. The Friday opening is an absolute stroke of genius by ST and CT. Pure brilliance.

          The problem with these major openings is crowd control. Excitement levels are very high. Open on a Saturday and LLE will be absolutely crush loaded, and the rider experience will be very poor.

          But open on a Friday and that surge of ridership gets more evenly distributed between Friday and Saturday. That is much more manageable, and will produce a better rider experience. It will still be crowded, but not as bad as with a Saturday opening.

          So kudos to ST and CT for picking Friday for the opening. I can see Friday openings becoming the gold standard for major openings going forward (not for minor openings).

          I just hope the night markets also run tomorrow for those who can’t attend today.

       5. There are probably ballgames over the weekend ST didn’t want to overlap with.

       6. @Mike Orr,

          The Huskies play Weber State tomorrow at 8:00 pm. It will be a huge draw.

          Another good reason to have the opening on Friday.

       7. @Eddie — But this particular extension is very similar to commuter rail. Each station has a giant parking lots with hundreds of spaces. There are no significant destinations near any of the stations. I’m not saying there won’t be people boarding on the weekends or at night (especially on a Friday night) but this isn’t like U-Link (a major bidirectional extension).

          I think Labor Day weekend explains the Friday opening.

          Yeah, that could be. But a lot of people still work today. This means you are more likely to have the problem that was mentioned (a worker assumes it is open when it isn’t). In contrast if you open on Saturday you are more likely to get people who show up “checking it out” only to find it doesn’t open for several hours. They either go home or take the bus (and check it out on the way back).

       8. Yeah, the Huskies don’t play until 8:00 PM, so that really isn’t an issue. For a commuter-rail type of service it just makes sense to open in the morning or on the weekend. If you do open on a weekday, then that should be stated clearly on the main webpage (not buried deep inside the festivities page). Something like “Open midday August 30, 2024”.

       9. I can’t help but think if Sound Transit scheduled it on Sunday, Lazarus would be extolling how good of an idea it was as well.

          > But open on a Friday and that surge of ridership gets more evenly distributed between Friday and Saturday. That is much more manageable, and will produce a better rider experience. It will still be crowded, but not as bad as with a Saturday opening.

          Is that actually true? Usually weekdays have more ridership the line of logic doesn’t really work.

       10. Bumbershoot is also going on at the Seattle Center all this weekend.

       11. The Huskies play Weber State tomorrow at 8:00 pm.

           Not really transit related, but it is nuts that the Huskies play a football starting at 8:00 PM Pacific. They played in the national championship last year and they are relegated to a horrible time slot (by the TV powers that be). I get that they are only playing Weber State, but still. Who wants to stay until after 11:00 PM to watch a game and then make their way back home? At least the weather will be nice.

       12. Metallica fans were out in force Friday. Not sure about last night (They played two shows). It was a hoot seeing the metal heads boarding Link.

       13. @another engineer,

           Ya. I got a kick out of all the Metallica fans boarding Link at LCC on Friday too.

           My first reaction was, “Wow, there are that many Metallica fans in this world?”

           My second reaction was, “Wow. This system has only been open for a few hours and already it is being utilized for real transit purposes. These Metallica fans must be real smart.”

           Went to see the Dawgs play on Saturday and there were still people on Metallica shirts.

    2. Speeches start at 11:00. Ribbon cutting around 12:30. First train shortly after that. Assuming everything is on time.

       It’s right on the ST webpage. Your friend has no one to blame but himself.

       1. It is common for people to just read summaries and drill down into the details. In the Seattle Times paper version the headline was “Light rail service to Lynnwood starts Friday”. Online it was “Light rail to Lynnwood starts today; so do flat fares, systemwide”. Right above that is a video showing how “What it is like to ride the Lynnwood light rail line” (implying that it is operating already). I did a Google search for “When does Lynnwood link open”. There are several snippets of news reports showing only the date (not the time). There is a snippet from the Sound Transit website with the date (in bold) but not the time. If you actually click on that link you get here: https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/lynnwood-link-extension. It states very clearly

          Open: Aug. 30, 2024.

          There is no time listed. You have to click on the link that states “View opening day events and learn more”. It seems quite likely that a lot of people have no interest in the festivities, but just want to get to work. I can easily see how someone would assume that it is running this morning, especially given that the extension is clearly aimed at commuters (who board these stations in the morning).

          This isn’t that big of a deal, but ST could have done a better job communicating this information. If they opened on a Saturday then fewer people would have been inconvenienced. I still find it odd that they opened on a Friday.

       2. The countdown clock STB kept linking to certainly implied trains would start at 11:00. That’ll teach us, as journalists, not to just run with the press releases and other propaganda put out by the businesses on which we report, without fact-checking.

          ST never updated the travel time estimate for Westlake to Lynnwood from 28 minutes to 31 minutes, on its project page, but, of course, it was right there in the published schedules for anyone to do the math.

          If we don’t cross-check ST’s webpage for inconsistencies, why would we expect casual riders to do that? (Oh, the destruction of your planet for a hyperspace bypass has been on file for millennia. You Earthlings have nobody but yourselves to blame.)

       3. @Brentt White,

          The estimated 12:30 time for the actual ribbon cutting was published the entire time on the ST webpage.

          I just don’t bother going to look for it after the countdown clock went up.

    3. There will always be people who mis-read things.

       In a way it’s a good sign that there were “several others” who were angry, as it shows the interest in the extension. Think of all the people who didn’t mis-read the opening time.

    4. At least it was Lynnwood so they could jump on the busses to Northgate. If it was at one of the Shoreline stations, that would really suck.

       What I got confused about is whether you could get on a train at 11, or whether it’s really only 12:30-ish after the ribbon cutting. Ended up driving in today, and there was a crash on I-5 so grrr…. But not a huge issue, I’ll be on the train tomorrow for meeting up with people by the Space Needle.

12. Extreme nitpick but: The 1## stickers bug me. I’m on the train to Angle Lake right now hoping to catch the first northbound train, so I’m noticing a lot of the stickers for the first time. It seems like the ST decided to put the stickers on the far left in the blue/orange rim signs, into the little circle at CID and Pioneer Sq, and directly to the left of text in the newer stations. And the new sign at Symphony is great. The circle one is cute, but the other two have mismatched font. The ones directly to the left of text makes the sign look not centered. I actually mostly like the sticker placement on the blue/orange signs, except at Columbia City where the long name almost makes the sticker not fit. I wish ST just invested in new signs, or stickers that fill the entire sign width.

    1. The signs at Roosevelt and Capitol Hill look elegant, like the 1## is part of the sign rather than a sticker. ST may have done something different at the older stations.

       I’m still not convinced people will understand them right. When I see them on destination signs I think “this station’s number”, not “destination station’s number”. So the station signs on the side walls, the northbound destination signs, and the southbound destination signs all have different numbers.

       1. I’m still not convinced people will understand them right.

          I agree. It seems like it is needlessly complicated. The stations numbers should all be unique and two digits. They should not incorporate the line number. It seems odd that fairly soon we will have a “260” (Spring District) and a “1260” (Othello). It would be much easier if it was “60” and “78” (or something similar).

    2. I’m pretty sure that all the stickers north of International District- Chinatown have to be changed when 2 Line starts running next year. All the 1## become 12##.

       Simulation begins supposedly in exactly a year from now (late August 2025) per the June Progress Report.

       1. I think they’ll be “1##” and “2##” on separate rows. There’s no line 12.

          I’m wondering how ST will fit two rows on the destination signs without looking squashed. It may have to make the new signs taller.

       2. I think they’ll be “1##” and “2##” on separate rows.

          So that means the station will have two numbers? How will they differentiate between BelRed and Rainier Beach (both of which end in “61”)? I thought the whole point was to be able to tell someone (especially someone who doesn’t understand English) to go to a station by number (e. g. station “145” or “45” for Northgate).

       3. “How will they differentiate between BelRed and Rainier Beach?”

          261 and 161. Each line/station pair is unique.

       4. OK, that makes sense (I guess). At least you keep the numbers unique. But the first digit becomes rather arbitrary for stations north of CID. I guess it is “1”, despite the fact that the 2 line also serves those stations. I still don’t understand why they didn’t just number them with two digits (and three digits if we ever get more than a hundred stations).

       5. No, where the 1 and 2 lines overlap like Symphony will be “151 / 251 Symphony”.

          “I still don’t understand why they didn’t just number them with two digits”

          ST thinks this is better. So that you need just two numbers for your entire trip, and each number includes both the line and the station. So you just find that number on the map, and that tells you where to go and which line to board, and to find the direction you look for the terminus most similar to your destination number, and get off at your destination number. Some systems in Asia may do this; I don’t think ST made it up.

    3. From what I understand, LEP (Limited English Proficiency) responded well to it compared to the other proposals. Which were ### + Station Name & Line # + Station code ## (either with them in a single bubble or only the line # in a bubble and then the station #

       LEP Focus Group

       Observations
       • 5 languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Somali
       • Stop codes were favored with option
       2B preferred
       • Quickly picked up on how to read map
       • Line colors often used for reference
       • Not all saw a need for codes, but they
       did not struggle to comprehend them
       • Familiarity with other transit systems
       provided a frame of reference
       • Transfer was successfully identified

       Passangers with Disabilities

       Observations
       • Station codes to identify stations was a new concept
       • Not a clear preference
       • Desire for explicit explanations about what numbers represent
       • Concerns that people could mistake codes for bus lines
       • Feedback on braille format
       • Lots of general wayfinding feedback givenYou can read the board of directors report here

       https://www.soundtransit.org/st_sharepoint/download/sites/PRDA/ActiveDocuments/Presentation%20-%20Station%20Codes%2011-3-22.pdf

    4. The station numbering concept is awesome. However, the implemntation is becoming confusing. If you’re at a station, you’ll see three different numbers all in the same place: a station number for each direction and a number for the station you’re at. For example: if you’re a tourist who just arrived and are standing at Seatac station, you’ll see: 1-60 for trains going to Angle Lake, 1-45 for trains to Lynnwood and 1-58 for the station itself (not the correct numbers but an example).

       This stations numbers should be removed from the directional headings and just remain on the station itself.

13. Just in time to get us safely to and from the Metallica shows! Thank you Sound Transit!!

14. A dollar and a donut to the first person who spots Maggie Fimia smiling while riding a Link train.

    Oh, never mind…..

15. I hope that Mountlake Terrace poster is not sound transit’s way of telling us they can only supply 2-car trains until the 2 line connects 🤣

    1. No, it’s just a conceptual drawing. A four-car train would overwhelm the picture.

16. I might try using lynnwood link to reach shoreline and other destinations on aurora avenue this weekend. I know it’s not the complete bus restructure yet but it’ll be interesting to see how the bus transfers work, and comparing the travel time to rapidride e

    1. I thought today about compiling a list of current bus access to Link until the restructure.

       Shoreline South has the 347 east to 15th Ave NE, but nothing west.

       Shoreline North has the 348 east to 15th Ave NE, and west to Aurora and Richmond Beach.

       Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood have routes in all directions.

       1. Yeah, though slightly disappointingly google maps still suggests rapidride E over using lynnwood link for most potential destinations I was looking at. Though hopefully it’ll lean a bit more in favor of link light rail after the bus restructures. Also perhaps ill use escooters for the last mile (I wonder what shoreline policy is). Reaching lynnwood is of course still much more convenient with the light rail

       2. Yeah, as I wrote down below it feels like a soft opening — especially in King County. The 347 and 348 are infrequent, which means bus service to 148th and 185th is infrequent. The 148th is not connected to Shoreline College, despite being very close. That all changes in a couple weeks.

       3. @WL — I’ve noticed that Google maps often avoids Link. I can’t say they are wrong (if you are only focused on how long the trip takes). But quite often I just go with Link anyway (e. g. for a three-seat ride) just because I hate the initial wait. Of course that means I sometimes wait even more, but at least the waiting is spread out. (OK, it sounds stupid as I type this — I’m not saying it makes sense.)

          Anyway, there are no really good options for getting from Aurora to Link right now. You’ve got the infrequent 348 along with the infrequent (and indirect) 345. The (also infrequent and indirect) 346 comes fairly close to Aurora, while the very infrequent 330 manages to skip the station by several blocks. You also have the 302/303 which connect to Northgate fairly quickly but runs a few times a day. All of this will all change (quite dramatically) in a couple weeks.

          But even then buses will only connect to a handful of stops along Aurora. Both agencies dropped the ball in my opinion. Swift should serve 200th and 192nd (instead of Aurora Village). Metro should send the 333 on the pathway of the 330, which gets you two stops on Aurora (155th and 160th) instead of one. These stops also have more potential riders. Metro will have a crossing route on 175th, but it manages to miss the stations, which is just weird. To be clear, it will connect to Link, but only if you are go all the way west to Shoreline Community College (and back) or go all the way up to Mountlake Terrace. It is probably faster just to take the E and another bus. A more straightforward dogleg (https://maps.app.goo.gl/dW6imWunUkzzNozp6) along with service along Meridian would have been better. If you insist on serving that part of 175th then at least turn on 175th (like so). All those together and you at least connect to most of the Aurora stops north of 130th.

       4. “Shoreline North has the 348 east to 15th Ave NE, and west to Aurora and Richmond Beach.”

          Will have, maybe.

          Current route crosses I-5 at 175th rather than 185th. At one time I remember there being something that went further east on 185th, then down to UW, but that got removed with Northgate link.

       5. The 348 still does 185th & I-5 most of the time (5am to 10pm) if I’m reading the schedule map right. I remember it being straightforward on 15th, west on 185th. Now there’s a little jog on 175th between 15th and 10th for some reason, but that’s still east of the station. It also has this peculiar nighttime routing after 10pm and before 5am on 175th between Meridian and 15th. I’ve never seen that on any route before. Maybe it’s due to nighttime Link construction? Or maybe there’s a witch’s house on 175th that a lot of people go to midnight ceremonies at.

       6. @Mike Orr,

          “ I remember it being straightforward on 15th, west on 185th. ”

          Ah, the 348 never went west on 185th from 15th. It’s impossible. NE 185th and 15th NE don’t intersect.

          Options are to jog over to 10th NE using 175th or 180th.

          Currently the 348 jogs over using 175th, but I believe that changes to 180th on Sept 14th.

          Jogging over to 5th would also be an option, but for some reason Metro doesn’t like that option.

       7. @Glenn in Portland,

          The 348 currently crosses I-5 on 185th. Except after 10 pm.

          Don’t ask me why.

       8. I like Mike’s theory of there being some sort of midnight cult gathering that demands the 348 move, weather to provide service or to keep buses away.

          Shoreline Cult of the Automobile maybe, from which buses must be excluded by 1/4 mile?

       9. I saw 185th street closures notifications from sound transit to build the shoreline north station. Perhaps it detours for nighttime construction? Or at least that’s the only thing that makes sense for me

       10. Spoiler alert:

           Route 348 will be the only existing Metro route connecting to a new station (after the restructure) that will get a frequency bump.

           The other Metro routes getting frequency bumps are 60 and 125. The 60’s frequency bump may improve my quality of life even more than Lynnwood Link does, almost enough to deserve its own ribbon-cutting.

           Granted, Lynnwood Link may have enabled the frequency bumps for these two south-end routes.

       11. The money for the 60 and 125 boost came out of Seattle’s transit benefit district. When it was first announced it said the money came from the TBD redirecting the money from the 10 and 11 for equity reasons. But when the service change came out, the 10 and 11 weren’t cut as much as expected. Instead the 49, which was going to be boosted too, was reduced instead.

17. Kinda annoying that they refuse to give out the commemorative card if we already have an orca card. I guess I was supposed to lie and say I didn’t have one. (The machines give out the generic one.)

    (And why is it so hard to put little surface/platform signs in the elevator. Right away I overheard people confused by S/P.)

    1. Where did you try to get the orca card?

       1. Customer Support people wandering around at Lynnwood have batches of them. But they seem to only give them out to people who are confused and can’t use a machines or don’t want to use the machines.

    2. update:

       I was finally able to get one of the cards after asking a support person who first said they liked my shirt!

18. Fyi, the trains are not that busy right now. I took south bound train from N 185th Station, around 2:30 pm to Capitol Hill, took less than 20 minutes, 25 minutes including walk from my house. Beats driving, I could see the usual heavy south bound I-5 traffic starting around Northgate. Will be heading north soon, hopefully trains are still not full.

    1. Not full at all – was on first train Lynnwood – Angle Lake and then return. First train was full of course, at least to CID – first car was a few of us with all the media and dignitaries. Very few standees at any point of the ride home. (Mountlake Terrace fair looks fairly impressive.)

       1. Lots more people now, trains are full now, went back to see the festivities

19. This feels like a “soft opening” in many ways. ST, Metro and Community Transit are restructuring their buses on September 14. Some of the buses already serve the stations, but a lot of the service is not that good. For example the 348 connects to 185th Station but it only runs every half hour. After September 14th, it will run every fifteen minutes. To get to Shoreline Community College from a Link location (including any of the three colleges) now requires going downtown and taking the 5 all the way back or waiting for the infrequent (and indirect) 345 from Northgate. In a couple weeks there will be a far more frequent and direct connection to 148th (although it will inexplicably use 145th instead of the more direct 155th).

    Speaking of 148th, we have to wait a while for the pedestrian/bike bridge connecting it to the station from the west. Riders can go around (via 145th) but that is really ugly and for some a detour. For example one of the few destinations in the area is Aegis Living (an assisted living facility). It sits across the freeway on 149th. For someone who works there, the bridge will save about half a mile of walking. For a nurse finishing their shift, the bridge will be a huge improvement.

    Then there is Stride 3. This is one of the main reasons the station is at 145th instead of 155th. The station will connect to the buses coming from north lake suburbs (Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell). The belief was that it would be quicker to go 145th instead of doglegging to 155th (or going to a station to the south). Hard to say if that will be the case in the future, given that the station isn’t on 145th (but on 148th) but that was the thinking. Shoreline isn’t doing much for buses along 145th although the left turn (leaving the station) should be easier because of the new roundabout. But the “BRT” won’t be done for quite some time. Not only that, but the 522 (which follows the same pathway north of Seattle) won’t serve that station for a while either. Not until East Link is done (and no one is quite sure why).

    I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an opening with so many “todo” items. I suppose the original Link (which didn’t make it to the airport) was like that, but that was Link itself not everything around it. (Using that logic you could say that U-Link was a big misnomer because it didn’t get to the main UW station at 45th.) There are a lot of things that are done though. For example the park and ride lots are done (I assume). I also assume the various elevators and escalators are working. While CT has restructured their buses, service to both Snohomish County stations is pretty good (and has been good for a while). While the 512 won’t change until September 14th, riders get all the benefit of the better bus connection now. If you are going to Everett you can get on a bus and the bus can get on the freeway (in the HOV lanes) without slogging through the surface streets like it does at Northgate.

    Nonetheless this is an odd period. I would love to see day to day ridership for these stations, given the situation. I’m sure some people will immediately switch to Link. Others will ride because they are curious. But I would also expect a fair number of riders to stick with their old system, just because it works better for them. If not for the folks “checking it out” I would expect a big jump come September 14th (and another jump at 148th when the 522 is sent there).

    1. I biked around the two shoreline stations. They seem very much geared towards “park and ride”. Shoreline south: There is a pedestrian detour that takes you through the pedestrian zone and over the freeway, but it is not well signed, and the final stretch on 5th is partially blocked. There are a few single family homes east of the station, but you need to go to 145th or 155th to find a through street. (Though there is an open space with some steep hills you can try.) South of the station 5th Ave is still closed. (Last I looked, the sound transit site said it would be open two years ago.)
       Access to the station from the south may actually be better now than after the roundabouts are done. (Could they improve car throughout and pedestrian safety?)

       I had higher hopes for the north station since there was no freeway interchange. However, it was disappointing that the traffic light to cross 185th had a “no pedestrian crossing” on the east side. Just another sign that cars are the primary access method here.

       1. I would like to know more about your bike ride. There was an email thread with some folks from Seattle Greenways talking about the best way to bike to the 148th Station. The cyclist wanted to avoid 15th and 145th (both seem nasty). I suggested go across the freeway at 116th and then working your way north all the way to 155th and looping around. That seems better — and also fairly flat — but I don’t have a lot of experience with that. I’m curious which you went, and how it was.

       2. In my opinion, such a crossing shouldn’t even be needed. At Lents/Foster Road, TriMet’s best thought out freeway station (which is still not that good) they bolted a 12 foot wide bike path to the elevated structure. This allows people to cross without dealing with cars at all. If you’ve already built a bridge capable of carrying a light rail train, a bike path is nothing.

          TriMet’s elevated structure is pretty much the same as Link at this location, so it shouldn’t be too hard, physically anyway, to do that with Link at 185th.

       3. Forgot link to the station:
          https://maps.app.goo.gl/8UQ6qJGAzfUu7zqm7?g_st=ic

          I attempted this on my phone, and when I attempt to test it Google only wants to use the app rather than show me what a web user would see. It should be a close up view of the Lents MAX station showing the I-205 bike path bolted to the side of the elevated structure over Foster Road and Woodstock Blvd.

       4. Which I-5 ped bridges exist now and which are in the future? Is the “no pedestrian crossing” anticipating a ped bridge that will come in several years?

       5. Will pedestrians just trying to navigate what passes for pedestrian pathway along 145th have to detour a few blocks just to cross I-5?

       6. Glenn, it’s the aerial view. It doesn’t switch to StreetView automatically.

       7. So far, the best view of the bike path attached to the MAX elevated structure over the intersection of I-205, Foster Road and Woodstock Blvd is at 1 hour 33 minutes into this cab view:
          https://youtu.be/ONEIjlMeQGw?si=AQH7nue6_lCdI_n0

          As best as I can tell, the YouTube phone interface doesn’t offer a “copy video link at current time” option.

          The street view doesn’t really make it look like anything special. The bike path just blends in with the elevated structure, as if the bike path weren’t even there. The only hint is the chain link fence:
          https://maps.app.goo.gl/WU4XgmG84V8K3QNk6?g_st=ic

20. First elevator outage at Mountlake Terrace station.

    1. Well, that didn’t take long!

    2. Shoreline south and has an escalator out and some guy inside it working away.

21. I arrived at Lynnwood City Center early—about 9am. The presentation kicked off on time. Members of the Tulalip Tribe welcomed us with a prayer and a song. Many dignitaries spoke and it all came to end after approximately 75 minutes. There were too many people for me to see the ribbon cutting, but I heard the crowd cheering when it happened. I realised there was no way to get on the first train, so I went up to the roof of the parking structure and took photos and video of the first revenue service leaving and the first to arrive from Angle Lake. Got on a train by 1pm and tried to get my second stamp at Mountlake Terrace. I was told they’d start doing this during the evening market. So, I headed south and ended up eating at a restaurant close to Mount Baker station. I’m almost back to Shoreline South to start getting stamps.

22. Made it to the Lynnwood night market. Left Symphony at 4:37pm. Evening commute was a bit light; some people standing and a few seats available. On/offs started increasing at Capitol Hill. Then there was a bunch at Northgate.

    Jackson Park looks like a forested Canton below you. Mountlake Terrace has woods on both sides. Other segments are disappointing compared to that.

    Lynnwood has a large crowd at the night market. There were lines at the food trucks so I decided to go to another station.

    Getting back onto Link was an ordeal. The next trains were in 2, 16, and 19 minutes. (Should be 2, and 10, 18 at 5:30pm.) I knew I wouldn’t get the first train. The line was blocked at the bottom of the escalators due to the full platform. It took 15 minutes to deboard and board the first load because the only way down (at least on our end) was one stair and one elevator. This threw the trains off schedule. I decided not to stop at the other stations after all but go directly back to Seattle. The crowds had grown at the other night markets by then.

    1. How was the ride? Was it running faster or slower in places than you thought it would? Or, did you get the feeling they were running a bit slower than they will in the future since it’s the first day, and out of an abundance of caution? There are few sections where it seems like it could pick up some good speed.

       1. The ride was mostly smooth — but there was a segment between LcC and MT that was unusually rough.

       2. I’m still getting used to the fact that Lynnwood is so much easier to get to. Train speeds were normal, although at the 130th station stub nortbound it slowed and almost stopped. Southbound I didn’t pay attention because I was writing that comment. The northern end around Lynnwood shakes back and forth like some segments south of Rainier Beach.

       3. The escalator gatekeeper said, “One person per step”, so that cut the escalator capacity in half.

       4. @Al S,

          “ there was a segment between LcC and MT that was unusually rough.”

          Ah, did you notice that they were using the southern set of crossovers (nearer to 220th) to swap tracks to reverse the trains?

          Basically that “roughness” was just the train changing tracks and going through a double set of switches in the process.

          Switching tracks is always a little bit rougher than staying on the same set of rails.

       5. @ Lazarus:

          It wasn’t the crossover. It lasted for maybe 10-20 seconds.

          Because the scenery on that segment is so wonderful, it may be that the ride quality issue isn’t so obvious.

       6. @Al S,

          They slow down when the change tracks using the crossovers. So, ya, something around 10 secs might be about right. Maybe a bit less.

          So I’m sure you were on the crossovers.

       7. @ Lazarus:

          I’m pretty sure is was at least 30-60 seconds from the crossover.

23. After my ride to lol four stations I don’t need to use a stair master at the gym!

    The lack of escalators is quite apparant. There are NO escalators at all at 185th. The are no down escalators and the stations except 185th are all at least 60 steps down. With most hones separated by 15-16 steps, that like walking from floor 5 to floor 1.

    [Ed: Fixed spelling.]

    1. ST is the Walmart or dollar store of platform access.

       1. But, but, they’re such PRETTY Sky Castles! And impressive! Why would you want to go in them? Stay outside and gaze. Marvel. Appreciate.

    2. We may have saved on escalators/elevators for riders, but the parking garage in Lynnwood has a bank of 3 elevators!

24. I made it through all the stations and even at 7:15pm, the trains are as busy as the 2 Line Starter Line – if not busier. Possibly due to ST sticking to the 8-minute schedule, whereas for the 2 Line, ST ran a few gap trains to boost frequencies at the start of that celebration.

    Still no Boop plushie for me. :(

    1. Between PAX West, Metallica and the Link opening festival — in addition to regular commuting — there’s a lot happening between 4-8 today.

       1. Definitely saw a lot of PAX West and Metallica attendees on the train this evening.

       2. I saw a few PAX tags and one Metallica shirt. I assume those events are in Seattle, but the tags were going northbound to the night markets or to home and the shirt was at the Lynnwood market.

25. ST really skimped on awnings here. Today was a great weather day but I don’t know if it will be great in the rain.

    ST installed perpendicular waiting shelters with benches at some stations — of which several face the prevailing winds when it rains.

    1. I was thinking the same thing earlier.

       It was a great summer evening for the opening but I tried to imagine a dark rainy evening with wind and with a lot fewer smiling faces.

26. What an epic night! Can’t wait for everyone to do their write ups. Glad Mike was able to make it to Lynnwood night market.

    1. It was a fantastic day, and the new service is absolutely phenomenal. Can’t say enough good things about it.

       Well….almost. I ran into an old boss of mine at 185th St Station and basically had to admit that I’ve been mentoring other employees outside of normal organizational control.

       That wasn’t so good…

27. I noticed that the next destination signs in the train just said “Shoreline South” and “Shoreline North” with no numbered cross street.

    1. I hadn’t realized until riding “Shoreline South” and “Shoreline North” seem to be the official station names. I previously thought the cross streets were part of the name.

       I overheard one woman on board tell her friend that she would be calling it the 145th station (even though she knew it’s on 148th).

       It will be interesting to hear what “locals” (who may be between the Shoreline stations) end up referring to them as.

       1. @sb,

          My wife has already told me that the whole Shoreline North vs Shoreline South thing will be a problem for her family, and her family’s visitors. Would be so much better if only one station name had “Shoreline” in it.

       2. Does Shoreline have a city music festival or institution? We could rename Shoreline South to it like we renamed University Street station to Symphony.

       3. @Mike Orr,

          Or you could just rename “Shoreline North” as “North City”

       4. Probably would’ve been better to call them Echo Lake or Ballinger and Ridgecrest.

          Or something else than just Shoreline

       5. The station name does have cross street names! It’s just that they were missing in the next station electronic signs in the trains.

       6. “Probably would’ve been better to call them Echo Lake”

          Would Echo Lake be North Shoreline or Montlake Terrace? It’s about the same distance to each, and until the bus restructure the bus that goes there is from Montlake Terrace station.

       7. Lazarus,

          When the northbound train leaves Northgate, the onboard announcement says “Next stop, Shoreline South. 148th.” When the train pulls into Shoreline South, the onboard announcement says “Now entering Shoreline South. 148th.” When the train leaves Shoreline South, the onboard announcement says “Next stop, Shoreline North. 185th.” When the train pulls into Shoreline North, the onboard announcement says “Now entering Shoreline North. 185th.” At each station are multiple station code signs, further identifying the station. Shoreline South is 43. Shoreline North is 42. The paint color for Shoreline South is yellow. The paint color for Shoreline North is green. Shoreline South is elevated. Shoreline North is at-grade.

          So … tell a visitor, get off at Shoreline North/185th. The station code is 42. The station color is green. And the station is on the ground, not up in the air. If you still think they might get confused, tell them to open up Google Maps on their cell, and to follow the blue dot.

          After telling them this, if they still get off at the wrong station, the problem isn’t the station name.

       8. @Sam,

          You don’t know my in-laws. The mere suggestion that a person can travel “north” to a station called Shoreline “South” has already generated hours of discussion and pushback.

          And they are still confused.

          The only saving grace so far is that they can’t figure out which way north is.

       9. The other day I found out how “Lake City” got its name. Back when the Burke Gilman was a railroad, there was a stop close to the water with a sign with the word “Lake” on it. That’s it. Nothing else. There is value in simplicity.

          The other day Jarrett Walker commented on the “Symphony Station” change. He made a very good point (which I agree with). A station name doesn’t have to be perfect — you just want it to be unique. Thus “145th” is as good (if not better) then “148th”. Sure, technically it is on 148th, but it is close enough — and our stop spacing is so huge — that it makes no difference. Might as well round it to the major cross street.

          Walker then commended ST for keeping the name short (“Symphony” instead of say “Symphony Hall”). I agree, which is why naming stations “148th/Shoreline South” instead of just “148th” is not good. These two ideas go together. You don’t need to tell the rider what is at the station. It could be called “Seneca” or “Krueger” (after one of the early conductors) and it would be fine. It just needs a name. The shorter the better. Likewise, you don’t need to tell people what city the station is in. That makes sense for Mountlake Terrace — there is only one station in the city. But the number is fine, since Shoreline is within King County (and the numbers go up as you go away from the city).

          There is also value in following a pattern. We should have named a lot more these stations numerically. You would skip a few, but it would be simpler and much, much easier to read on a map. I would go with the following north of downtown: Capitol Hill, UW, 45th, 65th, Northgate, 130th, 145th, 185th, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood. That is so much better than what we have done. Oh well.

       10. I personally have no issues with one being “south” and the other “north” but you guys make a good point about how it can be confusing.

           I checked to see what other metro systems have done. They often have a city only station name for one (Hayward, Fremont, White Plains) and a directional name with the city name for the other.

           Regrettably, our region hasn’t developed with public “squares” to later serve with a transit station like Times Square or Harvard Square. It’s actually a bit of a shame that communities haven’t just worked with ST to brand a new public gathering space next to a Link station. In that example, one station could have been just “Shoreline” and the other could have been something like “Obama Square” or “Freedom Plaza” or “Millenium Fountain”.

       11. CTA has three different stations named “Cicero” and two named “Belmont” on the L system, for whatever that says about station names…

           I think it’s best to have something else, in addition to the street number. 100 years from now, there may be parallel Link lines with one on Aurora that also crosses at 185th. That’s how CTA wound up with legacy duplicate names that are now too institutionalized to change.

       12. I don’t see the Chicago example as relevant. Those are stations on 3 parallel lines. In contrast we have/had 3x “University” and 2x “Shoreline” stations all on a single line.

           For Shoreline, it seems to me the best way to deal with it is to emphasize the cross street. “148th street – Shoreline South” and “185th street – Shoreline North”.

28. Great day. We headed north from Seattle at about 3:30. Got to LCC in what seemed like nothing. Absolutely loved looking down at the traffic on I-5. And there were several buses stuck in that traffic, which just reinforced for me the value of dedicated ROW.

    LCC was great. I’ve never seen that transit center from an elevated position before, and I was absolutely amazed at how much land area it consumes.

    Oddly enough, the wife made some comment about all that land to the north that had nothing on it. So I informed her that the site she was looking at is exactly the site that will become Northline with ~1300 new units. An amazing amount of TOD is going in or planned near LCC.

    The station itself was fine. Really enjoyed the views from the platform, and the station seemed to be handling the crush of riders fairly well.

    We then went down to NSS to check out the station my wife’s family will rely on. Really enjoyed that station too. Was surprised at the large plaza that connects the parking level of the garage with the platform level of the station, It was super pleasant.

    Ran into an old boss of mine there. That was interesting.

    We then went back to LCC to see “The Asian Elvis”. And, yes, that is what he calls himself.

    Before the show I went to walk around a bit and see if maybe, just maybe, there might be a beer garden. No luck. But when I returned I found my wife in deep conversation with the mayor of Lynnwood. That was a surprise, and my wife had no idea who she was talking to.

    We had to leave before the end of the Elvis show, but all in all it was a really good day.

    A few additional comments. I enjoyed the forested sections. And was surprised by how close some of the sound walls were to the LRV. That is the power of being on rail with exact positioning.

    1. “We then went back to LCC to see “The Asian Elvis”.”

       I have a friend who used to work seasonally at Teatro Zinzanni with El Vez, the Mexican Elvis.

       1. @Mike Orr,

          I have friends who follow El Vez religiously.

    2. I’ve never seen that transit center from an elevated position before, and I was absolutely amazed at how much land area it consumes.

       That is actually not good. You want as little space taken up by the infrastructure as possible, so that the area surrounding it can be developed. The U-District is a good example of this. It is a major transit hub. It serves about a dozen buses, with thousands and thousands of riders. But it doesn’t take up much space at all. Several buses do layover nearby, but a lot of them keep going. Since Lynnwood is a terminus, I would expect more buses to layover there. But they don’t have to layover right there. They can layover a few blocks away. The 48 does that. So does the 522, which is a great example. It serves the station and then lays over by the park and ride lot. But the lot is several blocks away in land that really can’t be developed (since it sits under the freeway).

       The Lynnwood Station has a lot going for it, especially in terms of connecting buses. I would say that the best thing about the station — its reason for being, really — is that excellent HOV bus lane connection to the north. There are a lot of places that have bus connections to the south (e. g. Northgate) that then become largely redundant once Link goes south. But Lynnwood has an excellent connection to the north, which means buses coming from farther away can get there very quickly.

       But the amount of space taken up by the transit center (so close to the platform) is less than ideal.

       1. I agree with Ross that the station itself should use up as little land as possible to reduce the walk from the train itself to SOMETHING retail. Tom Terrific posted a good photo of the Lynnwood station that should be the most “urban” of LLE and one side is a huge park and ride and the other what looks like a suburban office park. I am not going to Lynnwood station for a “park” when half of SnoCo is rural. Really rural. Like woods.

          The best is like London. Granted the “Tube” (just the name means they get it) is underground, but all you see from the street is a pole with the Tube symbol and some stairs descending from the sidewalk. ST believes stations should be monuments to itself. Especially in the burbs.

          I also agree with Al about the benefits of street parking for retail. Strong Towns discusses this. But it requires sidewalks which are very expensive. Even many areas in Seattle don’t have sidewalks. Otherwise trucks park to the edge of the road so the pedestrian is forced into the street. Just the side mirror reaches the shrubs on the inside.

          I still don’t get the demographic that will live in these apartments along the LLE extension. I understand the original intent: white collar people who worked in Seattle but couldn’t afford to live there. A kind of New Jersey. But now there is work from home for these white collar potential tenants.

          SnoCo residents who don’t WANT to live in Seattle don’t want an apartment in a station area. Even if they do work in Seattle they will use a park and ride, and so will many who live in the station areas because the walk to the station is too far, especially at night. SnoCo is very dark at night. Like pitch black. Most have some kind of flashlight on their key chain. You can hear the birds at night. Where in Seattle can you hear birds at night?

          People don’t move to Ballard for the housing. They move there for the vibrancy when they are at an age when they want vibrancy. Housing becomes denser because more people want to live there because it is vibrant so denser housing follows although it isn’t cheap.

          Starting with denser housing along the LLE stations is putting the cart before the horse especially with the stations so far away on foot. Of all the stations Lynnwood has the best chance, but the reality about SnoCo is it is poor, and you really need Seattle money for a Ballard that tries hard to NOT look too wealthy. The plaid shirts a la Cobain look dry cleaned.

          But just look at the menus and prices and high end restaurants and bars in Ballard that try hard to look “Seattle authentic” from the 1970’s with 20 microbrew taps that cost $10/pint. And then compare the build quality of the multi-family housing to that along the SnoCo stations.

          If I have some extra cash and want to go out am I going to a station at MLT? No, I can drink on the train to U. District, Capitol Hill, or downtown. I might not want to live in those places, and can’t afford it, but I want to party there like everyone else and from the Lynnwood Park and Ride they are about a six pack away which already saves me $50 based on Seattle prices.

          Are any of the Seattle people on this blog ever going to take Link back to SnoCo a second time? No. Are white collar workers who can work from home going to live in an apartment along LLE when they are probably younger? No. Am I going to take Link from Lynnwood to Seattle to party? Hell yes. LLE is going to LOSE more retail than it gains from having Link reach it.

          By the way, I will be the guy in the non dry cleaned plaid shirt and dirty boots. The shoes always give a SnoCo away. It used to be the three day old beard but then that became the look in Seattle. Pretty soon you guys will start dusting a little drywall plaster in your hair.

       2. Large stations can have small sidewalk-level footprints. I like the ones like Leicester Square in London, where the entrance is little more than a door in a multistory building. Chicago and Moscow have more freestanding structures, a small one-room building that fits only the ticket machine and the bottom of the stairs or top of the escalators. That’s probably second best.

       3. The plaid shirts a la Cobain look dry cleaned.

          Or the Carhart jacket worn by a guy who has never changed the oil on his car. Anyway …

          I don’t think the apartments have to be that appealing to get tenants. The region has a housing shortage. You can put up an apartment building just about anywhere and expect to fill it. It will probably be a bit more expensive than most of the apartments in Lynnwood but less expensive than a lot of places in Seattle (for the reasons you mentioned). A lot of people would rather live in the city — and the ones that don’t probably don’t want to live close to the freeway.

          But a lot of people can’t be picky. This is better than some suburban options because of the transit. It isn’t just Link. It isn’t hard to get to SR 99 from there and now with the 101 and Swift you can to a fair number of places without a car. Back when I was there (and too broke to own a car) I would have loved the transit options that exist now. I don’t remember a lot from those days but I do remember hitchhiking back home at night after work (on SR-99).

          Anyway, the point is I think it is better than many apartments in Lynnwood just because of the convenience. I expect all those places to be filled even if they aren’t filled with people commuting to Seattle. It is still a nice option for getting into the city even if you don’t get to the city very often.

       4. “Lynnwood station that should be the most “urban” of LLE”

          It’s Lynnwood’s responsibility to build a downtown commensurate with its central location and large population size. It has talked about doing it for two decades but waited until almost the last minute to start. It waited so long that Link opened while the first few buildings are under construction, leaving a large part of the station area blocked off, and no apartments for people to move into or walk to the station from. If it had rezoned earlier in the 2000s it could have snagged some of the real estate bubble money that was sloshing around.

          “SnoCo residents who don’t WANT to live in Seattle don’t want an apartment in a station area.”

          “If I have some extra cash and want to go out am I going to a station at MLT?”

          “Are white collar workers who can work from home going to live in an apartment along LLE when they are probably younger?”

          “Are any of the Seattle people on this blog ever going to take Link back to SnoCo a second time?”

          Hundreds of thousands of people all want different things. Different people want different aspects and combinations of what you assume and don’t assume.

          Mountlake Terrace may not have the best restaurants or a nightlife scene, but even if you do that once a month or two, in between you want something closer to home, even if it’s not as prestigious or special. So you might take Link one or two stations to a place in MT. There are 365 days a year, so even just 20 of them adds up to several visits. Whether it’s desirable enough to attract people like that is the responsibility of the business, not ST. ST can only put the mobility infrastructure into place to make it possible; it’s up to the businesses and cities to make it happen.

          I’ve gone to Snohomish County occasionally for thirty-five years. I attended a church in north Lynnwood of a niche demomination for a couple years, and stayed with a family in Mountlake Terrace on weekends. I attend MMA tournaments at Edmonds College. I have friends and coworkers who live there whom I might visit. Whether Snohomish County is pretty or not is not the issue: the issue is that things I want to go to are in Snohomish County and nowhere else, so I go there.

          I visit a lot of parks to walk in nature, and am glad to add Veterans Memorial and Scriber Lake to the list. I don’t want to always go to the same park. (There’s also Twin Ponds Park at 155th & 1st Ave NE, which has been an ordeal to get to involving a lot of walking from an infrequent coverage route.)

          I have a coworker who was born in Everett and lives near Ash Way P&R (not my friend from north Lynnwood, but another one) and works in Seattle. She’s used transit in the past and is looking forward to Lynnwood Link making it a more viable alternative. She really wants to live in Snohomish County. People like her may want to or be willing to live in those new apartments, and go to local shops and restaurants, sometimes on Link or Swift or CT, while also going to Seattle at times. Even if they don’t want to live in those apartments, their children might when they grow up.

       5. Paul: there’s already a fair number of dense housing developments along Aurora in Shoreline. Many of the rooms at the extended stay hotel near South Everett Park and Ride are dedicated to housing people that have no other place to live.

          Only people with significant financial resouces can be choosy about where they live. Much of Seattle is still single family housing, and what multi-family housing has been built in Seattle is expensive.

          So, if there’s a place available in Lynnwood or Shoreline or Mukilteo, that’s where they will live. Many of them may have preferred to be in Ballard or Crown Hill or Northgate, but those places are just out of reach for most.

       6. If you don’t have a car you’ll do everything you can not to live in Monroe or off the main arterial in Mukilteo, which just aren’t feasible. The tower-in-the-park apartments along the Bothell-Everett Highway are at least on Swift Green and the 105, but Swift Green and the 105 don’t really go anywhere except Boeing Everett, downtown Bothell, and UW Bothell. In contrast, the apartments near the new Link stations at least have transit to the largest cities and transfer points. We’re hoping that Lynnwood city center will grow into the anchor that is its potential, but even if it doesn’t, at least it’s central.

       7. My friend in north Lynnwood lives two miles northwest of Ash Way P&R via Jefferson Way. The only bus route is the hourly 109, which goes halfway. So she walks with her wheeled cart to Ash Way P&R or the 109 stop. She grew up in the Summit apartments in the 70s and raised a child in apartments in central and eastern Capitol Hill, then later moved to California and came back, and was last living in a Summit apartment in the late 2000s and into 2010 as I was. Then her rent went up by several hundred dollars and she had to move, so she moved in with her now grown up daughter and family in a house they had unfortunately bought in north Lynnwood two miles from frequent transit. There are doubtless other people like that in Snohomish County, both those who can’t afford the new station-area apartments, and those who can manage to but can’t afford Seattle or don’t want to live there.

       8. There’s a station on the DC Metro by Reston where they built TOD over the bus transit center. Its a big underground bus loop terminal with office and residential around a Plaza above. It would be a good precedent for Lynnwood to make development more compact there… ‘Reston Station’ development at ‘Wiehle-Reston East’ station

    3. Of all the stations, I think the west side of the Lynnwood CC station had the most high-level passive landscaping. It seemed really inappropriate between the bus transit center and the station. That was after descending the 65 steps down from the platform since there was no down escalator.

       At the very least, there should have been a covered pergola so that transferring riders wouldn’t get wet. And space for market days would have been awesome. Instead it was an open walkway of several hundred feet surrounded by monkey grass — punctuated by tall artwork (“Shift”) that was supposed to be a nod to historic lighting but to me looked like the inside of a turbine that didn’t spin or the inside of an umbrella.

       1. I commented about this sometime back, but the ridiculous distance between the buses and platform seemed to be lost. If you’re building a whole new bus platform, why put it so far from the train?

29. For a future article, what are the nearest supermarkets to each of the Lynnwood Link stations? If you lived there and wanted to shop at the most convenient grocery, where would you go?

    1. Good idea. Also, how good will the bus service be, esp at stations other than Lynnwood City Center. People who move into station-adjacent housing will have great access to Link, but they probably won’t be running errands on it, like grocery shopping. Will someone who moved into the new apts next to Shoreline North, for example, also have great bus service, or will they need car?

    2. When I explored the Lynnwood Station area yesterday, I got to the 200th St SW/ 44th Ave W intersection. The light cycles took so long that it took me about 3-4 minutes just to get to the diagonally opposite corner!

       The anecdote is to explain how pedestrian distance in minutes can be excessive even if a supermarket is close! Lynnwood may be upzoning its land use — but crossing their wide suburban roads with long intersection timings is still a big hassle.

       1. Yes, the wait to make that diagonal crossing seemingly takes forever.

          Last night I tried to picture what the intersection would look like if there was an all-way stop and people could actually walk diagonally across it. I know that will never happen, but it’s still fun to visualize.

          It would be interesting if someone surveyed people at the SW corner (coming from the station) to determine the breakdown of where most of the foot traffic is headed to.

    3. In case it wasn’t clear, I need the information on where the supermarkets are in order to write the article.

       1. I can help you gather the information (by using Google) but it would be nice to hear stories from people who actually go to those places.

    4. “People who move into station-adjacent housing will have great access to Link, but they probably won’t be running errands on it, like grocery shopping.”

       Unless they have to. That’s the point. People living on Delridge Way had to take a bus to White Center to get groceries. That’s improved somewhat with a small co-op in the middle and some more other businesses, but it illustrates the situation.

       1. Does anyone know the breakdown of the new and planned multi-family units along Lynnwood Link re: size and number of bedrooms?

          I don’t imagine there will be many micro-units or even studios based on the suburban demographic, and not nearly as many single occupant units as in Seattle. I see couples and families. Why would a single person want to live in one of these station areas?

          Shopping for groceries on foot has a smaller radius than walking to a transit station because you have to carry the groceries home, and that radius is reduced to about zero if shopping for more than one, or for a family. Just carrying a single half gallon of milk to the car without a cart is tough. There is a reason grocery stores have carts on wheels and bag boys.

          Grocery stores in SnoCo tend to be suburban in style. Large with huge parking lots on major arterials. The shoppers have very full carts. Not a bottle of red wine and bit of cheese.

          The Seattle Times had an article yesterday about the dwindling retail and restaurants in downtown Seattle. It is very, very difficult to create vibrant dense retail, even in downtown Seattle although every city dreams of it, and transit usually has no effect. Parking does though. Lots of parking, but it has to be closer than the park and rides.

          Retail needs density to survive and thrive, and that means out of neighborhood shoppers and diners, even in an area as dense as downtown Seattle. A large grocery store or Costco in Snohomish Co. draws from a huge area, and probably 99% drive there. If Link accounts for 1% of all trips it won’t support retail let alone a decent grocery store which means it is large so prices are reasonable.

          Shoreline and MLT are probably dreaming of something like downtown Edmonds (which has almost no housing) but I don’t see it. The competition for the limited amount of retail is too tough, and a decent grocery store needs to draw from a very large area with lots of parking and good arterial access in an area like Shoreline.

          If you live in one of these station areas the good news is if you can hoof it to the station you can take Link to good restaurants and bars your station neighborhood won’t be able to support, but you will need to drive to a grocery store or Costco. I see parking problems in these areas when cities try to use urban zoning in suburban density.

          Lynnwood Link was never designed to create vibrant dense neighborhoods. First the retail competition along Link is too tough. Second the demographic too suburban. Third the density too low. Even places like Ballard have grocery stores with large parking lots. Same with Costco’s in Seattle. Second Lynnwood Link was designed to allow Seattle workers who can’t afford Seattle housing to still get to the city while living in an area that is far enough, remote enough, and unattractive enough to not have Seattle housing prices, or Seattle’s urban ills.

          What happens when you need a car for your daily needs but the zoning eliminated parking? You live someplace else. Although many urban Seattleites on this blog can’t comprehend it SnoCo has some lovely places to live. If you are single and/or a committed urbanist and want to live without a car you need to move to the few urban areas in Seattle, not Shoreline of all places, which is not dense even for SnoCo. For Mike’s article on SnoCo grocery stores look for the busiest arterials and that is where the grocery stores and Costco’s will be because only they meet the traffic capacity requirements.

       2. Yet Europe has walkable grocery stores. You don’t need a big box store with a sea of parking and six-lane roads to handle all the cars going to it; that’s just what American corporations and regulations have chosen to do.

       3. @ Paul From Up North:

          My experiences in living around other rail systems is that it’s up to a developer’s ingenuity (and a city’s design review) as to how to attract local customers in a TOD environment. Most retail or commercial in suburban areas will need some parking to generate a catchment area big enough to sustain their business. 2000 nearby apartments alone can sustain some retail but not a lot. If someone wants to open a full-service restaurant they’ll likely need some parking arrangement to have a market big enough to attract customers.

          It’s kind of regrettable that there is almost no on-street parking around any LLE stations. The garages are huge — yet ST and the local cities want the connection to the platform to be uninterrupted as much as possible. There isn’t even as much as a coffee cart in between their car and the platform.

          Many of Seattle’s vibrant neighborhoods all have on-street parking — from the U District to Capitol Hill to Ballard to Columbia City to West Seattle Junction. On-street parking is sometimes even touted as a basic building block of neighborhood commercial districts. I’ve even read how station parking garages should be placed a block away from a station to force transit riders to walk by commercial/ retail on their way to their cars. And I would fully expect metered parking to assure turnovers and loading zone hours for some spaces.

          I have been to Rockridge Station in Oakland. The restaurants there are popular. But many customers do drive — even parking in the BART lot in the evenings. Or someone will take transit and another person will drive when meeting up to share a meal. It’s a good example of what an active station neighborhood could be.

       4. Does anyone know the breakdown of the new and planned multi-family units along Lynnwood Link re: size and number of bedrooms?

          The Urbanist has written some articles about it, as has The Seattle Times. But I don’t know of an equivalent to “Seattle In Progress” (https://www.seattleinprogress.com/). That site doesn’t extend to the suburbs.

          As to your main point, I would guess that most of the apartments that are being built have parking. My guess is none of the areas around the stations would qualify as “15-minute city” neighborhoods. People are expected to own a car for their day-to-day needs. But that doesn’t mean they do. I lived in Lynnwood (with my wife and kids) about forty years ago and we didn’t have a car. We got by. I’m not sure where we got our groceries — Fred Meyer maybe? There does seem to be a decent number of grocery stores not too far from Lynnwood Station. I could see people managing OK without a car (even if it wouldn’t be easy).

          Each station has their own character. Lynnwood can really only develop to the northwest. This is also where a lot of the existing retail is, which works out OK. You could live half way in between the Fred Meyer and the station, for example (there are other shopping options as well). It is likely Mountlake Terrace only develops to the east. Fortunately there is a grocery store over there (and the main library). From 185th Station there could be apartments both directions eventually, but the nearest shops are found quite a ways to the southwest. 148th is developing more to the west but I think eventually you will see apartments to the east. The Safeway (to the west) and QFC (to the east) anchor the area, but both are quite a ways away. An electric cargo bike might work, especially after they add the bridge over 148th.

       5. What’s an electric cargo bike?

       6. The cargo bikes I see around here have a large plywood box in front for hauling stuff. Sort of like this, only less expensive looking:
          https://www.tuvie.com/carqon-electric-cargo-bike-luxurious-cargo-bike-for-trendy-parents/

       7. Yeah, there are a lot of variations. The ones with the basket in front can carry a lot. But a lot of them look like regular bikes with a bigger rack on the back (https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radwagon-4-electric-cargo-bike?variant=32100542283872). They are pretty common for parents hauling kids. https://s3.amazonaws.com/helpscout.net/docs/assets/5af358aa2c7d3a3f981f6cb4/images/61814a4b9ccf62287e5f21fe/file-jzhwAdhz6p.jpg.

    5. For my first trip northward yesterday at 12:30pm I went to Lynnwood specifically to go to JD’s Market (and the nearby Goodwill). It’s a smaller grocery with mostly Indian food (plus stuff from some other countries). Was just a short walk from the station.

       There are some smaller ethnic stores in the area as well. If you mention grocery places I hope you don’t just focus on the large chains. (Although I wish Grocery Outlet still existed there.)

       1. These types of shops do show up when you do a Google search, so I don’t think we’ll miss them. What they actually offer is a different matter. Some stores are fairly specialized (e. g. they don’t offer fresh produce) while others focus on one type of food but still offer a wide range of goods.

    6. I live a few blocks from the MT station. The closest grocery store is the Ballenger Thriftway. It’s not super close but it’s a pleasant enough of a walk.

       https://maps.app.goo.gl/GU6JGPyXXKwJsktC9

    7. At 185th, there’s the Fred Meyer at Aurora. You’d want a bus to get over to it. The Costco at Aurora Village would be easier due to Swift going up that way, but not exactly the type of store that’s transit friendly. Going the other direction on the 348, there is a Safeway all the way down on 172nd.

       There’s a Safeway south of the Lynnwood station, but when I was last up that way, construction had made it really difficult to safely get to the other side of I-5 from the station on foot. The Trader Joe’s and Safeway on Aurora are farther away. I’ve walked to Scriber Lake from the transit center, which is close the those stores, and it’s not too bad as far as the traffic goes. Not something you’d want to drag a lot of groceries too, though. The Fred Meyer just north of the station is probably as good as I’ve found.

       The QFC at 145th isn’t exceptionally far away from the Link station, and currently sits at the end of the 65 and 73. The restructure might help that access a bit.

       CT130 gets you from Montlake Terrace to sort of close to 99 Ranch Market, and after some rat maze effort, eventually to the Edmonds PCC Market.

       So it looks to me like most people are still going to use a bus to go shopping.

    8. @Mike Orr: We had a family of seven, plus frequent visitors. All of our grocery trips required a car to handle six or seven bags of groceries, or four Costco boxes. If you had told my parents to try walking to the grocery store, even if it was a couple of blocks away, they would have hurled some pretty choice words at you while packing the half-dozen bags and the five kids into the station wagon or Suburban. What works in Europe isn’t always workable in American suburbs, especially when it deals with large families.

       1. Unless they couldn’t afford a car. As I wrote before, when I lived in Lynnwood (and was helping to raise three kids) we couldn’t afford a car. Yes, going to the grocery store was a pain in the ass — so is trying to maintain a car on minimum wage.

       2. “Yet Europe has walkable grocery stores. You don’t need a big box store with a sea of parking and six-lane roads to handle all the cars going to it; that’s just what American corporations and regulations have chosen to do”.

          “Europe” is a big place. Not helpful to use “Europe” as an example.

          I lived in the UK and Spain. Not much different than Americans. Some areas of Europe tend to shop more often, daily, and of course the travel brochures show a pretty French girl on a bike with baguette and small cheese round in basket. Most of Europe is in a child drought.

          Remember, we are talking SnoCo here. Even downtown Seattle doesn’t have great urban grocery shopping. Americans want large selections, low prices, large portions which is why Costco is so popular. They also want to shop 1X week. The “corporations” just follow their best customer. That is suburbia because that is where the families are.

          The grocery business is probably the most competitive business in the US. Amazon is failing. The bigger issue is grocery deserts in poor and minority areas. Many of the best products like meat and fish and produce are loss leaders unless you are talking about a Pete’s Market on Queen Anne with a tiny selection of produce and seafood/meat but $100 bottles of wine catering to a very wealthy and privileged customer who still does their main shopping at QFC or Costco.

          Forget about “Europe”. We are talking station areas in MLT and Shoreline in low-cost multi-family construction when many urban areas in Seattle can’t attract the kind of grocery stores they want. These areas are about as attractive to large grocery chains as MLK south (which is why so many of those residents and those on Beacon Hill do their grocery shopping on Mercer Island or in Bellevue). There are very few things as vibrant as a good grocery store, and very few things are as suburban as a good grocery store. Just watch the scene next time you are in one.

          Urbanism produces a lot of good things. Grocery stores are not one of them because they require so much land, at least the good ones.

          Yep, if you want a big grocery store or Costco with all the fresh meat, seafood and produce— and can’t afford $100 bottles of wine at Pete’s — you will need a sea of parking because those car drivers buy around 10x the amount as does a single person shopping by transit, which is why the best grocery stores are located there.

       3. @Ross: Point taken, but for us a car was a non-negotiable. We lived in small-town Michigan while my father commuted to another small town in Michigan, and then in Carnation while Dad commuted to Bellevue. None of those places had transit, other than the kids’ school bus, so you had to have a car regardless of income level. Had Mom not driven, the grocery trips would’ve been Dad stopping off at the local Meijer Thrifty Acres (MI) or Safeway (WA) after work.

30. One thing I forgot to mention was how fast people seemed to be integrating Link into their commute patterns at LCC. Even after LLE had only been open for just 5 hours.

    I saw many people getting off Link at LCC who were obviously returning home from their place of employment somewhere to the south. These people apparently took the bus, or bus/Link, into work, but were returning all the way back to LLC just on Link. That is a pretty quick change.

    There were also a lot of people boarding Link heading south to go to the Metallica concert. Some of these people probably would have driven to NGS and then switched to Link, but they had already figured out that they could simply board Link at LCC and take light rail all the way to the concert.

    This quick adaption to the new service surprised me. I was thinking it would take at least a few days for people to make the change, not just a few hours.

    Also, during my conversation with the Lynnwood mayor it became obvious just how happy SnoCo is with Swift Orange and the future Swift Blue extension to North Shoreline Station. That extension is going to be a huge benefit to SnoCo riders wishing to intercept Link.

    All-in-all, a very good day.

31. For those that will now become regular riders, there are some anecdotal things that would be interesting to know.

    Today, I’m curious what Link overcrowding looks like north of Downtown. Are trains jammed? Where are they overcrowded? Are the new Link garages filling up? I don’t plan on riding today but I think the group would be interested to learn from others what the first weekend experience is like.

    In coming weeks as the next changes are made and people gravitate to new behaviors, I’m curious whether or not trains have overcrowding and where. Also, it would be interesting to know if Route 515 gets much use. And of course whether or not all these new garages fill up. And how bus use changes on both parallel and feeder routes work operationally or in attracting riders. And finally what Sounder North ridership is like.

    I think everyone watching expects this extension opening to be transformational. That means things change — many better but some worse. ST, CT and KCM have all made good guesses about outcomes and needed changes — but some things will almost certainly need future tweaking. We’ve now reached the real-world field testing stage where armchair concerns are lived out.

    1. “That means things change — many better but some worse.”

       I can’t think of anything that will get worse with LLE now open. None.

       Even if the bus transit agencies completely blow their restructures, it’s not like things will get worse. It’s just that they won’t improve as much as they could improve.

       And it the bus agencies blow their restructures, it’s not like it’s permanent. Supposedly one of the advantages of buses is that they are changeable. Blow the restructure and you can always fix it later. No harm, no foul.

       1. By “worse” I mean fewer riders. For example, I expect Sounder North ridership to drop a bit now that Lynnwood Link has opened.

       2. When buses get truncated some people like it, some people don’t. This is normal and understandable. Anyone who used Link before is likely to do just as well, if not better. But some folks who had one-seat rides will be forced to transfer and not like it. Metro truncated their buses a long time ago, so I don’t see an issue in King County. Any complaints about the new network have to do with the specific changes (e. g. no more 372 or the future 522 not going to Lake City). In Snohomish County you might have people missing their express buses (just as folks missed their express buses in King County). A lot of these are so infrequent that hardly anyone rides them though. The one exception is 164th. The 413 and 415 go there fairly often during peak, and the buses run express from there to downtown. I could see someone preferring that over the two-seat ride involving Link. But that won’t happen for a while. We are basically in the “best of both worlds” mode right now, even though it is not close to ideal.

          The point being that every change has a trade-off. Unless you just spend more money, things are bound to get worse for some riders. Of course if you do spend more money it means you could have spent it on something else. This means that you might end up with an improvement but not necessarily the best value.

       3. “The one exception is 164th. The 413 and 415 go there fairly often during peak, and the buses run express from there to downtown”

          My friend in north Lynnwood is really worried about the 512 being crushloaded at Ash Way as everybody who used to take the downtown express buses pack onto it to go one stop to Lynnwood Station to get to the train. Time will tell.

       4. I expect Sounder North ridership to drop a bit now that Lynnwood Link has opened.

          I’m not so sure. For Everett it is seems the same. For Mukilteo and Edmonds you have other buses. Instead of those buses going to downtown or Northgate, they go to a Snohomish County Link destination. I’m not sure if things change that much during the period when Sounder runs.

          The big change is when Sounder isn’t running (in the middle of the day). For people who ride the ferry there will be a bus waiting for them, ready to take them to Link. But I don’t see that having much influence on Sounder — if anything it might increase overall ridership enough that you see an increase in ridership for Sounder as well. I’m thinking of someone who works half-days or maybe just wants the option to leave early. Right now you can get back to the ferry, but it takes a while (especially to Mukilteo). It will be better with the restructure.

       5. My friend in north Lynnwood is really worried about the 512 being crushloaded at Ash Way as everybody who used to take the downtown express buses pack onto it to go one stop to Lynnwood Station to get to the train. Time will tell.

          There is also the 201/202 so it might be enough. Some will take the Orange (which is slower, but fairly frequent and not that slow). If you are used to walking to stop on 164th and catching the 413/415, that seems like the bus you would take.

       6. I told her about those and the 9xx routes, and she’s been riding the Orange herself sometimes, but she still doesn’t think it’s enough. The 201, 202, and Orange already have their own passengers so they have only a partial bus worth of free space.

       7. “I’m not so sure. For Everett it is seems the same. For Mukilteo and Edmonds you have other buses. Instead of those buses going to downtown or Northgate, they go to a Snohomish County Link destination. I’m not sure if things change that much during the period when Sounder runs.”

          With less than 400 boardings a day, the universe of Sounder North riders is pretty small (less than 200). Are they walking or driving to a station? Are they hard-core train people?

          I’m not sure whether or not they’ll shift, frankly. It’s why I said it will be something to follow!

          Even if they shift, I think it will be gradual. It may take a several months to see.

       8. You are right, Sounder North doesn’t get many riders. July was the best month for Sounder North since the pandemic. This was the average daily ridership (per station):

          Edmonds: 78
          Everett: 71
          Mukilteo: 42
          Seattle: 180

          My guess is any change will be minimal. Transit service from Everett hasn’t really changed. Edmonds gets the most out of Sounder in my opinion. Some of those people come from the ferry, but I bet some just walk to the station. (Edmonds has a lot more people around the station than Mukilteo.) Hard to see that changing with Link.

          The biggest change will be when ST adds additional trips. Ridership will obviously go up, but it isn’t clear how much.

       9. Hell, Edmonds has vastly more around its station than Everett.

       10. Hell, Edmonds has vastly more around its station than Everett.

           Yeah, you have to walk a ways from the Everett Station to get to anything. I’m sure that plays a part. But the train isn’t particularly fast from Everett, either. The 510 takes about as much time and serves more of downtown. It also serves more of Everett, which gets back to your point. I could see someone taking a bus to the Everett Station and then taking Sounder if it was a lot faster. Since it isn’t, a lot of those people just take the 510 and stay on it.

           Edmonds is different in the train is quite a bit faster than the bus (at least according to Google Maps). The Lynnwood Link based bus restructure won’t help — it will probably make it a bit worse. The 416 follows a fairly straightforward path towards Seattle when it leaves the main part of Edmonds. The 909 follows the same path then reverses directions (heading back north) to get to Mountlake Terrace. Add the transfer and they lose a little. But the 416 doesn’t run all day and it only runs express to downtown.

           The main benefit of Link (for both Everett and Edmonds) is for folks who are not going downtown during peak. Since that is all that Sounder does, I don’t see much of an impact on Sounder ridership.

       11. > I told her about those and the 9xx routes, and she’s been riding the Orange herself sometimes, but she still doesn’t think it’s enough. The 201, 202, and Orange already have their own passengers so they have only a partial bus worth of free space.

           Mike, the 201/202 get a frequency bump from 40m each to 30m each so that’ll add a bit of capacity on that route as well.

32. I wasn’t able to visit the Lynnwood station as my kid started feeling ill while at the MLT one. Wondering if anyone got to see the future of Lynnwood section that was set up, and if it offered any significant information about what’s coming down the pipeline?

    1. There were several apartment developers and realtors among the booths. There were several transit-related advocacy groups too. I chatted with a booth rep about developing around the Everett Link end station there, for example.

       There was interesting info. However no one was taking input or feedback. It was all show and tell! Rah rah for the agency!

       1. Thanks! Was there any timeline for the upcoming projects?

       2. @Thomas

          The urbanist has a pretty good four part article about the changes to the four stations

          How cities prepared for lynnwood
          https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/08/29/how-cities-in-lynnwood-links-path-prepared-for-light-rails-arrival/

          Mountlake terrace
          https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/08/27/mountlake-terraces-town-center-slowly-emerges-ahead-of-light-rail/

          Shoreline north
          https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/08/22/shoreline-north-station-sees-new-urban-connection-form/

          Shoreline South
          https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/08/19/south-shoreline-light-rail-brings-suburban-retrofit/

33. This opening day video someone did from the inside of a Northgate to Lynnwood train is good. No sound. No glare. Slight timelapse. View is east. That apt complex south of Mountlake Terrace is big.

    https://youtu.be/O0DX96vcRbc

    1. That shows part of what makes traveling through Jackson Park really beautiful. There’s also a part that’s like looking over a forested canyon that I found magnificent, like looking over Interlaken Park. The camera angle didn’t manage to get that.

       1. I haven’t managed to ride the train yet, but is there a view of the Olympics? I assume you can see Rainier (although the angle is a bit awkward — it is straight ahead when driving). One more argument for self-driving trains :)

34. Cool video. Thanks for sharing.

35. Is there any place where you can still get the commemorative posters? (They had them for a time after at Bellevue City Hall for the 2 line)

    Out of curiosity, what was the swag for stamps collected on opening day? A 1-line hat?

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