I was going to try to make the opening ceremony yesterday, but I’d walked extensively Friday so I did a shorter excursion in the afternoon. I haven’t heard anything about how the ceremony went, how many people attended, or how full the buses were getting to it.
To compare my trip to normal ridership, usually the 550 in the early afternoon has twenty people, I’m the only one who transfers to the 2 Line at South Bellevue, and the P&R has less than 10 cars I can see. The 2 Line has around 10 passengers in my half car, even in the PM peak. Returning in the PM peak or evening, the 550 has 2-3 more people transferring at South Bellevue, and the bus has 40-50 people on it. Some weekend evenings it’s standing room only, presumably on game days.
This time I left Seattle at 1:38pm on the 550. There were 27 boardings between 5th and South Bellevue. I got off at South Bellevue to transfer to the 2 Line, and twenty people followed. The P&R had a typical 10 cars I could see.
On the 2 Line my half car had 32 boardings between South Bellevue and Redmond Tech. Eight of those got off at East Main or Bellevue Downtown. That doesn’t include the rest of the train I couldn’t see fully. Several platforms had more than four times as many people, so I think my car was unusually empty. Several parents were introducing their children to the train. One family got on at South Bellevue and off at East Main, as if they were visiting every station. At Marymoor Village a large crowd came on. I didn’t count them because they were already at the celebration and just going between the new stations.
Total travel time was 60 minutes: 550 (23 minutes) + walk (1 minute) + wait (8 minutes) + 2 Line (23 minutes). When the full 2 Line opens that should shave it down to 42-45 minutes.
The new track has a nice view overlooking Marymoor Park. Other picturesque views are Lake Bellevue north of Wilburton station, and the Bellefields office park north of South Bellevue station.
Both Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations had large crowds and over dozen booths each. Marymoor Village had more kids-oriented booths, while Downtown Redmond was more transit-and-urbanism booths.
The Urbanist had a booth so I talked to one of the guys there, and took their transit quiz. I got the number of 2 Line stations wrong (I forgot Redmond Tech), and the monthly ridership peak (surprise surprise, it was November 2024 in winter). The station had a banner on the wall with “Welcome” in 15 different languages. Then I saw three more banners with other languages.
In the Welcome Redmond Link article I said the Redmond Connector Trail was under the Link track, because I thought the entire non-freeway tail was elevated like Redmond Downtown station. In fact only the station is elevated; the rest of the track is surface and the trail is adjacent north of it. Marymoor Village station is on the surface too. You cross the tracks to get to the platform. There are railroad-style flashing red lights but no gate. This is in contrast to Redmond Tech or SODO stations that have little door-gates you open.
The trail has a beautiful brown bridge over the Sammamish River, and goes under highway 520. In the article I said the trail changes name to the East Sammamish Trail and continues to Issaquah, but in fact the trail ends at an intersection at the station. The East Sammamish Trail starts a couple blocks east at another intersection.
I went to Stone Korean restaurant, a block east of Marymoor Village station. I swear it has moved; the parking lot and facade look smaller than I remember and it’s further from Redmond Way. I discovered a Whole Foods in the same plaza. The restaurant may have moved to a new mixed-use building. From the train I saw a Value Village north of 520 so I looked for that. I tried the building across from the Safeway but that wasn’t it; it must be the block further east. Stone may have moved from one of those lots. As for the pancake house, there are two of them, one in Marymoor Village, the other in Redmond Town Square. I didn’t make it to either due to walking fatigue.
Anderson Park is open, at 168th & Redmond Way. It has log cabins from Redmond’s early days, a metal statue of a woman and child, and a P-patch.
The “kids’ art walk” was supposed to be on the connector trail at 4pm. I walked on the eastern part at 4:15 and didn’t see them; they have have still been at the far western end.
I left at 5pm on the 2 Line. It was standing room only until the next station, Marymoor Village. The rest of the way to South Bellevue it remained still busy, twice as much my eastbound trip had been.
Really impressed with Downtown Redmond, great main street and ground floor retail. The historic downtown bones and the former rail ROW corridor for the Link line to use helped greatly (as does Microsoft wealth and salaries to fuel this development demand). Development in Redmond seems to be proceeding forward where elsewhere it is hung up by high costs and terrible lending environment.
Smart decision to elevate it here, works well with the adjacent older and new development too. Impressive amount of new mixed use development with strong ground floor retail. Downtown Redmond is probably going to be seen as one of the best instances of TODs in the United States.
I’m also excited to see how Marymoor Village plays out, really like what I see with the 3 or 4 new buildings there. A lot of good pedestrian thru-block connections, interesting ground plane and nice incorporation of artwork in these spaces and on the buildings (Piper Apartments in particular).
Spectra Apartments has a nice site plan and east-west corridors but is a shame it doesn’t connect into the Samammish Trail linear parking lot and trail. That seems less on the Spectra Apartments and more on the ownership of the trail and it’s parking lot. It would allow Spectra’s corridors which span across their site to be calm connecting local streets and less dead ending fire lanes with their required turnarounds.
“Smart decision to elevate it here, works well with the adjacent older and new development too.”
It’s a good case study in how elevated light rail is not particularly hostile to a neighborhood’s appearance and character. And it saves hundreds of millions of dollars!
Exactly. Nobody is going to build the Chicago El in the Twenty-First Century. Whatever is built will be more like the Monorail than the El.
That said, Link would be MUCH more attractive without the marching column of Overhead Power Distribution poles.
I live in Redmond and pre-covid all the permitting and beginnings of construction had begun and then shut down. Microsoft had planned for 8,000 more jobs so the contractors had time well before the shutdown to get it going. One of the benefits of housing coming in is something called “Mitigation Banks” which is money developers put into a bank to improve an ecosystem in the area. There are many such areas in and around Redmond that have had their salmon streams restored. You might be interested in doing an article on that. Years ago, the method of mitigating damage to streams was found to not work. The other benefits of housing coming in is developers have to contribute to educational needs because if you build housing, you will need more schools.
I took the 2 line this morning just one stop from Redmond Tech to Marymoor Village. It was empty. I was surprised to see so many workers at the stations. Each one had around 2 security officers and about 4-5 fare ambassadors. They were all just talking to each other as I was the only person at the station or on the train.
I stayed around for a while after getting off the train and saw maybe 5 people total pass by in both directions. Im curious to see how this may change during the work week and once the stations have been open for longer.
ST ambassadors. Those are volunteers from the agency working for the opening. The fafe ambassadors are the blue and yellow.
When it connects to seattle, they will come!
While I was in Redmond I contemplated whether it had overtaken downtown Bellevue as the best suburban downtown in the region, more walkable and with a wider variety of ordinary shops (not special-purpose shops you may go to once a year or never). In the end I couldn’t decide.
Bellevue has a larger 2-dimensional grid, so it’s more of a square than a narrow rectangle, so you can walk more directions to more things. And having lived in downtown Bellevue for two years, I know it has a pretty complete range. And Redmond Way feels like more of a stroad than Bellevue Way, even though both of them were originally rural highways.And recently it has gotten more retail choices and is getting more.
Redmond has the railroad trail through it, which they’ve been maximizing with the Link alignment, artwork, several exits to adjacent streets/retail blocks, and trail-oriented development™, and more is on the way. Redmond has encouraged midrise mixed-use buildings in several parts of the city, moreso than other suburbs. Supposedly it has the highest density per capita in the state, higher than Seattle. But that’s skewed because it’s such a small city and some of it houses Microsoft staff. Redmond also leads the way in permitting Link, making it a categorically-allowed land use and streamlining the permits.
That would be an interesting list. Best suburban downtowns. Or best suburban Link station areas. Then list the pros and cons. I’d also like to see a worst list. While I don’t know if downtown Redmond is the best suburban downtown, I do think it would do well in a couple of categories like multifamily housing, walkability, parks and trails, and more.
Or best suburban Link station areas.
I would put Downtown Redmond at the top of that list. I like Downtown Bellevue but the station is in kind of a boring area. It is too close to the freeway and the area east of 112th is pretty empty. The transit center is actually better.
But if we were picking “best suburban areas” I would go with Kirkland. It feels like it has more character than the other downtown areas because it feels like there is more history.
I can’t think of a Puget Sound city with a truly terrible downtown, at least nothing like our Beaverton or Wilsonville.
The twice that I’ve been to downtown Gig Harbor, it left me exceptionally unimpressed. Pretty much zero walkablity (no sidewalks, impossible to cross either street due to traffic and no signal), etc.
That’s the closest I can think of to our two pinnacles of automotive hellholeness down here.
Mt Vernon has a pretty good walkable downtown, where most of the traffic is shifted one block east of the core. Not a lot of living space though. Lots of single family stuff immediately to the south. Waterfront is one of the few in the region not occupied by a road.
Downtown Puyallup has pretty good walkability too, and they’ve had some effort at apartments over retail.
I view each Downtown as unique. Choosing a “best” like choosing what’s best between a Mexican, Italian and Thai restaurant. It’s a matter of preferences from one day to the next.
Also, one may be better to have an office job in while another may have better shopping. A third may have better restaurants and nightlife and a fourth may be cleanest — and a fifth may be the safest.
Obviously, Downtown Seattle and Bellevue are major employment areas that are regionally important. The others pale when it comes to office employment that’s not on a corporate campus or plant.
I see Downtown Redmond becoming a great restaurant and nightlife area. With plenty of free parking, a pleasant and seemingly safe streetscape, awesome light rail access and neighborhood residents paying for pricey apartments who don’t like to cook or nearby upscale diners living in expensive large homes, it has the essential building blocks for almost any restaurant type. With light rail, someone who lives near any Link station (including Bellevue and Seattle) can get safely home after a few drinks without driving too.
The main thing that seems to be missing for that is a large performing arts center for indoor concerts, big touring musicals and things like that. Another activity game changer would be an indoor sports arena nearby. Either would guarantee a food and nightlife future for Redmond.
While I could visualize towers with office jobs in Downtown Redmond, I don’t think it’s in the cards.
Mt Vernon has a pretty good walkable downtown, where most of the traffic is shifted one block east of the core. Not a lot of living space though. Lots of single family stuff immediately to the south.
Yeah, Mount Vernon is disconnected because of the freeway and to a lesser extent the hill. It is a bona fide, high quality downtown. Quite charming. But as you move away from the freeway you run into the freeway. Next to the freeway is a steep hillside. Much of the town (the high school, the college, the main hospital) sits up above while the main retail area sits down by the river. In between is the nasty freeway with only a handful of bridges, where pedestrian travel is an afterthought (https://maps.app.goo.gl/g1Mcp3izcv5d6K7w9). Even if Mount Vernon wanted to encourage the construction of a few apartments it isn’t clear where to do it. Down by the river or up by the high school? It is more disjointed than Sedro-Wooley (which used to literally be two towns). It is really a shame because it is quite charming and could be really something special. It is a good reminder that the freeway often thrashed towns just like they thrashed cities.
Kirkland has a nice tight street grid in its downtown.
Pretty much all the historic railroad towns (Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Auburn, Puyallup, etc.) have great downtowns, just like all of Seattle’s streetcar corridors have good walkability. I’m curious what people think is the best “downtown” that did not exist before 1950. Put aside Bellevue, which is freeway oriented but is in a different league than the rest of the suburbs.
What’s the redevelopment plan for Redmond Town Center? Will the whole thing be renovated or just part of it? How different will it be when it’s finished?
The link is here:
https://www.redmond.gov/2105/Redmond-Town-Center-Master-Plan
I may be mistaken, but it looks like the tallest buildings are planned south of the existing shopping center rather than at the station. They do any to add some taller housing across from the station though.
All the proposed buildings are portrayed as boxy and generic in the renderings. That hopefully will change before they start building.
I think the plan is to also add more decks of parking to existing two level garage by the station to make up for lost surface parking for this new development. They say they don’t want to disturb the aquifer for “environmental reasons” so aren’t doing underground parking.
So that’s +1K units just within the footprint of the mall? The project site is essentially 4 full blocks, that’s pretty good.
The master plan (warning: huge file size) says they are going to drop 12 story buildings into the 2 open parking lots (great!), expand the parking lot west of 164th (fine, poncho pointed out the aquifer constraint), and replace the buildings attached to the main parking deck with 7 story buildings (good). But major bummer they are planning on keeping the main parking deck facing the station, as that is premium land. Maybe that can be demolished & replaced in the future once the market (& city planner) realizes people don’t need parking to live & work in that location.
Phased, with the core retail area being “more refreshed” and new development at the edges and on the surface parking lots.
unlock stair 5. I found it confusing trying to get back to my car.
Seattle Times coverage.
It answers the question about an entrance on the Marymoor Park side. It says there’s an entrance but it’s for emergency access only. So ST wasn’t thinking about one of the biggest users of the station, or that transit riders naturally need a park to go to. “Park, what park?”
However, emergency-access passages are sometimes converted to all-access. That happened at UW station to mitigate the chronically broken escalators, so that you could cross to the other escalator bank or go down the stairs. And the stairs around Capitol Hill station’s southeast escalator. It also happened at the downtown library, which has an escalator but no down escalator above the 5th floor, so the only way down was the elevators, so it opened a staff stairway for public use.
Mike, are you saying that general vehicle traffic should be allowed to drive into Marymoor Park from the station?
I think Mike is talking about exiting the station on the west end?
We’re talking about a pedestrian gate, not a car road.
I thought there was a new pedestrian path from Marymoor Village Station to Marymoor Park. There isn’t?
That path exists. But, you have to exit the station on the eastside and double back to get to it. The question is, why can’t people just exit the station on the west side? Is there really a safety advantage to having only one pedestrian track crossing instead of two, if the same number of people have to cross the tracks, regardless?
Another option I think Sound Transit could have considered would have been to just build a second platform on the other side of the eastbound track and have eastbound trains open their doors on both sides. Looking at the layout, the space is there, and the amount of concrete to pour would have been similar, and the second platform wouldn’t even need to cover the entire train length to serve its purpose, just the west end of it. Of course, this approach is only a partial solution, as it doesn’t help with westbound trains.
Now I think I’m getting it. There isn’t a platform exit at west end, or park side of the station platform. If a rider exits a train at MV, they first have to walk east, or in the opposite direction of the park for a short distance in order to reach a platform exit, before they can then double back and walk west toward the park.
Right Sam.
Plus ST actually built an exit on the west end of the platform — but it’s only designated for emergencies so there’s no gate or Orca reader..
Mike, on the other thread I mentioned too that there should be platform access to the west of the station.
They had it closed off – and they actually had manned security yesterday to keep people from crossing there. ST sees the issue even on day one or it wouldn’t have been staffed.
I suspect that park users and trail users will complain en masse and get that access opened. It looks like all it would take would be automatic gates, yellow tiles and an Orca reader. And perhaps some concrete (although it already looked like it was already placed for emergency access).
ST generally seemed to have added a ton of design treatments to discourage vagrants from camping out on the trail. I saw a wild amount of 8 foot black chain link fencing in that area. Perhaps the denial of access is related to vagrant concerns. Of course, ST could just lock up gates overnight if that was the problem.
It felt way too circuitous to walk from the trail under 520 to the Marymoor platform. It was perhaps my biggest disappointment with the entire project.
I didn’t go to the park yesterday so I didn’t see the west end of the platform or what kind of gate it is.
I rode Link today between downtown Redmond Station and Overlake and back. Was surprised to see the train keeping up with car traffic going up the hill coming out of Redmond. For reference, my car draws about 40 kW of power going up that hill at highway speed, which, when scaled to the weight of a 2-car Link train, equates to about 2.75 MW, if I did the math right (and, even higher when the 2-line operates with 4-car trains in the future). I did not realize the overhead lines were capable of delivering that much power.
It also begs the question of what happens when such a heavy train goes back down the hill, as keeping speed under control with brakes seems like it would generate a lot of wear+tear on the brake pads. Are trains able to “regen” power on the downhill like electric cars do? If so, does the regen’d energy go back to the grid, running Sound Transit’s electricity meter in the reverse direction? Or, does it get stored in onboard batteries?
This is called regenerative braking and has been a thing on trains for a very long time. The first train with this was in the 1890s but it’s been pretty standard for electric trains for awhile now.
The typical arrangement on the S70/S700 has been 4x 174 hp motors. See eg pages 14 or so:
https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:3ce5a359-5933-4f0b-8877-6e9aa3df13bd/Low-Floor-Light-Rail-Vehicle-Packet.pdf
130 kw x 4 motors x 4 cars = 2.08 MW, maximum rating. It’s not clear to me if that is surge or continuous. Railway traction motors usually have a short term rating for acceleration that’s some 3x the continuous rating, but can only be done for half hour or so.
Granted Sound Transit has more than enough on its plate but when I look at Downtown Redmond in an aerial, it seems so tempting to envision a second downtown station on the west side of Downtown Redmond over by the Samammish River. There is a fair amount of 20 year old dense mixed use development (the first of Redmond’s dense development) over there as well as lots of TOD potential.
The common theme seems to be we were all impressed with Downtown Redmond.
I didn’t attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but I was there for the celebrations afterward. I drove to the South Bellevue Station and parked in the garage. It absolutely killed me to do that, but I was with my wife and 75-year-old mom, so I had to make this as frictionless as possible.
We got on the train around 12:15pm heading for Downtown Redmond. It started filling up at Downtown Bellevue and got progressively fuller. It was my mom’s first time on the 2 line and she was blown away by the different perspective from the train. She had never heard of the Spring District, and was a bit disoriented where we were and what areas we were going through, blown away by all the 5 over 1 apartments prevalent along the line.
Once we pulled out of Redmond Technology Station, it was all new to me so I really started paying attention. The scenery of Marymoor Park was absolutely beautiful. We pulled into Marymoor Village Station but did not get off the train at this time. Like Mike, I was surprised it was not elevated. In my mind it was. A crowd was gathered and we saw a fire truck and some booths. Lots of people! At this stop several folks got off the train and others got on. At this point we the train was full heading into Downtown Redmond.
This is where things get interesting. As we went under 520 and started ascending, the city of Redmond began to take form. There were several 5 over 1 apartments, as well as what looked to be at least an 8 story apartment building under construction. It was vastly different from Lynnwood City Center, where the urban village is slowly taking shape. Coming into Redmond, it’s already built up. Most of the apartments are already occupied.
We got off the train and started wandering the booths. Unfortunately they did not have a map that you could get stamped at all the stations like the last 2 openings, but I understood. It wouldn’t have made sense with only 2 new stations. Instead, they had a Sound Transit merchandise booth, where you could buy some items.
There were several other booths, with varying urbanist and biking themes. We walked to the end and cut over to Downtown Park, where there was a musical performance. I’m not sure if it was part of the Link festivities or not.
My friends, I was completely blown away. Standing in the middle of Downtown Park, I looked around and in all directions there were 5 over 1 apartments with bars and restaurants at street level. It looked like nothing was over 10 years old. I really felt like this is the urbanism and community we strive for in real life 3-D. We have pockets in Seattle that are heading in this direction, but Downtown Redmond has actually executed it!
In another article in the comments section, Robert Whitbeck mentioned it feels very European, and I would agree. Look on Google Maps to see what I’m talking about.
So we went back to the booths. I talked to the Lime Scooter lady and a guy at Seattle Subway. I was very happy to chat with someone who was as excited about West Seattle Link as I was!
We were getting hungry, so we walked over to Redmond Town Center, which is right across the street from the station. Now I haven’t been to RTC in a long time, so I’m not sure how busy it normally is on a Saturday, but there were lots of people! I imagine the Link station will be great for the various shops and restaurants there.
At this point, it was already 2:30pm. We had to get to Marymoor Station. The crowd had not subsided at all. We took the train one stop and got off. Much of this station’s activities were in the bottom level of the multi-story parking garage, so a very different vibe from downtown. There appeared to also be a bus transit center in the garage. It was under construction, not yet active.
We watched some Chinese dancers for a while and got some free Peet’s Coffee. We then proceeded to the top of the parking garage to get a bird’s eye view of the whole area. The view did not disappoint. From the top we could see 520, Marymoor Park, the Link Station with the outdoor portion of the festivities, and trains coming and going. From another vantage point, you could also see the Whole Foods center with various TOD around the station. You could also easily identify which of the industrial businesses will likely be torn down for more 5 over 1s.
At this point, we were pretty tired and needed to wrap things up. We headed to the platform and there was a South Bellevue train within minutes. Although it was only two new stations, it was a very fulfilling opening day. I feel like Downtown Redmond is already my favorite on the 2 line. This was truly a magical day. Now it’s time to connect the 2 Line to Seattle!
I may have seen your car in the P&R.
The tall P&R made me think about going up to the top for the view but I didn’t. Next time. The wall is glass with rowboat artifacts hanging in it, so at least that part is artistic.
The large ground-level plaza under the P&R was a good place for lots of booths and a performance space, but I fear it will be empty and forlorn in normal times like the similar Mt Baker plaza. I’ve always wanted to have a farmers market at Mt Baker station. Maybe Redmond will see the opportunity and have events in the space. It would certainly be easy to get to, for both train riders and drivers.
Very nice station art. Beyond that, it felt so slow. I’m used to line 1s much higher operating speed since I ride from MLT to Westlake often and that feels like link ought to be everywhere. Sharp curves, at grade crossings, and just slow speeds for no reason. Maybe it is just the testing phase but felt like a massive step backwards until it got past Redmond and onto the new segment. Ah well. Too bad for the east folk then.
On Saturday, I tried to measure the speed as much as I can, I think the train I rode never exceeded 50 mph south of Redmond Tech. Between Redmond Technology and Marymoor Village, it did reach 55 mph for long enough.
Some of the vistas were cool, especially looking southeastward coming off the hill towards Marymoor.
Took the 2 line this morning from Marymoor to Redmond Tech. Even though it was pretty early for rush hour, there was a good amount of people waiting and about 20 people just in my car. Many people got off at Redmond Tech, so there are many new riders. Good signs so far.
After getting off, I heard some excited chatter from a pair of people waiting about how the extension is open now and so people are getting off the train at Redmond Tech.
So I am a Boston-area resident who has made following the Seattle light rail construction/expansion his own personal hobby over the years and since I made it out for the openings of the 2 Starter Line and Lynnwood last year, I decided to make a trip out this weekend for the Redmond opening, staying at a hotel in downtown Redmond. Some thoughts:
1. Downtown Redmond is a really impressive space. I had never been beyond Redmond Technology, so I had no idea what to expect. Really pleasant walking environment with a bunch of newish 5 over 1 apartment buildings with commercial space. With my body still on East Coast time, I was up early on Saturday morning and just enjoyed walking around the down town space and seeing what was there and what is on the way. The placement of the station – and the elevation – from my perspective – appear to be flawlessly executed. Really exciting to see.
2. From my perspective, not much to critique from the rail/station execution. The grade separation and speed are great and the views approaching Marymoor from Redmond Technology look like they will be absolutely stunning on a clear day. Biggest complaint I’ve read seems to be inefficient access to the park from the Marymoor Village station and I can certainly see that perspective. If Sound Transit isn’t able or willing to activate the emergency exit as a park-oriented entrance/exit, I think it would be really helpful to have more direct signage directing users to the park as they exit the station’s main entrance. Maybe even a larger park map with a “You are Here” bullseye on it to give users perspective of where they might want to walk and where park facilities are located. When I first got off at the station, I thought I might want to walk to the lake, which seemed close-ish based on Apple Maps. But after wandering around for about a half hour, I quickly realized it was a much longer walk than I was willing to invest. Finally, the perspective of the light rail train rounding the corner behind the cement wall in the Marymoor Village garage bus bay was actually kind of cool. Not really useful from a utility perspective, but take it for what it’s worth. As for the Downtown Redmond station, I really don’t have any notes. One of the best in the system…maybe one of the best modern station/TOD executions I’ve seen on continent – outside of the Montreal REM.
3. I’m going to try to tread lightly on this one and I acknowledge that I am an outsider coming into another community and I don’t have a good handle on the region’s politics and history transportation planning and management. But I was able to catch essentially all of the politicians’ speeches during the Saturday opening and I was somewhat troubled by how little the link across Lake Washington to Seattle was mentioned. The extent to which the Seattle region is investing in light rail expansion is impressive and what has opened of Line 2 appears to be mostly well-executed and very usable. But I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that the South Bellevue to Redmond corridor would not otherwise justify a multi-billion dollar investment in light rail without a Seattle connection, and the true utility of this line will not be realized until that link and the I-90 bridge are open for revenue service. The opening of the bridge will truly change access to the region for residents’ on the Eastside in a real, measurable way and it was disconcerting to me to hear how little it was spoken of during the dedication ceremony. Giving your leaders the benefit of the doubt, maybe they felt Saturday was Redmond’s time to shine and didn’t want to over shadow the event with talk of going to Seattle. But my admittedly over-anxious side makes me nervous that the I-90 bridge is in more trouble than has been publicly acknowledged and leaders are making a subtle effort to begin reducing the public’s expectation of going over the lake on a train – at least in the near future. I deeply hope I’m wrong here and would appreciate any insight from the locals in this group. I will say I ended up going to the Mariners game Saturday night (stunning ballpark in Seattle!) and went to the game via the 2 Line, connecting to the 550 at South Bellevue. Going over the bridge, the work seemed to be essentially finished. Tracks were in place, wires were hung and tensioned, and it appeared the signal posts were also lit. Hopefully, that is a positive sign. One last note, It wasn’t clear to me how to get a bus back to the Eastside from T-Mobile park after the game, so I ended up Uber-ing back to Redmond for about $95. (ouch). From this visitors perspective, the full Eastlink can’t open soon enough!
the South Bellevue to Redmond corridor would not otherwise justify a multi-billion dollar investment in light rail without a Seattle connection
I agree and I think most people would as well. But I also think it is the combination that justifies East Link. Assume for a second we just put money into bus service. We could run an express bus from the Downtown Bellevue Transit Center to Mercer Island and on to Downtown Seattle. It would stick to the freeways unlike the current bus (which runs on Bellevue Way). That would mean losing out on East Main and South Bellevue stations. We could extend the bus to serve more of Downtown Bellevue (after serving the main transit center). We could continue to run the 545 but run it more often (e. g. every ten minutes throughout the day). We could run additional express buses as well (several of the stations are fairly close to the freeway). It might even be better in some ways. But in terms of getting around *within* the East Side, Link is clearly better. To me the trips within the East Side — even though they couldn’t justify the cost of East Link — are the tipping point for the line. (It also helps that we can leverage the existing line by doubling up service downtown and to the north.)
A Redmond resident interviewed by one of the local news stations works in Bellevue, and she said the train would halve her daily commute times. That’s a good example of intra-Eastside service.
It’s great to have an outsider’s perspective Jason. I can relate to your excitement about another city’s transit. When the SF Central Subway opened, I hopped on a flight to San Francisco and explored all the new stations. It wasn’t on opening day but shortly after. There were still Muni ambassadors at the stations to help out and answer questions about the service. It’s interesting to see the similarities and differences in the way other cities (and countries) do public transportation.
I didn’t see the speeches but I assume it was just “Redmond’s day” because this phase is all in Redmond. It may also have to do with the delays. Cross-lake service was supposed to open in 2021 but it was delayed for five years for a variety of construction and planning reasons. People wouldn’t be surprised if the date slips again, so they may not want to talk much about it until the date is more certain.
Mike Lindblom reported in the Seattle Times today that ST will miss the December 2025 goal and now plans to open the full 2 Line in “winter 2026”.
“Winter of 2026.” Shrewd. So even if they open late December 2026, they haven’t lied.
Monthly progress report for March went up on Thursday, which likely prompted Lindblom’s reporting: https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/system-expanion-status-report-march2025.pdf
Project completion plan has revenue service starting on January 16, 2026.
Winter of 2026 is such a disingenuous way for the Times to say that ST put January as the target date.
the Times article (here: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/light-rail-in-redmond-just-expanded-whats-next-for-eastside-mass-transit/) references “this winter” a couple times and then includes this paragraph:
@DM,
“….for the Times to say that ST put January as the target date.”
Actually, don’t believe the “January” date. Apparently things have changed again. But these delays are getting so frequent that I don’t have much trust in any of these dates anymore.
But they appear to be getting very close to doing the dead tow test. At least by appearances. So that is good. And actual testing should start a month or so after that.
By why they now appear to need 8 to 9 months of testing to get this line open is beyond me. Normally it doesn’t take that long.
But hey, maybe Dow will crack the whip and get it back down to 6 months like normal. You never know.
I just wish they would get it done. It’s been too long.
” It wasn’t clear to me how to get a bus back to the Eastside from T-Mobile park after the game”
The 550 southbound stop is at 2nd & Yesler, three blocks north of the Jackson stop you must have gotten off at. If you’re going after 9:30pm and the 2 Line isn’t running, you’d stay on the 550 to the Bellevue Transit Center and transfer to RapidRide B. That would take you to Redmond Tech or Downtown Redmond stations. There’s also the 545, which goes directly to those stations, but its stop is further away at Airport Way S & Royal Brougham (east of Stadium Link station).
A very good set of conclusions! I agree with them all.
As to why the cross-lake issue isn’t promoted, I think it’s because the delay has been so long that local ST Board members (often those that spoke) are embarrassed and ashamed by it. It should have opened in late summer of 2023. The public was not made aware of the delay until Spring 2022. We were just about 17 months from opening! Then it was pushed back several times from earlier in 2025 to December 2025 and now 2026. It’s a saga of coverup and negligence resulting from a failure to stay on top of the schedule by the Board. We all should have known about the delay and action should have happened many months earlier than it did. The nature of the Board has been to instead trust and rubber-stamp many things that ST staff or Dow have done without asking hard questions and to not pressure them to get it timely done. They should have fully assessed the delay coverup and they didn’t. The hiring of Sparrman as an interim was an attempt but it was too late in the schedule to change things .
I personally feel that ST should now treat the missing connection like it was a segment out of service and put replacement bus bridge service (with 2 Line on the bus masthead) running between South Bellevue and IDS (or Stadium) on the street that should run at least 15 if not 10 minutes — and run everything until at least 11 pm. ST in my mind owes this to Eastside residents and taxpayers. And the cost should be borne by the contractor if possible (although the contractor would probably point the blame partly on ST staff and the Board can’t face that embarrassment). It’s pretty galling to have such a massive delay and the service promised to the voters that still does not match the frequency or hours of service promised in ST2. Metro could have begun the restructure too if ST did this.
And depending on how far the new delay is, ST should consider running 2 Line trains between Lynnwood and Judkins Park too. The same schedule promise was made to SE Seattle residents and North Seattle residents as it was to the Eastside. Now we have done crush loaded trains north of Downtown Seattle for this reason. Once trains can get from the OMF East to Seattle by the end of summer, I think that the 2 Line should operate in Seattle and Judkins Park Station (and maybe even Mercer Island Station) should open for service with a bus bridge. Even during testing these 2 Line Seattle trains could be “in service” north of IDS as soon as the end of summer to ease North Seattle overcrowding.
(… and maybe even Mercer Island Station) is referring to rail service eastward (as opposed to South Bellevue).
If seems that the 2 Line lake crossing delay is just the bridge and not the full segment.
My hope is that once testing starts, ST will allow passengers to board trains from IDS to LTC while certifying the JPS to IDS segment. That way we still get the frequency benefits while everything else gets tested. The only hard part of this is clearing the train going to Bellevue at the IDS station in a reasonable amount of time. That means more guards that are more expensive because of the clearing training and differential.
That being said, the los provided will still be worth it.
When you say “the signal posts were also lit”, what do you mean? That the signals themselves were showing an aspect? Or that the poles themselves had decorative lighting?
If it’s the former that’s probably also a Red Signal…..
@ Tom T:
I suspect that the comment refers to how the train signal indicators have power and glow in yellow.
Hi. Yes, the signals themselves were lit…in yellow aspect
Just found interviews with the Redmond mayor and a Sound Transit representative, from a KOMO breakfast show on Friday. They talk about the 2 Line’s impact on Redmond, and about the delays of the I-90 construction. https://youtu.be/94JauUWUSNI?si=ohK-aEBddCkGhr3x
Did a Monday morning reconnaissance of the 2 line. Observations;
At Redmond Downtown station boarded car 122 for South Bellevue
9:40AM.
RDS 8 boardings, half commuters half joy riders.
MVS – 7 boarding, one bike, 3 were commuters.
RTS – 4 on, 5 off. All commuters.
OVS – 9 on. All commuters.
BRS – 6 on, all commuters
SDS – 0
Wilberton – 0
DBS – 0 on, approx 35 off, mostly commuters.
EMS – 0
SB P&R – I was only one on board
Return 10:20 AM
SBP&R – 12. Half commuters, half joyriders.
EMS – 3 commuters
DBS – 6 on, 50/50 commuters/joyriders.
Wilberton – 1 on. Commuter (ran an errand here, added 20 minutes to time)
SDS – 0
BRS- O on, 2 off
OVS -0
RTS – 2 on.
MVS – 0 on
( got talking to an Ambassador so did not estimate how many got off at RDS)
I sat in the rear of the first car so I could size up how many are on the platform for boarding as we majestically sweep into the station. I do not count ST personnel or myself in these counts.
The Marymoor parking lot had about 120 cars on level 2 and about 40 on level 3.
Thanks for that. It will be interesting to compare your stats from the first weekday of the DRLE, with the stats from the first weekday of the full 2 Line.
I agree, it will be interesting to see station boardings once the 2 Line makes it across Lake Washington. I hope to take a similar run closer to rush hour as 9:20 is probably a bit late to gauge rush hour.
Tech workers often have a later schedule than traditional fields. The 545 eastbound rush hour extends to 10:30am.
That seems to point to the extension getting decently used compared to other stations.
Of course. It’s just one train each direction at an off time. Who knows what daily totals will be.
Perhaps the parking space count is more telling. That’s guaranteeing at least 160 boardings and that doesn’t include others in the car, walk ups or drop offs from others at Marymoor. Of course no parking riders in Downtown Redmond.
The Marymoor station will let Microsoft or downtown Bellevue employees who live east of Redmond totally skip driving on 520. I don’t generally love park and rides but this one is well-positioned, IMO. I’ll be interested to see how much Eastside-only ridership it generates.
One thing I just noticed that’s somewhat disappointing about the downtown Redmond Station land area – the grocery options around there are not all that great. There’s a QFC 0.6 miles to the west, but for such a high-intensity area, there would ideally be a supermarket that’s closer. Living without a car, walking distance to the grocery store matters, and matters a lot. There are also, of course, the big box stores to the east, but the freeway and stroad make them hard to access. Bus connections exist, but that’s too cumbersome to use for everyday grocery shopping.
To be clear, the QFC location is not terrible, especially since a lot of the apartments near Downtown Redmond Station tend to be to the west or north of the station site. But, something a bit closer would still be better.
The appears to be a Trader Joe’s next to the QFC. Safeway is east of the DR Station at Bear Creek Village.
Whole Foods is near Marymoor Village station.
I saw Trader Joe’s while I was walking between the stations, but I don’t remember where.
I think the Safeway is closer to the station. There’s also a huge H-Mart very nearby.
H-Mart and Safeway are located close to Downtown Redmond Station. Trader Joe’s and QFC are a reasonable distance as well.