The highly anticipated full East Link extension will open this Saturday, March 28, finally connecting the Eastside to Seattle and the rest of the metro area. Two new stations will open at the same time, Judkins Park and Mercer Island stations.
The Mercer Island light rail station, located in the median of I-90 just north of the city’s Town Center, will help connect Mercer Island residents to Seattle, Bellevue, and the wider metro area.
(Judkins Park I-90 ramp reconfiguration and Access Guide were discussed in previous articles).
Reaching and Navigating the station
Mercer Island station will be served by the 2 Line going east to Bellevue and Redmond, and west to Seattle and Lynnwood. Riders coming from the airport to Mercer Island will take the 1 Line north to Chinatown/International District station, switch to the other platform, and take the 2 Line toward Downtown Redmond. The first station will be Judkins Park, and the second Mercer Island.
Station Layout:
- Platforms: two side platforms passing underneath 77th Ave SE and 80th Ave SE.
- East Headhouse: connects to 80th Avenue SE.
- West Headhouse: connects to 77th Ave SE.
- Bus Access north of the station: The existing Park and Ride parking lot and the Sound Transit bus stops are located just north of the station on North Mercer Way.
Bus Connections and Transfers
Bus routes at Mercer Island station will not immediately change with the opening of Crosslake Link service. In Fall 2026 the final phase of the East Link Connections bus restructure will be implemented. Here’s a preview:
The on-island routes will continue: hourly Route 204 travels up and down Island Crest Way, and peak-only Route 630 express to First Hill.
The freeway buses that stop only at Mercer Island station will be revised. ST Express Routes 550 and 554 will be deleted. Metro Routes 215, 218, and 269 will combine to provide 15-minute all-day express service from Mercer Island station to Eastgate P&R and the Issaquah Highlands P&R. (They will not go to Seattle, and will not serve central Issaquah.)
After the Issaquah Highlands P&R, some Route 215 runs will continue to North Bend. Metro earlier said every third run would do so, so if Metro still intends that, North Bend would have service every 90 minutes. Route 269 will continue half-hourly north to Sammamish and Marymoor Village station. Route 218 will provide extra peak-hour service to Issaquah Highlands P&R and will terminate there.
Current ST Express routes 550, 554, and 556 will be replaced by a new Route 556 serving Issaquah and Bellevue every 15 minutes all day. It will not serve Mercer Island but you can take the 2 Line to it and transfer.
To sum it up, if you’re going from Mercer Island station to:
| DESTINATION | ITINERARY | MIDDAY FREQUENCY |
| Seattle | 2 Line | 10 minutes |
| Bellevue Transit Center | 2 Line | 10 minutes |
| Issaquah Highlands P&R | 215, 218, 269 | 15 minutes |
| Central Issaquah | 2 Line to South Bellevue; transfer to 556 | 556: `15 minutes |
| Bellevue Way stops | 2 Line to South Bellevue; transfer to 556 | 556: 15 minutes |
| Bellevue Square | 2 Line to South Bellevue or Bellevue Downtown; transfer to 556 | 556: 15 minutes |
Remember, all this starts next fall. Until then, the existing bus routes serving Mercer Island will continue as is.
Mercer Island Future Density
Mercer Island previously slightly upzoned around the Town Center (Urbanist). Hopefully the city continues to approve new apartments in the Town Center and builds upon their previous successful apartment infills.
Is there a larger version of that first image available anywhere? I’d like to take a closer look at it, if I may.
hi i modified the article you can click on it now to enlarge it. ill see if i can link the original pdf as well.
Thank you! That works great.
The only up-zoned half the walkshed? What about to the north?
They can’t upzone that, since that’s where I icb people live. And rich people don’t like to see a bunch of apartment construction near their house.
The actual upzone is well designed to avoid pissing people off. Whatever new buildings that do get built, only apartment dwellers and retail will have to deal with the construction next door. On top of this, they played the game of upzoning properties already developed, which are very unlikely to get redeveloped. For instance, no one in their right mind is going to tear down a 10-year-old 5 floor building to build 7 floors, even if zoning allows it, as it would not make economic sense. This provides a way for Mercer Island to increase their zoned capacity on paper without actually increasing its resident population, in practice.
They will have to upzone all parcels within a half mile walk of any of the station entrances to be in compliance with state law (HB 1491) next comp plan cycle
Blumdrew,
Not all parcels. They just need an average FAR of 3.5. They could just upzone their business area to have even higher densities to remain technically in compliance. Which is great bc it puts them in a catch 22 where either way they’ll have to add density, but it may end up that new buildings still don’t get redeveloped. Maybe they’ll zone for a single highrise to offset the requirements? Or just try to use code and design review to kill any dense project that arises.
For place like Mercer Island, you can simply achieve more healthy FAR by ensuring apartments are on top of every grocery, drug stores, and single level business plaza. Right now, QFC/Walgreen/Metropolitan Market/and gigantic ex-Rite Aid site are all single level retail with surface parking. They can all be re-developed to allow 3-4 levels of apartment on top. Most part of Island’s single-family residential area have access to Island Crest Way which bypasses the business district, it won’t be their traffic problem anyway.
D M,
That’s not true. The text of the bill (section 3.2.c) also prevents a city from imposing a minimum residential density or a “maximum floor area ratio of less than the transit-oriented development density in this subsection for any residential or mixed-use development within a station area”. I don’t think Mercer Island can just upzone their already redeveloped lots to 100 FAR to push the average up. See RCW 36.70A.840.
Blumdrew,
I was caught up on this part of the bill [36.70A.840 (6)]; “Cities planning under RCW 36.70A.040 may by ordinance designate parts of a station area in which to enact or enforce floor area ratios for residential or mixed-use development that are more or less than the applicable transit-oriented development density, if the average maximum floor area ratio of all residential and mixed-use areas within a station area is no less than the applicable transit-oriented development density.” My interpretation of this is that a city can enact an FAR restriction, given that the overall area meets the average required FAR under the bill, though I am not a lawyer and would need more guidance on what the lettering of the bill specifically requires. I agree that upzoning their existing lots to higher FAR would be against the spirit of the bill but I also wouldn’t put it past MI to do something like that.
I believe Mercer Island is currently out of compliance with state law and must redo their zoning:
https://www.theurbanist.org/mercer-islands-growth-plan-ruled-out-of-compliance-with-state-law/
The station is in the middle of the freeway. Unless you count the park-and-ride there is a big chunk of land (inside this circle) with no development potential . To the north you have the one condo next to the park and ride and that is about it. To the south there are a lot more apartments. This development stretches out, farther than people would typically walk, even to a mass transit line. I wouldn’t call this Transit-Oriented-Development and more “We-Allowed-It-Development”. The city allowed a little development to the south there and that it is about it (close to the station). There are other developments that are similar. Island Crest Way for example. This is classic “put the apartments where we don’t want them”. There are other apartments scattered around and it makes me wonder how they happened. Shorewood Heights for example.
Anyway, the main purpose of the station is to connect riders of the I-90 buses to Link. The secondary reason it to funnel Mercer Island riders to the station. The extra ridership from the neighborhood is basically a bonus.
“There are other apartments scattered around and it makes me wonder how they happened. Shorewood Heights for example.”
It must have been before zoning restrictions reached their height. Seattle has one-off oddities like the two apartment towers at Madison Park and the apartment tower on Beacon Hill, that were built under lenient zoning but there was an immediate backlash that caused further zoning restructions to prevent any more from being built there, so they remain as one-off orphans.
Given MI’s history with freeway lids, I’ve been a bit surprised that there wasn’t one at the station as part of the ST negotiations. A lid could have added land for TOD or a park.
I’m going to be really curious how quiet or loud the Mercer Island Link platforms will be when I ride on Saturday. ST erected sound walls at the station but it still may be quite noisy. Freeway ravines are notoriously loud.
A lid could have added land for TOD or a park.
It is generally difficult to develop much on top of a lid. I could be mistaken but I think all the lids are parks. Mercer Island could have insisted on capping that section but unless they capped a lot more it would be small. Mercer Island has got a fair number of parks and ball fields (I used to play soccer there). They were more focused on the bus and park & ride situation.
You can’t have tall buildings on a lid because they have deep underground foundations and are heavy. But you can have short buildings, potentially two or three stories. Given that there’s nothing underneath but an air gap, that’s reasonable, and would get you more real estate, more housing units, and more walkability, especially if they’re in downtowns.
Four places obvious for a freeway lid with buildings on top: downtown Seattle, the U-District, downtown Bellevue, and Issaquah’s planned regional center. Mercer Island could join the party if it wanted to.
It’s possible to build tall on top of lids (Hudson Yards is a prime example) but the lid has to be engineered with the structures in mind. Hudson Yards was able to support skyscrapers because they could put a lot of support columns between the railyard tracks.
The structural capacity of freeway lids is mainly limited by the open span they have to maintain over the freeway lanes and how much weight they can transfer to the vertical supports on each side. The Lid I-5 feasibility study determined it would be feasible to build “midrise” (15-20 stories) or taller structures atop most of a “robust” lid structure.
Of course, WSDOT likely only designed the lids on Mercer Island and Montlake to support traffic where needed and no major structures elsewhere, since that would the simplest project.
Look at that circle in the top picture. There is a ton of lots within a quarter mile, some fairly modest; Under 2 million even. Turning those singly family lots into 20 view condos has to pencil in many circumstances.
If they only up-zone one side of the station, maybe only east-bound Link should stop in MI.
As someone who has walked around Mercer Island Station, and walked from the station to the town center, I would list the station as one of my favorite in terms of easy, flat walkability, and close proximity to a town center.
While I was visiting the town center, I noticed a new apt bldg being built. Lunara, which sits between QFC and Met Market, is set to open this summer. I think it’s the start of an eventual transformation of the town center from one-story businesses, to residential apt bldgs. The light rail station, I believe, is the catalyst.
It has always been a good transit location with or without light rail. You cannot find another place where you can go to both Downtown Seattle and Downtown Bellevue within 25 minutes.
The apartment and condo have started popping up before 2010s. The one north of QFC was built around that time. That apartment complex was very well designed and built in phases. Unlike many modern apartment buildings that features few types of floor plan and sometimes poor use of space for simplicity of design, I barely find more than two units on the same floor with the same layout. That’s how multi-family residential buildings should be designed. A lot of newer and more expensive property in the area don’t have this kind of craftmanship anymore.
Yeah it’s a great station, maybe as good as it gets for a freeway station outside of a full lid
Downtown Mercer Island has more 4+ story buildings than that. I was exploring there a few years ago to gauge the station area’s status and potential, and there were several urban buildings extending two or three 2-domensional blocks, and one or two blocks that were clearly “pedestrian-friendly” like Cleveland Street in downtown Redmond. So Mercer Island does have a downtown village, and you can work there or both live and work on the island to some extent. It’s just smaller than it should be.
Since Mercer Island is so fiercely against growth and will only give it a token concession, and Mercer Island is so small it’s not a major jobs/activity center like Bellevue or Seattle, and it is an island so it couldn’t cope with fifty thousand people living downtown and going on and off the island all the time, I’m inclined to just write it off and let it stagnate, like how I feel about West Seattle, Magnolia, Beaux Arts, and Medina. It’s more urgent to upzone the larger village areas that have more proven potential and are more willing.
Well it is part of the package when you have I-90 connecting the island to Seattle and eastside.
If Mercer Island doesn’t like that, they should have boycott the floating bridge in the 1940s. I am sure they would have lived their peaceful life just like Vashon island if the bridge was never built to connect them to Seattle.
I am expecting a better restaurant scene in Mercer Island to evolve. It’s not bad now but it is a bit limited as only Mi résidents tend to go there. .
With Link opening, it expands the market for people from across the region to easily dine there! That includes wealthy condo residents in both Downtown Seattle and Downtown Bellevue. They can eat, drink and quickly get home without a DUI!
I don’t think Link will directly cause Mercer Island’s restaurant scene to grow. But, indirectly, yes. As MI’s town center sees more multifamily residential development in the years to come, partially due to MI Station, restaurants and cafes will follow.
MI to me has elements of Rockridge in Oakland. There are about 20 restaurants near the BART station there and BART is part of the reason that they’re there.
Curiously, the BART parking lot gets used by restaurant patrons at night.
It is a little bit underwhelming. One of the two places I like even closed for no reasons last year. It is so underwhelming that the McDonald’s in town center is pretty popular.
At least other retail categories have very complete presence in Mercer Island’s town centers. I’ve seen some town centers in Seattle that are dominated by restaurants and short on places for local to run errands.
I’m happy that Mercer Island Station’s name is simple. It could have been Downtown Mercer Island City Center Central Station!
I get that ST’s naming policy defaults to the city name when there’s just one station — but had the City asked for a longer name, ST would have probably made that happen.
It could have been Downtown Mercer Island City Center Central Station!
Ha! Yeah, good point.
It is such big of ego for some small edge cities to insist to include “downtown” or “city center” next to their name.
It looks like Mercer Island calls the station area “town center”.
WSDOT signs call it business district, which I always find hilarious.
The Empire of Mercer Island Grand Central Metropolis Main Station. Or “emig-mmm” for short.
Downtown Mercer Island Downtown Station. With Downtown on both sides so that we look bigger than downtown Redmond or Federal Way.
For some years, the sign on a certain building in Oregon read:
“City of Oregon City City Hall”
This reminds me of that.
(Sometime around 2005 they dropped the “City of” part)
Does that make that city a City of Oregon city hall city?
Just a note on the destination table: Bellevue Square is about 4/10ths of a mile from Bellevue Downtown Link station. It isn’t adjacent — but I could see how someone from MI would just get off at that station and walk.
That’s something time will tell. There’s already a pedestrian-only NE 6th Street corridor between the transit center and Bellevue Square, and some effort has been taken to beautify parts of it and make it accessible. It just needs a more targeted beautification across the whole extent. I believe it’s part of Bellevue’s emerging planned pedestrian/bike corridor from the Crossrail trail to Meydenbauer Park on the Lake Washington shore.
So time will tell whether many people walk the corridor between the Link station and the retail core (and downtown park), or transfer to the 556 or 270 to it, or complain that a 15-minute 556 and 15-60 minute 270 is inadequate frequency for that last-mile gap (and the 270 stop is too far from Bellevue Square). If enough people complain, Metro will eventually saturate that gap with more service.
That’s too far of walk even from the transit center. Plus there is nothing to look at along the way.
If NE 6th ped mall is half occupied by shops, I am more inclined to walk, but there is nothing going on between 110th and Bellevue Way. Taking 556 from S Bellevue is also not ideal as the closest inbound stop is at NE 4th at 105th.
Bellevue Square is transit dessert by design.
There is not a single coordination between transit stop and mall entrance. It is not like this mall is lack of walk-up entrance, but more like the mall intentionally avoids bus stops being too close to their entrance.
There’s already a pedestrian-only NE 6th Street corridor
Yeah, when I worked in Bellevue I used to walk that way all the time. I thought parts of it were quite nice: https://maps.app.goo.gl/D4w59xgRsYVnUMox6. From the station you have to first cross 110th though and then walk by the transit center. That isn’t bad but not as nice as the rest of it.
If enough people complain, Metro will eventually saturate that gap with more service.
This is where the lack of stations is a bit of a problem. The borders are vague (of course) but I would consider Downtown Bellevue to be mostly west of the freeway, east of 100th, north of Main and south of NE 12th. Yet there is only one station within that area. The Main Street station comes close but it is a bit too far south and way too far east to really add anything from a network (or even walk-up) standpoint. In contrast a station on Bellevue Way & Main would change things. Not only would you probably get a lot more walk-up riders but you make running the buses so much easier. Instead of trying to serve a single point (the transit center) you can serve either of the two parallel north-south corridors.
“Bellevue Square is transit dessert by design.”
We there is a Cheesecake Factory there. Lol!
“So time will tell whether many people walk the corridor between the Link station and the retail core…”
We only have to wait a few days now!
Obviously it will take several months for travel patterns to change. The current spike in gasoline prices is coincidentally timed with the station and cross lake opening so we may not have to wait long to know.
From Mercer Island , I suspect those riding transit to Bellevue Square to be rather young and usually hearty. Those hearty teens probably won’t think much about the walk.
Kemper Freeman will be disappointed if they do; he spent millions trying to prevent that from happening. He only wants people driving to his mall.
I’m curious if anyone has opinions on the “canopy gap” between the west stairs and the boarding platform area. ST seems to have a penchant for discontinuous canopies.
No kidding. Every station seems to have a dry part at the entrance, then a wet part before you get to the actual boarding area.
I think the two options for station covers are either a full roof or a canopy with a gap, due to the requirement to keep the “dynamic envelope” of the trains clear of obstructions.
Wait, sorry, misread. Yeah, the gap between the stairs and the actual platform covers is pretty silly.
What does dynamic envelope mean?
dynamic: adjective: dynamic
1.
(of a process or system) characterized by constant change, activity, or progress
My guess is that “dynamic envelope of the trains” = train stopping area at the station platform
Dynamic envelope refers to the spatial area the train occupies while in operation. Not just while standing at a platform, but temporally: where it will be and where it has been. The area that needs to be free of any kind obstruction for the train to operate fully and safely from end to end.
All moving things, including people, have dynamic envelopes.
ya know what? maybe that gap helps prevent people from standing too close to the train too – safer and gives room for people exiting the train.
How does a canopy over the waiting area affect the train’s envelope? If it does go over the train and its overhead wire, the train can just go under it.
The high edge of the canopy at Mount Baker Station is lower than the energized wire over the tracks, and I think other aerial/at-grade stations are similar. The only reason for the canopy to extend above the wire would be to reach over it, and at that point you might as well just fully enclose the station. Which would be rather nice, but obviously much more expensive.
To be clear, the “gap” I am talking about is not the gap between the canopy edge and the train doors (although that’s an issue I’ve seen at other stations where a little waterfall greets anyone getting off or on a train).
It’s the gap between the station entrance stairs and the canopy on the platform. It’s several feet away from the dynamic envelope.
I made that comment about the canopy to ST early in the design process. The response was something along the lines of “we design to anticipated ridership.” I took this to mean this isn’t a high ridership station so doesn’t get a 100% canopy over the platform, and since they anticipated most riders would be using the 80th Ave side, the canopy goes there.
A couple notes on station access:
80th Ave side has up and down escalators. 77th Ave side only has an up escalator. Both sides have elevators, which should hopefully limit issues if one breaks.
Bike storage room is on the 77th Ave side.
Kiss-and-ride is on 77th, although you can use the existing P&R too.
The station has a center platform, not side platforms.
That logic is pretty odd.
Neither entrance at Judkins Park has a continuous canopy. Both stations are supposed to have a similar number of boardings (4900 vs 4700).
And it looks to me that more riders from the Town Center area will use 77th rather than 80th. The main benefit to exit its 80th is to get to or from the 447 space parking garage.
Bellevue Downtown also doesn’t get 100% canopy.
The parcel west of QFC or east of Metropolitan Market is currently being built. I think it is about 4 story. The contractor seems to be pretty interested in the old Tigger Garden Chinese restaurant sign and keep that piece outside their project office for a long time.
There was a notice of land use action sign east of SE 29th at 78th Ave SE. Not sure what can be built there, but it is possible that it refers to the Banner Bank site.
Riot Games office (not marked on the map but the lot south of Metropolitan Market) has a ridiculously big parking lot for the size of its office. That’s probably the biggest piece of single parking land use on the island (even bigger than MI Park and Ride).
The triangular piece of land at NW corner of SE 27th at 80th Ave was rebuilt and a paid parking replaced previous Tilly’s Coffee building. I believe 80th Ave at SE 27th was signalized as part of ST-funded improvement, but honestly MI should have funded that themselves. The intersection is a total mess under all-way-stop control with or without light rail and HOV ramps.
That office was the former Farmers Life Insurance office, which housed about 600 employees (I was one) between 1980 and the pandemic. The parking lot was huge because virtually every drove, as the standard work hours of 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. weren’t conducive much with public transit, and quite a few employees lived a distance away. I had colleagues who lived in Kent, Mukilteo, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Lynnwood and even Arlington. And this was before work-from-home was a thing. I always drove, because I could either take a couple of buses and get there in an hour, or drive and get there in 15 minutes.
Yeah I think I read it from somewhere when I researched the past tenant of that building. When I was there in 2022, it sat empty without a single sign indicating what it is for in a way I thought it was a secret agency.
About a year or two ago, Riot Game, the bay area company that produces League of Legends moved in, but I doubt they have some kind of RTO policy, so the parking lot still sits empty.
Should I head north when leaving the station to find the best spots to camp?
Since you’re a troll, you’ll most likely be most comfortable under a bridge, so I suggest you head west and camp under 72nd Ave SE where it crosses Aubrey Davis Park.
The troll king is under the Aurora bridge at N 36th Street, so you can make your pilgrimage to there, and also meet the Repurposed Volkswagen that gives hope to us non-car urbanists. Unfortunately it’s not on Link, so you’ll have to hike from UW Station. On the Burke-Gilman Trail you’ll see a few of your fellow campers.
Another apparent camping location is, surprise surprise, near the Yarrow Point freeway station (bus routes 255, 542, 545, and peak expresses). It’s a multimillion dollar mansion neighborhood with a surprising number of working-class/poor people getting on and off the bus there, and I’ve been told they camp somewhere along 520 there. How they can live there without the neighbors successfully sicccing their high-powered security and town police after them, I have no idea.
Kemper Freeman’s yard is a bit further east
What happened to Route 212 and 111 in downtown seattle?
They don’t stop at Mercer Island, so they’re not part of this change. Like many others, the trip times change a bit.
Ohhh should have gotten the route 213 between downtown seattle to Eastgate TC or Factoria Mall
*route 212
Oh boy another station next to/inside of a freeway! Love the lack of direct integration with any meaningful amenity, air & noise pollution, as well as the giant park and ride! This is world class transit and land use!
The cherry on top is that the train’s top speed is still lower than the posted speed limit it’s supposed to compete with!
10/11 of the stations (LLE FWLE DRLE, and cross lake connection) opened since the east link starter line all follow this amazing design. I’m sure it’ll get great ridership just like those 9 other stations!
How would you have designed the Mercer Island station, then?
East Link was only feasible because the old I-90 express-lane right-of-way was available to be repurposed. There would never have been enough budget to build new, rail-only bridges, nor to acquire the land necessary for a new rail route across Mercer Island. The train runs down the I-90 median or it doesn’t run at all: so where else is there to put the station?
Perhaps they could improve the situation someday by building a lid between 77th and 80th.
Would amend te bi-lateral agreement between the city and ST to allow off-island buses to go south of I-90; provide bus stops on 77th Avenue SE; such stops would minimize transfer walks and negate the crossing of North Mercer Way by transferring riders.
Service. Delete Route 630 and use hours to improve Route 204. If hours were available, extend Route 269 to Mercer Island High School and pair Route 204 with an off-island Route. (All hours are allocated).
Literally no room to put it anywhere less but okay Ian, if you’re so smart shows us your idea on how to do things if you’re such a better planner.
In a fantastical alternate history where the 2008 recession never happened and Mercer Island wanted to become an Urbanist Paradise, it might have been more feasible to have put Mercer Island Station in the actual center of MI’s “Town Center”.
I think a wide-bore TBM could have been launched from the east landing of the floating bridge at 60th Ave SE, tunneled under the west ridge of the island, and either emerged to an aerial station over SE 29th Street or remained underground with a shallow underground station between 77th and 78th. Then a bored tunnel from Town Center could have emerged from the wooded space south of I-90 and descended to take the HOV lanes of I-90 east of the island.
There are probably some geotechnical and road geometry issues that would have had to get sorted out, but that’s that would have been one way to spend an extra billion or so to put the station out of the free ROW of the freeway.
Great, another $10 billion dollars for random mercer island projects. That would not have been worth it. It would be cheaper to just lid i5 and add more midrise on top of that.
Instead of building another park and ride they could’ve spend that money on lidding I5 properly on MI, for example, or boosted bus service.
It’s not that hard to imagine something better Mr. Nuggets!
My comment was moreso a commentary on how bad most (10/11) of the recent light rail stations are for people who aren’t using them as P&Rs.
I will say MI is better than the i5 stations
Even if Mercer Island allowed high rises and the P&R was a 600′ apartment tower, the correct place for the rail station in the middle of the freeway. MI is a textbook “on the way” station – because the best way to run rail between Seattle and Bellevue is using the I90 ROW, you might as well include a station serving MI but zero reason to leave the freeway envelope.
Even if Mercer Island allowed high rises and the P&R was a 600′ apartment tower, the correct place for the rail station in the middle of the freeway.
Agreed. The main reason to even cross the lake in the first place was to connect to Downtown Bellevue. Using I-90 was by the cheapest way to achieve that goal. At that point, the station at Mercer made sense basically because it is “on the way”. As I wrote earlier, the main purpose of the station is to connect riders of the I-90 buses to Link. That is how it will get most of its riders. The secondary reason is to funnel Mercer Island riders to the station. The extra ridership from the neighborhood is basically a bonus.
Now if the middle of Mercer Island was a major urban center — similar to Downtown Bellevue — then the train might have left the confines of the station and moved over to serve it. That means two stops in Mercer Island (one as a connector to I-90 buses, one to serve this mythical area). Or maybe the line would curve north again and there would be a different I-90/Link interface. But that sort of development just doesn’t exist. This is one of the few instances in Link’s history where it really made sense to follow the freeway envelope.
The KDM and Federal Way stations are off the freeway a bit, as is Downtown Redmond, with developable land in between. Lynnwood City Center is also off the freeway too — but it has wetlands around it limiting how dense it can become in addition to the freeway.
I have found it interesting how the siting of the Lynnwood City Center station seemed to be an unquestioned assumption mainly because it served the HOV/ express bus access to the I-5 median lanes. If/ when Link is extended to Mariner, its bus hub function will be much less important. Meanwhile, much of the land that isn’t part of the transit center is wetlands. Had ST bought the land and put the station at the Lynnwood Square property (196th St SW and 44th Ave SW) — located about 1000 feet further north — the future potential station boardings and TOD potential would seem to have been much better. Oh well, it’s too late.
The primary bus node will probably shift to Mariner, but that’s decades in the future: there’s a ton of value being generated between now and that future that is very real.
Keeping the station closer to I5 also means it is closer to the Interurban trail, which is helpful for bike-rail connections?
Hopefully the Alderwood station is focused on TOD. It’s possible that 30 years from now the Alderwood station is the primary urban node and the Lynwood TC is more of a bus TC + P&R; an important regional transfer point but less important TOD.
I have found it interesting how the siting of the Lynnwood City Center station seemed to be an unquestioned assumption mainly because it served the HOV/ express bus access to the I-5 median lanes. If/ when Link is extended to Mariner, its bus hub function will be much less important.
Which is why an extension isn’t worth it. Just to back up here, the obvious end-point of any line from a walk-up or east-west connector standpoint is right at the city border (145th). But we needed to build a good connection for buses coming from the north (on the freeway). Maybe they could have modified I-5 and built one at 155th, 185th or Mountlake Terrace. But Lynnwood already had the freeway connection and it works just fine. Now that we have it, there isn’t much to be gained by going further north.
Of course we will get a handful more riders. But the cost is sky high, and just not worth it. You are way better off at this point just investing in the buses.
This goes back to the fundamentals. Density and proximity are the big ones in this case. Imagine the Shoreline North station wasn’t next to the freeway. Imagine it was at Bitter Lake. Or imagine the Pinehurst Station was at Lake City. You would have thousands of additional walk-up riders. Mainly because the area is more dense. But it is also close to the vast majority of destinations. A trip to the UW, Capitol Hill or even downtown doesn’t take that long. In the case of Mariner or Alderwood, proximity is a problem. You dramatically improve the trip to North or South Shoreline. Big deal. Most trips are going to take a long time. As a result, it just won’t get that many riders.
I-90’s footprint is not ridiculous. It is pretty reasonable walk from station to Mercer Island’s towncenter. Don’t judge every freeway station. There are some good one.
Of course, the Eastside has had transit connections with the rest of the region for decades. In 2020, the translake service on I-90 included routes 111, 114, 212, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 550, 554, and 630. Link will serve the Route 550 market as far as BTC. The 2 Line will extend to Redmond. The markets served by routes 111, 114, 212, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, and 554 may transfer to/from the 2 Line.
Mercer Island presents an interesting use case for microtransit. While it’s obviously a well-to-do community, the potential operating zone writes itself. There are many seniors on the island, and many folks who patronize the arts, food, sports, employment and medical features of downtown. While the clientele might not be overly sympathetic, a demand response service could be quite productive versus more fixed route bus.
I did want to commend those that laid out this station for putting entrances in opposite directions off the platform. It expands the perceived walkshed of the station. Judkins Park is even better (as it accounts for the elevation change too). It may not lead to more TOD due to local zoning, but at least the station layout doesn’t preclude it. Different entrances can focus on different things too — like parking or a transit center in one direction and an urban village in another.
Single entry point stations like Shoreline South are more limiting in their surrounding land potential . “Barbell” layouts for stations are to me the best generic layout to begin with.
In a certain sense, the Judkins Park station has three exits because of the pedestrian bridge over Rainier Ave! Excepting the grade crossing, I think they did as well as they could for a station sandwiched between a stroad and a freeway. Anyway, I don’t think the Rainier exits are too bad—the prevailing winds seem to point to Rainier becoming much safer in the future, and the bus connection is pretty phenomenal.
It’s true that Judkins Park has three entry points. However two are right across the street (albeit a busy street and without a crosswalk directly in between the entries) so to me it’s more like 2.5 entries.
Still, the more entries the the bigger the walkable station area usually is.
And because there’s no physical barrier between the two Link station entrances on Rainier, some people are probably going to run across the street there — and sometimes get injured or killed.