Sound Transit news release today:

Starting tonight, evening train schedules between Northgate and Lynnwood will be adjusted to accommodate construction work at Pinehurst Station. Beginning around 8 p.m., 1 Line trains will share a track between Northgate and Shoreline South, and 2 Line trains will turn back south at Northgate station, so that crews may work near the adjacent track. 

During this work, 1 Line trains will operate between Lynnwood and Federal Way, and 2 Line trains will operate between Downtown Redmond and Northgate. Passengers looking to travel further north will need to transfer to a 1 Line train at Northgate.

Sound Transit says riders boarding north of Northgate should expect 12-minute waits from 8pm to 11pm, and 16-minute waits from 11pm to end of service. The agency has not shared when it expects evening service north of Northgate to return to its regular schedule.

When both northbound and southbound trains need to share one track through Pinehurst Station, they also can only serve one side of the platform at Shoreline South/148th Station. This is due to the fact there is no way for trains to change tracks between Shoreline South and Pinehurst. This week, all trains stopping at Shoreline South will use the Lynnwood City Center (northbound) side of the platform after 8pm. Riders boarding at Shoreline South should check signs and listen to station announcements for updates.

A Link train passes through Pinehurst Station where temporary walls protect construction workers. The walls are decorated with art by Romson Bustillo (Sound Transit).

Pinehurst Station

Pinehurst Station is an infill station authorized for construction under ST3. It is located north of NE 130th Street and east of I-5 in North Seattle. When it opens, it will be a new stop between the Northgate and South Shoreline/148th Street Stations of the Link 1 and 2 Lines. Seattle Transit Blog has covered various aspects of this station and its construction over the years.

Pinehurst Station is currently scheduled to open this summer, but many of the remaining construction tasks require reductions in Link service to allow contractors to safely work near the active railway. This work has been paused several times recently to allow full Link service for major events, and Sound Transit expects there to be additional delays as work is paused to support transit service during the upcoming FIFA World Cup events in June and July. The agency is actively working with its contractors to identify when construction may actually be completed, may reportedly may end up being later this summer.

28 Replies to “Link service impacts from Pinehurst construction resume”

  1. I saw speculation in the comments over the past few days that ST could get more cars on Line 2 if they terminate it at Northgate, meaning they might be able to run 4 car trains. I wonder if we will see that happen.

    2. Didn’t they look into that alternative in 2023 and decided to order 10 more LRVs and run 3/4 car 2 Line to Lynnwood?

      1. They’ve ordered more cars but they won’t start showing up until next year.

      3. From AndyL’s link –

        > The contract modification adds to an existing purchase order for 152 LRVs, bringing the total to 162 LRVs.

        Have all of the 152 LRVs been delivered and put into service, and we are just waiting on the 10 at this point?

      4. To my understanding, 10 more cars are supposed to address the issue of not running every trip with 4 cars. They should have enough cars to run every trip in 3-car capacity whenever all the delivered units are tested.

    3. Thankfully not. 4 cars on line 2 seem extremely unnecessary to deprive everyone north of Northgate from higher frequencies.

    4. You are the first I have seen suggest 4-car trains on the 2 Line. I am not sure turning back the 2 Line at Northgate could even free up enough LRVs to get to all 3-car trains.

      I am also not sure that all 4-car trains are really needed on the 1 Line.

      Let ridership data, including maximum passengers on board in the busiest sections, determine the LRV distribution and whether there is need and feasibility to turn back at Northgate.

      1. Of course turning back at Northgate could free up enough LRVs to run 3-car.
        That is why ST looked into Northgate turnback scenario back in 2023, but they have decided to run all the train to Lynnwood and proposed 10 more order.
        https://www.soundtransit.org/st_sharepoint/download/sites/PRDA/FinalRecords/2023/Presentation%20-%20ST2%20Light%20Rail%20Service%20and%20Passenger%20Experience%2010-26-23.pdf

        In April 2024, after 10 LRV order has already been placed, similar presentation material was updated with 10 LRV included. It shows that 2 Line turn around at Northgate can warrant 4-car runs in 10-min headway, which they didn’t adopt due to operational reason. Even if 2 Line runs turn around at Lynnwood, they can still operate every train with 3-car capacity. The additional 10 cars are just to allow them to run some 4-car train on 2 Line. The headway and service pattern is consistent with what we are seeing now except some 2 Line train are 2-car. It could be that new LRV testing is falling behind or they just don’t think demand is there.
        https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/st3-light-rail-service-presentation-april-2024.pdf

        In short, available fleet of 214 LRVs (62+152) can run 1 Line every 8-10 minutes in 4-car and 2 Line every 8-10 minutes in 3 car. The additional order was to allow ST to run some of the 2 Line in 4-car.

  2. The ST announcement doesn’t mention the 12- minute headways. Is that for all the 1 Line? Will 2 Line stay at 10 minutes?

    1. Maybe so, because the 12 minutes is because of single-tracking, which doesn’t affect the 2 Line.

  3. “Pinehurst”. How droll.

    Real missed opportunity here to name it something whimsical.

    I suggested “Even Northergate”.

    1. Nah, it needs to be even more whimsical.

      How about “Puppy Dog City”.

      1. With South Federal Way becoming the station to someday be numbered 69, there’s the whimsical opportunity! God only knows what that winning art installation would be.

      3. They could name the South Federal Way station Enchanted Village or Kitts Corner, would be a better name for the station than just calling it South Federal Way.

    2. How about the world’s largest wooden paddle sculpture called “Pine Hurts”! lol

      Actually, Pinehurst is a good name. It’s succinct and unique — and reasonably memorable.

      Apparently a “hurst” is a forested hill, from what the internet sources say.

  4. also, there is the mandatory clearing of trains at Northgate too. Right now, we are doing that with the 2 line terminating at Northgate, but it is at a time when frequencies are reduced. It take one stubborn passenger who won’t get off to throw off the timing for trains behind it. It worked for the pre bridge opening with the 2 line operating 2 car trains and security was proactive and boarded the trains southbound at Westlake and started to wake up passengers or prepared them to get them off by IDS. Now, lets take this same scenario towards northgate with 4 car trains. Would require more security personnel to do so, and they would have to get on at least Univ Dist to start the process. 4 car trains take longer to clear out.

  5. Interesting. After installing switchback tracks it sounds like it’s the consensus of many on STB that they can not be used on Link in an operational capability. That surprises me as in dozens of rail systems across the nation it’s not surprising to hear messages such as “due to ….., this train will be terminating at the next station”. On the MTA if one doesn’t get off when told, no big deal, once they realize they are heading back downtown they get off at the next station.

    Once traffic builds up on the cross lake it will be much higher than the Northgate to Lynnwood section.

    1. It’s not that they can’t be used, it’s that they aren’t there to be used.

    2. Realtime train dispatching is an art! It takes years of coaching to get a feel of the operations and the ridership patterns — and what happens with different kinds of planned and unplanned disruptions.

      I’ve got enormous respect for dispatchers seasoned in New York or Chicago, where a dispatcher has to be nimble. It’s less important to have that skill in low frequency light rail systems. In those big systems, a mere 20 minute gap in service can quickly become overwhelming, for example.

      With the higher frequency and passenger volumes, Link is now approaching operational challenges that are more similar to Chicago and New York rather than a place like Dallas or Sacramento.

      With service inside and north of DSTT every four or five minutes, it is less impactful if a decision to reverse a train early is made to get the trains back on schedule. Alternatively, a train can be declared as “express” and start skipping stations. Some systems even build “gauntlet tracks”, which are added tracks set at least several inches away from a platform so that trains don’t have to pull through a station at a slower speed for safety reasons.

      The whole two branches of one high frequency rail line (1/2 Lines) is a new operations scenario for ST. There is a learning curve. I hope that they reach out to other busy systems learn what techniques respond best.

      1. Chicago had a bit of an advantage because their older signal infrastructure means they have local signal control boxes at several busy junctions. Imagine, for example, having a dedicated signal operator just at CID to make sure trains don’t delay each other at the junction there.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5WSseTVAFAA

    3. @Robert

      Hi fyi there’s a difference between just switchback tracks and the third pocket tracks. There’s a couple spots with switch back tracks where the train can switch tracks and reverse but it’ll block all trains in the opposing direction.

      But there’s a couple spots with a third middle track that sound transit can use to have the train wait and get it ready to turn around. Namely at north of SODO, chinatown, north of northgate, west of judkins park, south of rainier beach etc…

      the termini just have switchback tracks at lynnwood, redmond, and federal way but the trains can’t go any further so they don’t need the third track

      of course while the third tracks do exist and many transit agencies are able to do quick turn around operations …. im not sure if sound transit is actually capable of doing quick turnback operations.

  6. Well, this is disappointing to hear but not surprising. Hence, this is why some of us wanted the agency to try to get this infill station online with the Lynnwood Link extension. So after waiting nearly two decades to get a light rail line up and running from south SnoCo to the eastside, some six years later than planned in ST2, now we learn that the planned frequency and wait times will suffer for a number of months due to the sequencing of this additional station. What a bummer.

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