Today Sound Transit announced Pinehurst station will open September 30, 2026. Located between Shoreline South and Northgate stations, Pinehurst is the first ever Link infill station. The area around the station has been slow to develop as it is primarily occupied by Jackson Park Golf Course and I-5. The new King County Metro Route 77 stops next to Pinehurst station and provides east/west service along N 130th St and NE 125th St.
Pinehurst station was approved as part of ST3 in 2016 and was accelerated to open 5 years before its original projected opening in 2031.
Trains on the 1 Line and 2 Line will begin serving Pinehurst station at 5am on September 30 and a community celebration will take place later in the day.
ST promised to open the station in Q3 of this year. It looks like they will make it.
Barely. It’s the final Q3 day.
I dislike starting rail lines just to meet a timeline projection, promise, or politically-imposed deadline, especially since the Point Defiance Bypass disaster.
Even just for a new station, vertical conveyances, signals, restrooms, pedestrian gates, and other miscellaneous stuff have to be tested. Getting a key safety-sensitive issue fixed ought to trump political deadlines.
It would have been better to have built the structure spanning 130th so riders to and from eastbound buses wouldn’t have to cross it, but the station should expand Link’s catchment area west of I-5 significantly. I would suggest extending the 28 from Carkeek Park to Lake City via Greenwood, 130th and 125th. The 28 is pretty quick through West Greenwood and crosses the 44 while it’s still at Market Street, so no double back is necessary to use it to get to this station from “North Greenwood”. The catchment for a stop at 105th and Greenwood would reach down to 100th.
Yes, I don’t know why it was moved north to 148th.
Is the ped bridge west toward Twin Ponds Park open yet?
Yeah, it would have been better to span 130th. It might have even been cheaper. Keep in mind how they build the station. Initially they planned to build it to the north. Then they realized that it was steeper there than they originally thought (I kid you not). So, it turns out that the station would be more expensive than the original estimate, despite its minimalist design. Thus it might have actually been cheaper to build it straddling 130th. Of course that would have meant designing it with that mind when they built Lynnwood Link. By the time they actually worked on the station, it was too late. That was the big mistake: It should have been built with the rest of Lynnwood Link.
I would suggest extending the 28 from Carkeek Park to Lake City via Greenwood, 130th and 125th.
I think this combination would be better: https://seattletransitblog.com/2025/10/14/better-bus-service-to-pinehurst-station/. The 5 turns and goes to Lake City. (It would split from the 21.) The 75 goes to Shoreline Community College. The two buses are timed to work together to provide 7.5 minute headways from Bitter Lake to Lake City. The 77 just runs from Lake City to the UW.
This station will be an interesting bellwether of whether or not a freeway-RoW station can be adequately served without a parking garage.
I’m skeptical that the station will actually induce greater system-level ridership simply due to poor walkshed
I think the 77 will be the key part of how much ridership Pinehurst draws. It will be about 10 minutes faster to go via the 77/Link that it is to go via the 5 or E from the vicinity of Greenwood/Aurora/130th, and that trip will probably be more reliable than the E (though not sure how the 77 has been doing since it entered service). Not sure if it’ll be faster from Lake City to go via Pinehurst or Roosevelt, but it will surely be faster to do the 77 via Pinehurst rather than the 75 via Northgate if you’re at 125th/15th.
I doubt much walk up traffic will happen, but Link is so fast from Northgate to UW and downtown, I think it will draw transit riders who currently go to other stations or who are on the E.
Riders along the Lake City Way portion of route 77 are more likely to just ride down to Roosevelt Station. Having route 75 do the east-west portion of route 77 would give Pinehurst Station a larger rideshed.
Yep, but since Metro didn’t do that, I’ll continue to drive to Northgate rather than take a bus (75) that would take half the time if it served Pinehurst.
Since in their infinite wisdom they also altered the 65 so it no longer serves 148th station directly, but winds around to get to it, nobody between NE 75th and NE 120th and between Lake City Way and the lake has direct service to the closest station on Link. I’ll leave my car at home if they ever fix the 75 to serve Pinehurst – until then, no bus for me.
Riders along the Lake City Way portion of route 77 are more likely to just ride down to Roosevelt Station.
Why? The 77 doesn’t start run on Lake City Way until 120th. For stops north of there they have the have the 61, to Northgate or the 72 to the UW. The 72 is more frequent but a lot slower to Link. The 61 is as frequent as the 77 but still slower. Roosevelt is no longer an obvious choice for those in Lake City. Many will take the 65 and 75 to 148th Station. Many will take the 61 to Northgate. But my guess is a significant number — especially those that are in a hurry — will take the bus to Pinehurst just because it is so much faster.
“Riders along the Lake City Way portion of route 77 are more likely to just ride down to Roosevelt Station.”
“Why? The 77 doesn’t start run on Lake City Way until 120th.”
This is where going all the way through a neighborhood will be better, as we’ve been discussing with downtown Bellevue. The 75 has to turn at 125th & Sand Point Way because it’s the corner of the street grid. So it’s perfectly positioned to continue west on 125th/130th to Pinehurst Station, Aurora, and Shoreline CC. That would give the eastern half of Lake City direct access to Pinehurst station. It would also improve east-west travel in general, which has been a challenge in north Seattle.
The best north-south route would be on Lake City Way as far as at least Roosevelt Station and 145th & LCW. This would give northern Lake City direct access to Roosevelt station and neighborhood.
Instead of those sensible grid routes, the 77 makes a “7” shape, serving only the west and south sides. That leaves out the northern and eastern halves. Fewer people want to make that turn than go straight. So who is this turn serving? Why is Metro doing it?
My best guess is Metro is trying to minimize its limited service hours by having one route do both jobs. It identified a need to connect Lake City to Pinehurst station on 130th, and to backfill the loss of the 522 between Lake City and Roosevelt. But it missed the need to do that for all of Lake City, not just the nearest halves. It responded to two politically-loud demands without stepping back and thinking what’s best for the whole, what’s a win-win. And it didn’t want to eliminate service on 5th Ave NE between 110th and 125th, which rerouting the 75 would do. That’s a tradeoff there, because what other route could backfill 5th? How critical is it in terms of coverage? It’s hard to see how it’s more important than giving the eastern half of Lake City a one-seat ride to Pinehurst station (i.e., their own and closest Link station). The Roosevelt-to-145th route may require more service hours if the 72 can’t be truncated and both routes overlap between 125th and 145th. But it’s what would be best for the most people’s mobility and convenience.
I’m skeptical if the station’s ridership potential, too.
There are five ways to access a station (Pinehurst condition in parenthesis):
Walk (limited walkshed)
Bicycle (decent but not going to be much)
Drop off/ Pick up (some activity but there are nearby stations that will be easier for many to reach)
Drive and park (no spaces)
Ride a bus (just Route 77 four times an hour per direction or eight times total per hour, with denser areas to the east and west having other bus routes that go to other nearby stations)
The first question in my mind is whether or not it will unseat Least Main as the lowest demand Link station. The other question I’m wondering is how many of the boardings are new Link riders versus ones that merely switch from another nearby station.
There won’t be initial answers until mid-November. And it usually takes 6-12 months for station ridership to build.
Every station north of Roosevelt is highly dependent on bus service. Every single one. That is why Lynnwood Station has so many riders. It is the northern terminus for all the feeder buses. It is why Northgate Station used to have very high ridership when it was the terminus. It is why ridership dropped dramatically when it wasn’t. The buses went to other places. This is just another freeway station that is part of Lynnwood Link.
Right now Metro/Sound Transit are running too many buses to the other stations and not enough to Pinehurst. It is a big mistake. But that is likely to change as they get better planners. But the fundamentals are strong. It is by far the fastest way to get from Lake City to Link. There are plenty of people in Lake City and it is also a major hub as the streets converge there. Bitter Lake is also a major community. The time savings for someone in Bitter Lake are huge — even larger than those for Lake City. Metro is serving the area about as poorly as you can imagine (it barely skims the edge of Lake City) but that should change at some point. Metro has terrible routing in Shoreline as well — that should change over time as well.
“I’m skeptical that the station will actually induce greater system-level ridership simply due to poor walkshed”
This issue is better access to Lake City and Bitter Lake. It matters to people who live there or go there even if it doesn’t increase systemwide ridership. Lake City is Seattle’s fourth-largest urban village. We need it to be part of Seattle’s housing solution, not have people avoiding Lake City because it’s hard to get to or you have to detour out-of-direction to get to Link. Bitter Lake has several large apartment buildings now, at least one dedicated to senior housing, and underused big-box lots that have the potential for significant growth.
We thought Lake City would be left out of Link and there was nothing that could be done about it. But the Aurora alternative had an extra station at 130th. So when ST chose the I-5 alternative, some people realized that if there could be a 130th station there, and that would make Lake City and Bitter Lake access less bad.
We also suggested replacing 145th station with 130th and 155, but ST didn’t like that.
ST thinks Pinehurst station won’t add net new riders because it will just divert them from Shoreline South or Northgate. But that isn’t plausible. If a station is more conveniently close, more people will take transit, and more transit riders will move to Lake City or Bitter Lake who wouldn’t have considered it otherwise. All that will happen over over the long term, and total ridership will probably eventually exceed ST’s expectations. There’s also the possibility of larger upzones in the future. ST’s project estimates couldn’t include upzones that weren’t already approved or close to it, but that doesn’t mean a future city government won’t implement them.
I’m skeptical that the station will actually induce greater system-level ridership simply due to poor walkshed
If so, then you should be skeptical that most of the Link expansions since Northgate Link has induced — or will induce — greater system-level ridership. Lynnwood Link and Federal Way Link have very poor walkshed as well. Maybe we should have just stuck with what we had and run buses more often.
I think I’m mostly just skeptical of any I-5 routing along the Spine. I’d much rather see a 99 Spine outside of Seattle because I imagine 99 will be more compatible with TOD long term
Yeah, choosing to run along the freeway north of Roosevelt was a big mistake. But Lynnwood Link should at least include stations along the way and that definitely includes one at 130th.
Yes, Aurora would have been better. There’s housing and retail growth potential all along it, people who could walk to Link stations. We argued that throughout the EIS process and when the decision was being made. We couldn’t convince ST to do it.
ST said its reasons were: (1) The I-5 alternative had lower capital cost. (It wasn’t as low as expected because the freeway was so old and fragile.) (2) The Aurora alternative would be “4 minutes longer” travel time, which would lose more riders in Lynnwood than it would gain on Aurora. (3) The I-5 alternative was the representative alignment in the ballot measure, and there wasn’t a compelling enough reason to deviate from it.
#2 is as ridiculous as saying Pinehurst station won’t add any riders. If you build rapid transit in a corridor like Aurora, people will flock to it, people will move to it, the advantages of walking from the station to a business or home will be compelling, and there will likely be more density than current zoning allows even if ST couldn’t include it in its ridership estimate (because it’s not approved yet). In any city, you have to look at a city and say, “Of course we should serve all the largest urban villages, and high-walkshed potential corridors like Aurora.” That’s what the most transit-oriented design is.
28 needs to be extended to the N 145th station or N 185th station and 77 should be extended to downtown seattle only and 166 and 164 are really weird routes I thought the 166 is the last stop in DM station and then it changes the route to 164 to Green River college this is making me confused.
By what path would you extend route 28?
I would say like downtown seattle to N 145th Station, maybe even though N 185th Station but the route 333 should be cutting back to N 145th St station and then transfer to the 28 to downtown seattle.
I like the idea of extending the 28, although there are multiple ways to do it. For instance, the 28 could go to 130th and replace the 77 to Lake City.
Or, maybe you have the 5 bend Eastward to Link and Lake City, while the 28 takes over the 5’s tail at Shoreline Community College. There are many possibilities.
“I thought the 166 is the last stop in DM station and then it changes the route to 164 to Green River college this is making me confused.”
Through-routing improves the network because some trips go from a couple miles west of the middle to a couple miles east of the middle. It lowers operational costs by having fewer buses, drivers, and layover spaces. An hour-long route is within the range of not too short and not too long, assuming there are no major congestion bottlenecks.
So why two numbers instead of one? It increases flexibility in case Metro someday wants to attach the 166 to a different route, and the 164 to a different route, or split the through-route. Then it won’t have to change the number in those neighborhoods. Changing numbers confuses people, especially visitors. This now is a number change. I think Metro is hoping it will be the last number change until RapidRide 164. (I mean the eastern route. It’s still not in Metro’s online schedule, so I’m not sure which route is which.)
You are the second person on this post to suggest extending the 28. I really don’t get it. The 28 is an infrequent bus. It follows a weak corridor. Yes, ideally it should run every fifteen minutes (like every other bus in the area) but that is obviously a stretch. The corridor it serves — 8th Avenue NW — ends at Holman Road. The bus has a solid layover. I see no reason why it should be extended. Doing so would mean overlapping the 40 and then the 5 (or RapidRide E) to get to 130th. That seems silly for a bus that struggles to get enough riders to justify decent frequency.
In contrast, sending the 5 to Lake City makes a lot of sense. Greenwood/Phinney is a major corridor. It is also a corridor with very few cross streets. By making an ‘L’ it connects to a major destination in the north end (Lake City) while also doubling headways on the Bitter Lake-Lake City corridor. The 75 would serve Shoreline College. While some riders would miss their one-seat ride to the college, there are plenty of people from Lake City, Sand Point and yes, the UW, that would appreciate that straightforward one-seat ride to Shoreline College. There are other combinations that would suddenly be much better. For example Lake City to Ballard is easy and straight forward. You go along one of the faster east-west corridors (125th/130th) turn on Greenwood (also fast) and then connect to the 40. Sending the 5 to Lake City and the 75 to Shoreline Community College is the way to go.
The 28 also serves a lower-density area with no retail centers. It manages to bypass the centers of both Ballard and Fremont. This is a problem with Seattle in general: why is 8th Ave NW so low density and has so little retail? This means if you’re at Pinehurst station, you have little reason to go to 8th Ave NE if you don’t live there, so that drags down ridership. And that in turn is why it’s half hourly while surrounding routes are 10-15 minutes.
While I do question the bus configurations in this area, as someone in the walkshed / 77 route, this now saves me ever having to drive to Northgate or Shoreline South and find parking. I’m pretty excited and will be at opening day!
Why did they make opening day a Wednesday? Why not a weekend since I’ll have school that day and people won’t even be there at 5 am let alone a weekday because they have to go to work. I mean they could skip the first trip out of Pinehurst and go to the celebration but still isn’t something Sound Transit normally does.
I wish we had info on opening day! Like if there’s gonna be a ribbon cutting (which there has to be one) or what the opening day activities will look like on a map. And what will happen to 5th Ave NE north of 130th? Will it open all the way to 145th or just to the station (an odd thing to do)?
A weekday celebration will probably be in the early evening so that people with 9-5 jobs can go to it. That’s what happened with the Lynnwood Link opening: there was a ceremony midday, and then a gap until the late afternoon celebrations.
I guess someone promised it would open in the third quarter of this year, and that’s the last day of the quarter.
Makes me wonder what corners were cut to make that date…
What are the projected boardings for Pinehurst, and where does that put it on the list of 1 and 2 Line station boardings?
Supposedly 3,400, but it doesn’t give the projected year that mark is supposed to be.
https://www.theurbanist.org/seattles-pinehurst-light-rail-station-will-open-september-30/
What are the boardings for Shoreline South?
Fawaiaw. A few years ago it was 1800 boardings for Pinehurst and 9300 for Shoreline South in 2040.
https://seattletransitblog.com/2020/01/27/sound-transits-station-ridership-in-2040/
FWIW!
Remember that Jackson Park golf course is a terrible misuse of land in the walkshed of 2 light rail stations! We must fix this! At the bare minimum it should be a freely traversable park 🙏
Reroute the route 5 ? Why can’t one of the oldest streets in the north end keep one bus route running on it ? It reminds me of the recent decision to eliminate the route 372, and with its demise one route coverage of the other original north end road, Lake City / Bothell Way.