Part of Seattle East line to open

Sound Transit, the operator of the light rail system in the US city of Seattle, has announced that the first part of its new East line will start to carry passengers between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology from 27 April. 

 

Construction started here in April 2016 and there is a 1985 feet (605m) subway under downtown Bellevue. The eight new stations on the 6.5-mile (10.4km) sections will receive a 10-minute service of coupled LRVs from 05.30 to 21.30. There are P+R sites at South Bellevue, Bel Red and Redmond Technology and an operations and maintenance centre at Northeast 12th Street. 

 

Initially Line 2 will not be connected to the north–south Line 1 in central Seattle as completion of the section between South Bellevue and International District/Chinatown has been delayed by the discovery of quality issues in the construction on the floating bridge in the median of the I-90 highway. This is now expected to offer service in 2025, together with an extension north to Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond. When complete there will be 18 miles (29km) of new line and it is hoped to carry  

50 000 passengers/day by 2030. 

 

The estimated project cost is USD 3.68bn with funding from local taxes authorised under a 2008 ballot measure, plus federal funding (an USD 88.7M grant and USD 1.33bn loan).