Seattle speeds up delivery of new light rail

Seattle Mayor and Sound Transit board member Bruce Harrell has issued an executive order to speed up delivery of new light rail lines to West Seattle and Ballard by improving co-ordination through a new Office of the Waterfront, Civic Projects and Sound Transit. This will lead the development of new legislation to streamline the permit process for the projects, including land use code changes. Budgets of USD 5.2M in 2025 and USD6.8M in 2026 will fund up to 50 additional staff to support the effort. The Office will also create a four-year work plan to improve rider experience. 

 

The Ballard Link extension will add 7.7 miles (12.3km) of light rail connecting the city centre to Ballard, with nine new stations and a second downtown transit subway, with completion in 2039. The West seattle Link extension is a 4.1 mile (6.6km) line from the city centre to West Seattle with four new stations and a bridge over the Duwamish River, for completion in 2032. 

 

Light rail came to Seattle in August 2003 with the north–south line using the existing trolleybus subway under the central area. it has since been extended and supplemented by the East Seattle line bringing the system to 44.6 miles (71.9km) carrying about 30.44M passengers/year. The East Seattle line will be linked to the city centre, and extended further east, during 2025. 62 LRVs were built by KinkiSharyo to launch the system, and are being supplemented 121 Siemens S700 LRVs.