New details on Ballard-West Seattle link stations

14th Avenue in Ballard

Sound Transit has another online open house up, now with more details on station locations and elevation. We've covered the alignment alternatives in previous posts, so let's focus on the stations. Two notes to start with: first, if you like mezzanines, you are in for a treat! Second, opening dates are pushed out past 2035 due to COVID, though that could slip further pending reprioritization discussions at the board level.

Links go directly to station images or pages where appropriate.

North of Downtown

• The 15th Ave option in Ballard remains superior. It would straddle the arterial, allowing riders to avoid crossing 7 lanes of traffic to get to and from the heart of the neighborhood.
• Sound Transit imagines that buses would detour to 14th to serve the station; yet another reason why 14th is bad.
• If you want the 15th Avenue elevated station in Ballard, you'll also get a 15th Avenue station in Interbay. Straddling the arterial improves access from the Queen Anne side.
• (For context, 50 feet from ground to platform is roughly TIBS height. Mezzanine-less Mt. Baker is is 35 feet.)
• I don't have much to say about Smith Cove other than a couple of the options would be bad for the Taco Time.
• The Mercer St. option at Seattle Center has better bus transfer opportunities than Republican, but it's connected to 6th Avenue through downtown

Downtown & SLU

• Harrison Street in South Lake Union has better transfers to SR 99 buses like the E Line
• A Westlake station south of Denny has better pedestrian access for Belltown and slightly easier transfers to the 8. (Imagine a station directly under Denny & Westlake that let you emerge at any corner!)
• No new details on Chinatown-ID, where four options are still on the table.

South of Downtown

• Check out this absolute unit of a station in Delridge. Two mezzanines! At 105 feet tall, would it be the tallest building in West Seattle?
• A reasonably-sized station straddling Delridge Way, on the other hand, would have excellent transfers to RapidRide H.
• An elevated station at Avalon would have decent bus transfers but would condemn yet another Taco Time.
• Keeping Avalon above ground but with a short tunnel to bury the Alaska Junction station seems nice, but expensive.

Have at it in the comments.