Everett Link Station Moves Downtown

The Sound Transit board on Thursday refined the Everett Link plan ($). Mike Lindblom in the Seattle Times reports that the main Everett Link station is moved to the downtown arena. This puts it right in the middle of Everett's most walkable streets like Broadway, Hewitt Avenue, and Colby Avenue. The arena is where the Everett Silvertips hockey team plays, and is called the Angel of the Winds Arena or the Snohomish County Civic Center. Until now the station had been expected to be three blocks southeast of the arena, at a combined transit center/Amtrak station/P&R at the edge of downtown with a limited walkshed. I don't know how they'll reconcile having two Everett Stations", whether some bus routes will serve both stations, or how P&R drivers from the north would get to Link.

The board also prefers a western alternative for Alderwood station, now called West Alderwood, closer to buses and apartments. It wants the Southwest Everett Industrial Center station on on Highway 526 outside Boeing and Paine Field property, to avoid impacting industrial job capacity. It decided to wait on choosing an alternative for the Casino Road/Evergreen Way station location.

The opening date is now 2041. A first phase may open in 2037 to Mariner or the Paine Field area. (I assume it's Mariner. The article says the Paine Field area but that may be an approximation.

Staff have started telling the board which locations they prefer rather than waiting for the politicians to tell them. This implements one of the recommendations made by an external technical advisory group.

There's disagreement on whether to put Link stanchions in the middle of streets.

Update: ST announcement and links to documents.

This is an open thread.