Thoughts on the Starter Line

The Link 2 Line opened yesterday with eight new stations on the Eastside from South Bellevue to Redmond Technology. Mike Lindblom and David Kroman in the Seattle Times have extensive coverage of the ceremony, ride experiences, and community reaction. Lindblom's pre-launch list of the goods and bads of each station area is still useful as a guide.

Several STB staff attended the opening - or tried to attend but couldn't get there on time. We found an ambiguity in the plan, as some thought it most important to be on the first train from South Bellevue, while I thought it was most important to see Bellevue Downtown open. (I was also hoping my friend in Lynnwood would make it on one of the hourly 535's, but she couldn't.)

Nathan Dickey rode the first departing train (car 215B!) from South Bellevue Station. There was much cheering when the doors finally opened ~30 minutes later than scheduled (due to the ceremony speeches going long) and more cheering when the train reached Redmond after ~20mins." Nathan continues, There were excellent festivities at every station, including free tacos at Redmond Technology and free t-shirts from Overlake. ST was also giving out hats with the 2" for the 2 Line at Bellevue Downtown station but I didn't find out about those until I was halfway to Seattle and saw a few riders with 2' hats on the returning 550."

Sherwin Lee saw Goran Sparrman, ST interim CEO, get on the train at Wilburton Station and managed to talk with him briefly. Martin Pagel also got a chance to talk with Sparrman briefly at an event, so maybe we'll be able to interview him eventually.

I took the 9:08 am 550 from downtown Seattle. Normally on Saturday I see ten people on the eastbound bus, but this time there were ten people at the first stop alone. Then ten more at the second stop, then thirty at the third stop, thirty at the fourth, and more at the fifth - until we finally left downtown with the aisles packed like I haven't seen since 2019 rush hour or a ballgame. So it was clear it would be a large crowd, and I gave up on finding any other STBers in it.

At the ceremony were around four hundred people, and the expected line at the station entrance when it opened. The 550 back to South Bellevue was also packed. So were several train runs back and forth, even though trains were running every 3-4 minutes for the first few hours.

I rode from South Bellevue to Redmond Tech. I turned around to Overlake Village and tried the 221 transfer to my usual destination at 164th & Main. Then we went back to Overlake Village for late lunch at a Thai restaurant, and got back to the station at 5pm. By the the booths were packing up, the crowds were gone, and service was back to its usual 10 minutes. I rode to Spring District, explored the station are, then rode to South Bellevue and transferred to the 550 back home.

The onboard route map has a new symbol: (bus) <-> (1)": " Transfer to 1 Line by bus". It doesn't say which bus route, but it's at South Bellevue (550), Bellevue Downtown (550), and Redmond Technology (542/545).

The next-arrival displays are the new 2-line compact units like at CID, but only some of the stations had next arrivals. The other stations just showed the station name and time. Hopefully they'll all show arrivals soon. And Bellevue Downtown has a 4-line display of arrivals outside the entrance. Hopefully they'll all have arrivals soon.

Transfer Walks

South Bellevue has the best transfer: 1 minute from the bottom of the elevators, or 3 minutes from the train door including an elevator wait. It's probably even shorter from the two-way escalators, which I only saw after I got to the surface.

Bellevue Downtown is a 4:37 minute walk from the train door to the 550 bus stop. The entrance is not right across the street: that's the bicycle locker. The entrance is a half-block further. There's only up escalators, so you have to take the stairs or elevator down. Spring District has only up escalators too.

At Overlake Village the 221 stop is a block away and up a little hill, near the NE 31st Street roundabout, and then you're standing with no bench or shelter listening to the 520 noise.

Still, the 221 transfer is better than a 21-minute walk to the 226, or spending 35 minutes slogging across all of Bellevue on the 226, and both of those having a longer walk at the end. If I have to wait for a transfer, the 152nd Avenue restaurants are right there (although none look suitable for a quick 10 minute pop in-and-out), and Goodwill. The 221 took 12 minutes from the station to my destination. It got caught in large traffic jams on NE 24th Street and 148th Ave NE near the 520 entrance both ways, so that's apparently an all-day congestion bottleneck.

Spring District

Directly south of Spring District Station is a pedestrian-friendly street (121st Ave NE) going two blocks south, passing first an inviting open space with shrubs and benches, and then a park plaza. The park has a lawn, concrete amphitheater, and a small dog park. On the side of the park is the Bellevue Brewing Company pub. However, I didn't see any other retail besides the brewery and a golf shop. I hope the Spring District can become a 24-hour neighborhood and not an office ghetto.

I'm working on two more 2 Line articles in the next several days. In the meantime, comment away!