Narrowing the Options for Graham Street Station

Graham Street Station Project map (Sound Transit)

Sound Transit has opened an Online Open House" and public survey sharing updates on the Graham Street Station project, one of three infill station projects included in ST3. This latest online open house and survey closes on Friday, February 7. For an in-person experience, Sound Transit is hosting a public workshop tonight (5pm to 7pm) at the Filipino Community Center (5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way S) to provide a space for the Graham Street community to review potential station locations, learn more about the benefits and challenges of each option, share feedback from your perspectives, and have an opportunity for dialogue." The station is expected to help fill in the 1.6-mile gap between the Columbia City Station and Othello Station when it opens in 2031.

The survey reveals where Sound Transit is heading in regard to building the Graham Street Station, which has an estimated cost of about $118 million. Let's take a look.

Community Priorities

Sound Transit has been conducting outreach around the Graham Street Station Project since early 2024, and identified the following priorities:

• Enhance safety
• Minimize disruptions and impacts to local businesses
• Increase access and connections
• Build the station as soon as possible

In the survey, Sound Transit shares some details on each of these priorities, but nothing surprising. For example, the agency is planning to enhance safety by including pedestrian gates and safe crossing areas", and will try to minimize impacts to local businesses by only taking as much property as needed. The survey then provides an opportunity for the public to share additional priorities before moving on to reviewing the station design and construction options.

Station Options

For readers unfamiliar with the area, most of the legal street names in the project area include South" as a prefix or suffix. For brevity, this article omits South" when referring to street names in this area. Martin Luther King Jr Way South is abbreviated MLK Jr Way.

In the survey, Sound Transit reviews three options under consideration for the infill station:

• Option 1: South of Graham Street with Side Platforms
• Option 2A: South of Graham Street with Center Platform
• Option 2B: South of Graham Street with Center Platform Shifted East

Each of the stations options under consideration have the following features in common:

• A length of approximately 500 feet in the median of MLK Jr Way, with the north end abutting Graham Street and the south end situated between Morgan Street and Angel Place;
• Entrances at the north and south ends of the station connected to pedestrian crossings at Graham Street and between Morgan Street and Angel Place. The crossings will feature safety enhancements such as pedestrian gates; and,
• Widening of MLK Jr Way to accommodate the station while maintaining two general traffic lanes per direction on MLK Jr way and dedicated left-turn lane from northbound MLK Jr Way to westbound Graham Street. This would include widening the sidewalks and replacing trees around the station area.
• Complete reconstruction of approximately a half-mile of tracks from north of Raymond Street to south of Holly Street to make them straight and level at the station;

Option 1: South of Graham Street with Side Platforms

According to Sound Transit, this station option would be designed similarly to the Columbia City and Othello stations with a platform on each side of the tracks.

Conceptual plan of Option 1 (Sound Transit).

This alternative would require taking less land from surrounding properties to widen MLK Jr Way, particularly saving space north of Graham Street. However, construction of the southbound platform might require relocating a sewer main running beneath the central southbound traffic lane in MLK Jr Way.

Approximate construction area for Option 1 (Sound Transit).A conceptual cross-section drawing of the current and potential future conditions at Graham Street under Option 1, facing southbound (Sound Transit).Option 2A: South of Graham Street with Center Platform

Sound Transit says this station would be designed similarly to the Rainier Beach and Stadium Stations, with a wide center platform" between the tracks. The agency notes that the center platform option increases safety by only requiring passengers to cross one track to access the station, rather than potentially having to cross both tracks to enter and exit.

Conceptual plan of Option 2A (Sound Transit).

Compared to Option 1, this design requires the taking of more land on either side of MLK Jr Way to accommodate the space needed to split the tracks around the center platform. Also, similar to Option 1, the construction of the southbound track may require relocation of the sewer main on MLK Jr Way.

Approximate construction area for Option 2A (Sound Transit).A conceptual cross-section drawing of the current and potential future conditions at Graham Street under Option 2A, facing southbound (Sound Transit). Note the pedestrian islands between the tracks and traffic lanes, where gates will be installed to reduce incidents where pedestrians are struck by trains.Option 2B: South of Graham Street with Center Platform Shifted East

This design is a simple modification of Option 2A in which the station platform is shifted slightly east.

Conceptual plan of Option 2B (Sound Transit).

This option places the rebuilt southbound track east of the sewer main in MLK Jr Way, meaning Sound Transit would not have to relocate the utility line, reducing project costs. Based on the conceptual cross-sections for the design, this alternative appears to require taking more land from properties east of the future station and taking less land from properties west the future station. However, the extent of this shift is not clearly depicted on the conceptual maps or plans included in the survey.

Approximate construction area for Option 2B (Sound Transit).A conceptual cross-section drawing of the current and potential future conditions at Graham Street under Option 2B, facing southbound (Sound Transit). Other Options

In the survey, Sound Transit explains it considered some other options, including placing the station north of Graham Street, splitting the station with platforms on either side of Graham Street, and building the station around the existing tracks.

North of Graham Street

Building the station north of Graham Street reportedly results in additional technical issues, safety concerns, and worse community access. The technical issues surround major utilities lines in the areas and a lack of feasible space to relocate them. The safety concerns relate to the pedestrian crossing at Raymond Street which would be moved south to serve the station and increase the distance between designated pedestrian crossings. Finally, there are fewer cross-streets on the north side of Graham Street, so a station there would have worse connectivity to the surrounding community and the Rainier Valley Greenway on 39th Avenue.

Split-Platform Station

A split-platform station would have build the northbound platform north of Graham Street and the southbound platform south of it, similar this schematic from Planning and Design of On-Street Light Rail Transit Stations:

A schematic diagram of a split-platform station accommodating dedicated left-turn lanes (Figure 3, Walker, 1992)

This option would have placed the northbound platform north of South Graham Street and the southbound platform south of it. Sound Transit disregarded this style because they determined it would be more difficult for passengers to access if one track were closed and the design would actually require taking more property to accommodate pedestrian safety gates.

Using Existing Track

The existing track, built as part of the original Central Link line which opened in 2009, is apparently neither flat nor straight where it intersects with Graham Street. This means a station utilizing existing track would need to start either 800 feet north of Graham Street or 250 feet south of it.

Sound Transit says building the station around straight track south of Graham Street would place the south end of the station about a third of a mile from the north end of the Othello Station, and Sound Transit believes this would not serve the community effectively. Similarly, the agency recognized that building the far north of Graham Street would be distant from bus connections and ineffective at serving the community.

The online open house" survey then ends with discussion of an equity and a demographics questionnaire, and a note that the Graham Street Station project team will brief the Sound Transit Board on their progress in early Spring" of this year.

Some Thoughts

Despite the unstated impacts to service and costs associated with rebuilding the track around Graham Street, Sound Transit's language in the survey seems to indicate the agency is leaning toward Option 2B. While it's hard to say exactly how much land this option will need to take from properties around the future station, it appears most of the direct impacts would be felt by businesses on the east side of MLK, which currently include Boss Tea, Banh Mi Deluxe, Rainier Restaurant and BBQ, a Starbucks, a Chevron gas station, and the handful of businesses in the strip mall next to the gas station.

Although impacts to properties around the station seem inevitable, the surrounding community appears very interested in getting the station built. Meanwhile, it seems Sound Transit is marching forward with the assumption this infill station will require total reconstruction of the track, but the online open house omits any discussion of how the agency expects to do that work while maintaining service on the 1 Line through Rainier Valley. Until more details emerge, we can only hope the project team is keeping that in mind as they work out their station plan.