Sound Transit 2 Travel Times and Recap

The full build out of Sound Transit 2 coming close after the December 6 opening of Federal Way Link Extension and the upcoming March 2026 full East Link. This article will go over the a map of transit times and have a brief recap of what ST2 will accomplish.

Sound Transit 2 Light Rail (estimated) travel times

Above is the Sound Transit Future Extensions Map (Supposed 2024) annotated with transit times using the Chinatown as the 0 minute starting point. Heading north one can reach Northgate in 21 minutes and Lynnwood City Center in 35 minutes. Traveling east one can reach Bellevue Downtown in 22 minutes and Downtown Redmond in 41 minutes. Traveling south one can reach SeaTac in 33 minutes and Federal Way Downtown station in 50 minutes.

Travel time chart with minutes centered on International District

Note that trains will branch out at International District with half the trains heading south to Seatac and Federal Way and the other half heading east to Bellevue and Redmond. The travel time can also differ slightly between northbound versus southbound as well as peak vs non-peak times.

Travel times between major stations to all other stations for ST2.
Color coded green <=20 min; yellow <= 40 min; orange <= 60 min; red > 60 min

Here is the time table with the top row with more start stations namely: Lynnwood, UW, International District, Columbia City, SeaTac, Federal Way, Bellevue Downtown, and Downtown Redmond. stations. The left column shows the end destination. Note that start and end destinations from the Federal Way segment to the East Link segment or vice versa need to transfer at the International District station.

Short Recap and comparison to other Transit Systems

We covered some of 1980s~2000s past plans in a previous article. Notably the region skipped heavy rail (SF BART, DC WMATA) with cut-and-cover (aka Forward Thrust) because such cut-and-cover construction (NYC Subway) was deemed too difficult. Instead, the region opted to first build regional express HOV bus system and a downtown bus tunnel. Then a center-running avenue light rail on MLK Way (Phoenix Valley Metro, Houston Light Rail style) was opted to connect the Rainier Valley over a predominantly freeway-running light rail (Dallas DART, Denver RTD style) along I-5. However, that preference for avenue-running shifted in Tukwila; due to insufficient funds for a route through Southcenter Mall and the city's rejection of International Boulevard, Sound Transit was forced back to the I-5 corridor.

Lynnwood, Federal Way and East Link compared to other transit projects simplified

Capitol Hill and UW were connected using deep bore tunnel machines and cut-and-cover stations, quite expensive but the cost was somewhat acceptable given the density. Unfortunately First Hill was skipped due to the sharp curve from the convention center.

Bellevue rejected the at-grade running alignment on Bellevue Way for a trenched 112th avenue alignment. Furthermore, both Federal Way Link and Lynnwood Link had their elevated alignments along Pacific Highway South and Aurora Avenue rejected in favor I-5 freeway-running alignments. Downtown Redmond Station was converted from an at-grade station to an elevated while Marymoor Village station and parts of Bel-Red section were changed to be at-grade instead.

Conclusion

With the full completion of the ST2 extensions, frequent rail service will span the Puget Sound region, seamlessly connecting riders from Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, and Shoreline in the north; to Tukwila, Des Moines, and Federal Way in the south; and from Bellevue and Redmond in the east; all through the core of Seattle.

1986 PSCOG LRT Trunk Route Schematic. Sound Transit will finally soon (mostly) accomplish the vision Puget Sound outlined back in the 1980s.

While there have been a few setbacks and the project has taken longer than anticipated, the system is finally providing a viable alternative to car travel. Ideally this momentum continues with the planned extensions to Ballard, Tacoma, Everett, Kirkland, and Issaquah.