Sound Transit Opens $3.1 Billion Lynnwood Link Light Rail Extension Connecting King and Snohomish Counties

Uniting King and Snohomish Counties with Rapid Mass Transit

SEATTLE, Washington — Marking a historic milestone for regional public transportation across the Pacific Northwest, Sound Transit and municipal transit partners have officially commenced passenger service on the landmark $3.12 billion Lynnwood Link Extension. Extending the regional 1 Line light rail system 8.5 miles northward from Northgate across the county border into Snohomish County, the high-capacity electric transit corridor connects suburban communities directly with Downtown Seattle, the University of Washington, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) without encountering notorious traffic delays on Interstate 5.

Funded by voter-approved Sound Transit 2 (ST2) local revenues alongside a $1.17 billion Full Funding Grant Agreement and a $658 million TIFIA loan from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the line offers rapid, congestion-free journeys. Commuters traveling from the northern terminus at Lynnwood City Center can reach central Seattle in approximately 28 to 32 minutes, running on dependable peak-hour headways of every 4 to 6 minutes and projected to attract between 47,000 and 55,000 daily riders.

Four State-of-the-Art Passenger Stations with Transit-Oriented Density

The 8.5-mile alignment introduces four brand-new, fully ADA-compliant passenger stations designed to seamlessly interface with regional bus feeder networks: Shoreline South / 148th Station, Shoreline North / 185th Station, Mountlake Terrace Station (integrated directly with the existing Mountlake Terrace Transit Center freeway flyer stop), and Lynnwood City Center Station. Each facility features elevated architectural passenger platforms, high-capacity dual elevators, escalators, weather-protective canopies, and vibrant commissioned public artwork reflecting Pacific Northwest indigenous and environmental themes.

To encourage multi-modal regional commuting, the project constructed thousands of parking stalls across modern park-and-ride garages, including a massive five-story parking structure at Lynnwood City Center. Simultaneously, Sound Transit collaborated with King County Metro and Community Transit to execute a comprehensive bus network restructure, redirecting express bus routes to terminate at the new rail stations and providing convenient feeder transfers across Shoreline, Edmonds, and south Snohomish County.

Equitable Housing and Sustainable Community Development

Beyond transportation infrastructure, Sound Transit and local civic authorities have catalyzed extensive Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) along the corridor. Surplus property adjacent to Lynnwood City Center and Shoreline stations has been dedicated to affordable housing developments in partnership with organizations like Housing Hope, delivering hundreds of affordable family apartments, community early-learning child care centers, and health services directly adjacent to train platforms.

The electric light rail extension runs entirely on clean, renewable electrical energy, removing an estimated thousands of single-occupancy vehicles from the congested I-5 corridor each weekday. By lowering regional vehicular carbon emissions and expanding transit equity for suburban workforces, the Lynnwood Link Extension provides a resilient infrastructural foundation for Greater Seattle's sustained economic growth.