Northgate Station
Sound Transit
After 15 years of planning and construction, Sound Transit announced Friday that the Northgate Link will officially open on October 2 of this year.
The Northgate extension of the light rail system is 4.3 miles long, with 3.5 of those miles running underground. Tunnel boring equipment began work on the extension’s two underground tunnels in 2014 and took two years to complete.
The extension features two underground stations and one elevated station. The underground stations will serve the Roosevelt and University (U) District areas, and the elevated station will serve Northgate.
University (U) District in 2020 (Photo courtesy Sound Transit)
Sound Transit Board Chair and University Place Mayor Kent Keel said “With Northgate’s completion Sound Transit will enter an exciting period of opening major light rail extensions every year through 2024, nearly tripling the region’s light rail system from 22 miles to 62 miles. This drum
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King County Metro Transit will increase bus trips to the three stations in a service change this fall. The NHL Kraken hockey-team headquarters and ice rinks being developed at Northgate and a walk-bike bridge across Interstate 5 to North Seattle College should attract train riders.
Along with the three light-rail stations, new Siemens trains built in Sacramento, California, will join the 25-mile (40-kilometer) corridor, with wider midsections to hold about 10 more people per rail car.
Voters approved a sales-tax increase in 2008 to pay for the Northgate extension and future track being constructed to Overlake, Lynnwood and Federal Way. Seattle transit ridership showed the nation’s fastest growth in the 2010s, to include 80,000 light-rail trips on busy days before the pandemic.