By 2042, Seattle should have four Link light rail lines covering downtown and branching out to Redmond, Issaquah, Everett, and Tacoma. Though some ope

What You Don’t Understand About Seattle’s Light Rail Expansion May Doom the System

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2023-03-17 21:00:07

By 2042, Seattle should have four Link light rail lines covering downtown and branching out to Redmond, Issaquah, Everett, and Tacoma. Though some opening dates are decades away, a lot of decisions are being made now. Specifically, the environmental review process is well underway to set the future location of stations and routes for many of these lines.

Unfortunately, the public perception of what Link Light Rail is supposed to look like and what is actually being planned are two different things. The biggest misconceptions stem from the original Sound Transit 3 vote map and budget. The map was simple and direct enough to win the vote, but also misleading. Having all the light rail in red does not portray the scope of what’s about to be built. 

The original map has led people believe there is going to be a unified spine that all other tracks are branching from, that new lines will only improve and extend a current baseline, and the new stations are going to connect and function like the current ones. And they think the money is in place to make this happen.

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