As NE 130th Station Opening Slips to 2026, SDOT Moves to Improve Station Access
From The Urbanist
Months after the Sound Transit board voted to accelerate the construction of Sound Transit’s NE 130th Street light rail station from 2031 to 2025, Sound Transit has announced that the earliest the infill station between Northgate and Shoreline South Stations will open is 2026. The delay was announced last week at Sound Transit’s system expansion committee meeting, where board members were told that the agency was now working toward a station opening in the second quarter of 2026, just short of two years after the currently scheduled start date for the rest of the Lynnwood Link extension.
The delay is not unexpected, with many major projects across the region still recovering from the monthslong work stoppage caused by the concrete worker’s strike. While disappointing, the added delay in opening what will be Seattle’s northernmost light rail station and its last new station until the 2030s could give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) a greater head’s start on ensuring that 130th Station, which suffers from considerable station access issues, is more accessible to riders by the time it opens for service.
In early 2021, SDOT released a study on how station access could be improved for people accessing it from all directions, ranking the projects that would do the most to improve access. Now, the department is seeking a federal grant through the Puget Sound Regional Council to construct a slate of projects that it says would start construction in 2025, completing not far from the 2026 opening date for the station if all goes according to plan.
Of the 3,400 daily riders expected at NE 130th Street Station, Sound Transit expects just 10% to arrive by personal car in large part because the station won’t have a parking garage, unlike the nearby Shoreline South Station at 148th Street. The remaining passengers are anticipated to be roughly split between bus transfers and direct walk or bike trips. Currently no buses serve the area where 130th Street station will be, and biking facilities in the area are not robust.
In the next few years, Metro will plan a restructure of the bus routes in the area, where at a minimum Route 75 will be rerouted to provide direct service between Lake City and the light rail station. Metro’s long range plan envisions frequent service along 130th and 125th connecting the light rail station with other north-south transit options on Lake City Way and Aurora Avenue N.
For more details go to The Urbanist article.
