Riding LINK Light Rail in Seattle for the First Time
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2024
- LINK is the light rail system that serves the Seattle, Washington Area. The first section opened in 2009. Though there is currently only one line, over the next few years, extensions and new lines will help form LINK into a large, robust regional transit network. This is our first time exploring the system, and we will be taking a look at several underground stations, the former shared tunnel with buses, and the brand-new Siemens S700 light rail vehicles.
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Just discovered the channel! I live in Seattle and it's always fun to see our transit system on screen! I'm excited for the 2-Line crossing the I-90 bridge. It's supposed to be the first light rail system to cross a pontoon bridge! A lot of thought went into designing a piece of railway that could flex with the bridge's movements.
Have you considered the San Diego trolley system. It is a great system that links residential, commercial and business areas with schools and other public transit. It is the best way to go downtown and avoid traffic and parking issues. And parts of it are very scenic particularly the Green Line.
My favorite thing about Link (1 Line) is that it goes directly from SEA-TAC airport right to the heart of Seattle. (I also appreciate Denver for having an airport train connection.)
I was out here in the summer of 2023 as a field engineer intern building the new Line 2 to Bellevue and Redmond. Once I graduate college my company plans on sending me back to Seattle to help build future expansions! I got to see a lot of the behind the scenes machinery and systems that the public doesn’t normally see. There’s a whole entire set of backrooms in the Capitol Hill station that are not accessible to passengers, it’s absolutely massive.
Seattle’s light rail looks impressive. Love the sleek interiors with the door lighting. It’s a shame they weren’t able to build a proper subway back when they had the chance. The length and scope of the line and the extensions definitely feels similar to the DC Metro in that the stations are close together in the city proper, but outside of the urban core it behaves more like commuter or regional rail.
Great video. The light rail in Seattle seems pretty nice.
I’m watching this after the first segment of the 2 Line has opened and the head of the ST board said they are very hopeful the second segment into downtown Seattle will open around the 1st year anniversary of the first segment.
The Link has revolutionized getting around Seattle (and down to the airport). Keep on building, Sound Transit!
Siemens door lighting panels ftw! Those look awesome!
Great video! Can’t wait for your return in 2040 to ride the full system 😅
Link is actually quite special among light rail systems because it is the only light rail in the United States that uses 1500 Volt DC power (all other systems including most streetcars use either 600 Volts DC or 750 Volts DC) the only other lines in north America to use this voltage are Metra Electric/South Shore Railroad in Chicago and the Montreal REM,
The Capitol Hill neighborhood is named such because of James A. Moore. And no, it has no connection to the one in DC. James A. Moore was a real estate developer who platted much of the area, and he wanted the Washington state government to move the capital from Olympia to Seattle, so he named it Capitol Hill in 1901 after the neighborhood of his wife's hometown Denver. Before this, it was called Broadway Hill. The art above the platform at Capitol Hill station is called Jet Kiss by Mike Ross and was installed in 2015 before the station opened in 2016. The piece consists of two actual decommissioned US Navy A-4 Skyhawk fighter jets, which were disassembled and painted magenta and yellow.
Their livery is chef's kiss! Love the artwork you showed on the platform at International District/Chinatown! They're nine painted steel origami patterns by Sonya Ishii, called the Paper Chase. The origami depicts the phases of the moon and blooming of a cherry blossom! It wasn't shown here, but the station plaza's bricks have Chinese zodiac symbols in the style of Coast Salish animal depictions, a nice combination of indigenous and immigrant heritage! When the tunnel was opened in 1990, they already installed light rail tracks in anticipation, however they had to be replaced when the tracks were later found to be poorly insulated and unusable. And there was a scandal during the tunnel's construction when it was discovered in 1989 that the granite was quarried in South Africa despite a boycott of South African goods at the time.
Nice overview of the "Link" line. I'm pretty overwhelmed by the systems and the unfortunate videos put out by Sounder(?) transit. Thanks for speaking clearly and at a comfortable pace.
Love your video. I live in Seattle and I love light rail!
as I'm born in Cologne/Germany these trains remember me to the model K4000 trainsets still in service for decades in the Cologne tram system. Cool what happens when these trains are updated. Great to see Siemens trams overseas 👍
The reason we use LRVs has a lot to do with early political power. Building the early sections at grade was a cost cutting compromise to help get the system actually built. From now on Sound Transit has said that they will no longer build the system to be street running (this does not include the future Tacoma Community College extension of the Tacoma Streetcar)
Fun fact on the downtown tunnel: when it was put in they included the embedded tracks in the design hoping to serve light rail in mid-to-long term. You can see them in historical photos. Especially interesting is that the rails extended all the way to the now demolished Convention Place station which was the northern portal for busses using the tunnel.
I have to say that Sound Transit has done a great job with much of their light rail system so far. The tunnel between Northgate and UW that opened in 2021 has been a great addition to the 1 Line. Since it opened, whenever I go to downtown Seattle on weekends, I've completely sworn off driving there and will take the light rail instead. I'm really excited for it to open up to my neck of the woods in Lynnwood later this year.
Took this on the relatively long haul from SeaTac to Seattle downtown... I wish there were an express option because it does take a while. But it is a good system.