Sorry, this is a very short photo thread.  I did not have a chance to photograph the line outside of downtown, although I did pass by it on the train and on the bus.  It's basically ready to go and hungry for action.  South of downtown there are some viaducts, a mile-long bored tunnel with one underground station, and an impressive viaduct over a valley at Tuckwilla.  It then travels on another sleek viaduct to SeaTac airport. 

 

Seattle's light rail saga began with passage of a local tax in 1996.  The line was always planned to use the downtown bus tunnel, which opened in 1990.  The tunnel was built with light rail in mind, complete with rails, but to comply with new standards the tunnel was closed and the floor lowered by six inches and new rails installed.  The tunnel will run with mixed express buses and light rail trains. 

 

The initial segment was to have been built north to Northgate, but cost estimates were way off and so Sound Transit decided only to build south to SeaTac Airport as part of the initial segment.  The feds recently awarded $800 million toward construction north of downtown Seattle, but this 3 mile segment will cost nearly $2 billion and include just two stations.  But these two stations are estimated to attract 70,000 daily riders, more than the entire 12~ miles south of downtown to the airport. 

 

Entrance to the Westlake station, soon to serve light rail subway & express suburban buses:

 

Another view of Westlake, with an island bus station (presumably people can transfer from light rail to this bus, but no telling how many will actually do it):

 

...or folks can transfer at this spot from light rail to the famous Monorail or the famous SLUT:

 

Light rail will terminate here near I-5 (bus/light rail tunnel travels under this street):

 

Seattle's famous articulated buses wait patiently for some Sunday morning patrons at the north end of the bus tunnel:

 

End of the light rail line -- the station is underground but the stub ends sneak outside for a few feet:

 

Reverse angle looking back into the light rail/bus tunnel (bus ramps to I-5 visible at left):

 

More:

 

These bus-only lanes leave I-5 for the bus/light rail tunnel (buses switch from diesel to electric operation in the tunnel):

 

I-5 looking north:

 

I-5 looking south:

 

One of these:

 

?:

 

One of Seattle's famous trolley buses:

 

Trolley bus wires:

 

 

 

 

Looking north toward Lake Union:

 

Good-bye from Seattle:

 

The wide variety of transit options is incredible.  Thanks for all of these amazing photo threads documenting the transit systems of the Pacific Northwest.

I think it's definitely interesting, for sure. Is everything well-integrated .. as in, is it easy to connect from one mode to another?

Well done!

When will all this civilization reach the Midwest?

These photographs are awesome. If only we could do to our transit tunnel what they've done to ours. I'd love to see the Riverfront Transit Center get converted into a light rail hub.

 

Over the summer didn't they try out some of those articulated buses here?

I think it's definitely interesting, for sure. Is everything well-integrated .. as in, is it easy to connect from one mode to another?

 

Nope... unfortunately... Although buses use the transit tunnel currently, and the light rail is scheduled to start using it in the summer I believe... So if they both use it, then it would seem to be a much better job of connecting the various forms of transit (which most spectacularly includes the awesome ferry system too).

 

These are great photos