Where you can catch the Sound Transit “bus bridge” this weekend

This coming weekend will be the first of three planned this fall with no light rail service between Capitol Hill and SODO as Sound Transit prepares for major construction of its coming new line:

We’re laying the groundwork to open the Blue Line, a new Link line that will begin taking riders from Northgate to Redmond in 2023. As part of that work, we need to reduce Link service for three weekends this fall. On the weekends of October 12-13, October 26-27, and November 9-10, there will be no Link service between SODO-Capitol Hill. Trains will run from Angle Lake-SODO and UW-Capitol Hill, and free buses will connect the six stations in between.

CHS reported on the planned closures in August when October probably seemed like a long time away. But now the first weekend of service disruption is here. To try to help cover the gap, Sound Transit will be offering bus service between Broadway and John, downtown, and SODO Station. Sound Transit says it chose these weekends because there are no Seahawks or Husky football games.

The closures are needed to construct a temporary center platform at Pioneer Square Station that will be used in 2020 during construction of a track junction that will allow future Blue Line trains to branch off at International District/Chinatown Station and run to the Eastside via Judkins Park Station.

Come January of 2020, the project will mean even larger changes in service during the construction period as light rail will operate as two lines: Angle Lake-Pioneer Square and UW-Pioneer Square. Riders will continue beyond Pioneer Square by changing trains on a temporary center platform. But you don’t have to worry about that now. January is a long time away, right?

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