(Image: Sound Transit)
Judkins Park Station and the rest of the 2 Line really are on track to finally open this year — late this year but still 2025. To get there, Sound Transit’s contractors must occasionally shut down parts of the 1 Line to complete some of the required work. This weekend will bring another light rail shutdown between Capitol Hill and SoDo:
In order to perform essential testing to prepare for full 2 Line operations, Link light rail will be temporarily suspended between Capitol Hill and SODO stations from 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17 through the end of service Sunday, Jan. 19. Normal operations are scheduled to resume at the start of service Monday, January 20.
During this time, crews will be performing the first integrated tests of the combined 1 and 2 Line safety communications equipment. These tests include preparing for and simulating over 100 different emergency scenarios and represent another step forward towards the full 2 Line opening. To perform the tests, power to the test area must be suspended. Sound Transit will provide Link Shuttle buses to transport passengers. The buses will run approximately every 10-15 minutes and stop at all stations between Capitol Hill and SODO. Additional information about the bus bridge is available here.
In November, a similar closure was required for the installation of a new signal house and communications system.
Last weekend, the line was also disrupted between Westlake and SoDo for similar 1 Line-2 Line work.
Sound Transit expanded its light rail system last summer with service connecting Lynnwood to the existing 1 Line at the end of August.
The new 2 Line connecting Seattle to the Eastside across I-90 has been long delayed and opened in segments. Costly construction snafus have repeatedly delayed the opening ofJudkins Park Station and the Eastside expansion line it is part of. The goal now is a late 2025 opening — some eight years after the project broke ground.
Sound Transit, meanwhile, has streamlined the light rail experience for riders with a new $3 flat fare, the end of “tapping off,” and a new numbering system that assigned Capitol Hill Station the designation “1-49.”
This fall, Sound Transit also announced it was launching “a multi-year effort to modernize all 58 of our elevators and escalators at four downtown stations.”
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
