Predecessors The first railroad to reach the
Puget Sound region was the
Northern Pacific Railway, a
transcontinental route that began construction with a section from the
Columbia River at
Kalama in May 1871. Several communities on Puget Sound competed to become the terminus of the Northern Pacific and offered land and other incentives; Tacoma on
Commencement Bay was chosen in July 1873 ahead of Seattle and
Olympia. The railroad to Tacoma was completed in December to meet a deadline imposed by the
United States Congress and scheduled passenger and freight service began on January 5, 1874. Prominent Seattle residents and businessmen organized the
Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad to begin construction in May 1874 with the goal of connecting to the Northern Pacific, which would later construct a line across
Stampede Pass. Northern Pacific briefly ran passenger trains between Tacoma and Seattle from July to August 1884 on the Puget Sound Shore Railroad, which had been upgraded to
standard gauge but lacked
track ballast. Trips took 3 hours and 25 minutes on the mainline railroad between the two cities, which primarily traversed the Duwamish Valley (now the Green River Valley). The line was nicknamed the "Orphan Road" after it had been abandoned by Northern Pacific; service resumed on October 26, 1885, with two daily trains. Northern Pacific acquired the line and gradually improved access to Seattle by building new tracks and running more frequent service on the line. The
Great Northern Railway built its own transcontinental route to Seattle that included a waterfront route along Puget Sound from
Everett that opened for passenger service in June 1893. The two railroads agreed to build a
union station, which opened on May 10, 1906, and was later named
King Street Station. Great Northern had moved their services to a
new tunnel under Downtown Seattle that was the tallest and widest tunnel in the United States at the time of completion. A set of electric
interurban railways were operated by private utility
Stone & Webster in the early 20th century to provide more frequent passenger service from Everett and Tacoma to Seattle. The
Puget Sound Electric Railway from Seattle to Tacoma began service on September 25, 1902, with 22 stops on local trains and express runs that reached ; The
Seattle–Everett Interurban Railway opened on April 30, 1910, and took 70 minutes to serve 30 stations on its inland route. Both services were faster than other trains and the "
mosquito fleet" of steamships on Puget Sound, but were not profitable and faced increasing competition from automobiles and buses on the expanding highway system. The Tacoma line ceased operations in December 1928 and was followed by the Everett line in February 1939;
Proposals and studies passenger train at
King Street Station, 1970|alt=An older locomotive with the Northern Pacific Railway logo (a yin-yang roundel) parked at a train station with a prominent clocktower and several empty platforms. Proposals to develop a
commuter rail system on the existing Great Northern and Northern Pacific tracks in the Seattle area date back to the 1960s, when highway congestion had also spurred plans for a separate
rapid transit system.
Amtrak took over the passenger trains on May 1, 1971, and retained the Seattle–Tacoma schedule of up to three daily round trips. The Seattle–Everett corridor was initially excluded from the Amtrak network until intercity service to Vancouver was restored in 1972. The 1976 opening of the
Kingdome in Seattle brought new interest to local trains in the region, as the stadium was built next to King Street Station and had limited parking. Amtrak adjusted its southbound schedule to account for stadium events and suggested that they would be able to add passenger cars for future football, baseball, and soccer games. An independent entrepreneur also proposed $3million in financing (equivalent to $ in dollars) to run leased double-decker trains from eight
park-and-ride stations to the stadium and envisioned further expansion to the
Eastside. In 1986, the
Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro Transit; now King County Metro), the operator of King County's bus system, began a
feasibility study for a five-year commuter rail demonstration project that would connect Seattle to the Green River Valley. It would use existing Burlington Northern tracks and be operated by Amtrak with six stations in Auburn, Kent, and
Tukwila. A permanent commuter rail system would complement a regional
light rail system studied by Metro Transit and the
Puget Sound Council of Governments that would use different corridors. A request for funds to continue the commuter rail study was denied by the Washington State Rail Development Commission, which had been created in 1987 by the
state legislature and sought to expand its scope to also include
Pierce and
Snohomish counties. An extension to Tacoma was dropped from the scope of the study, but would be considered for a future expansion that could reach as far south as Olympia. Metro Transit's study determined that the demonstration project would cost $117million to launch with service as early as 1992 and would attract an estimated 7,600 daily passengers. Burlington Northern agreed to share technical information with Metro Transit for their studies and stated that they were interested in operating the trains, which they could accommodate with the construction of a parallel track should demand warrant it. The company rejected a proposal from U.S. Senator
Brock Adams to run temporary commuter trains during the
1990 Goodwill Games, a sports event hosted in the Seattle area. Metro Transit received $25million (equivalent to $ in dollars) in federal appropriations in 1991 for the demonstration project, which would take three years to develop and launch, and additional funds to plan a permanent system with Pierce and Snohomish counties. The
Union Pacific Railroad, which also operates a Seattle–Tacoma freight mainline, expressed interest in hosting the commuter rail system. Burlington Northern commissioned a study for a Seattle–Everett commuter rail line in late 1992 after discussions with local governments and
Community Transit, the bus operator in Snohomish County. The state legislature authorized the creation of a regional
transit authority to plan several projects, including the permanent commuter rail system. The Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (RTA) was approved by the King, Pierce, and Snohomish county councils and was formally created in September 1993. Earlier that year, Burlington Northern had operated a demonstration ride from Seattle for local elected officials and employees and submitted a simulated schedule that would allow 32 daily passenger trains to run without disrupting existing freight traffic to the
Port of Seattle. The RTA inherited an earlier regional transit plan that included of commuter rail on two lines from Everett and Tacoma to Seattle, estimated to cost up to $460million (equivalent to $ in dollars). A spur line to serve
Renton and Bellevue was also studied, but rejected due to its low projected ridership and high costs. In October 1994, the RTA adopted its master plan for regional transit that would be submitted as a ballot measure in March 1995. The plan included commuter rail from Seattle to Everett in the north and Tacoma and
Lakewood to the south, which would take three years to launch upon approval.
Demonstration project and votes In early 1995, the RTA and Burlington Northern operated "Try Rail", a two-month
fare-free demonstration of commuter rail service to Seattle from Everett and Tacoma, to promote the ballot measure. The $2.5million project (equivalent to $ in dollars) was funded by a federal grant and the state's settlement in an
antitrust lawsuit against several oil companies. It used a set of 14
bilevel cars, each able to carry 150 passengers, from
GO Transit in
Toronto that had previously been leased to
Metrolink in
Southern California to provide additional service after the
1994 Northridge earthquake. The program was originally scheduled to launch as the "Sonics Express" at the beginning of the
1994–95 basketball season for the
Seattle SuperSonics, who had been temporarily relocated to the
Tacoma Dome. The demonstration was delayed due to issues securing financing and was renamed to reflect its expanded scope, which included
rush hour service to Seattle that began from Everett on January 28. The demonstration moved to the Seattle–Tacoma corridor on February 20 with two weekday round trips that stopped at the
Tacoma Amtrak station and a temporary platform in Kent. Try Rail was originally scheduled to end on March 3, but was extended to March 11—three days before the special election on the RTA plan. It operated a total of 122 trips and drew 69,200 boardings, including 47,900 on its 32 mid-day and weekend excursions; the Sonics service did not perform as well as expected due to limited marketing and the delay in starting the service until the middle of the season. The 1995 RTA plan was estimated to cost $6.7billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) and included of commuter rail that served 17 stations from Lakewood and Tacoma in the south to Everett in the north. The system would initially have 30 daily trips and eventually grow to 55 trips, with limited mid-day and weekend service; The plan and its local
sales tax to finance the projects were rejected by 53.5percent of voters in the RTA's district during the special election on March 14, 1995. Amid discussions of a second RTA ballot measure,
King County Executive Gary Locke proposed a smaller package that excluded the commuter rail system in favor of funding highway improvements. The state government was also proposed as the temporary operator of a commuter rail system using $9million in federal funding that had already been appropriated for the system. A smaller and less expensive plan from the RTA, which would be used in a second ballot measure, was announced in January 1996. The commuter rail system's extension to Lakewood was initially removed, along with service outside of peak hours. The RTA restored service to Lakewood in the final plan adopted in May, which allocated $669million to the commuter rail system with fifteen daily trains during peak hours. The system would have two lines that used existing Burlington Northern tracks and served 14 stations with three provisional stations that could be constructed with additional funding. The modified plan, named
Sound Move, was approved by 56.5percent of voters on the November 5, 1996, with a majority in all three counties. The RTA's preliminary schedule for the projects in Sound Move was adopted early the following year with plans to begin construction on commuter rail stations in 1998. The Seattle–Tacoma commuter rail line would be operational by 2000 and followed by the Seattle–Everett line in early 2001 and an extension to Lakewood at a later date.
Planning and South Line launch "Sounder" was adopted as the name for the commuter rail system on August 15, 1997, by the RTA, which renamed itself to Sound Transit. Another finalist was "Commuter Link", which would have been paired with "Rail Link" for the light rail system (instead named
Link light rail) and "Bus Link" for the
regional bus network. Earlier in the year, former
North County Transit District acting director Paul Price, who had overseen the launch of the
Coaster rail line, was selected as the director of commuter rail operations for the RTA. Pierce Transit opened
Tacoma Dome Station, a multimodal hub for transit in Tacoma, in October 1997 with plans for a second phase that would include a Sounder station. A series of open houses on the designs for new commuter rail stations on the Seattle–Tacoma line were held during the same month. Property acquisition began with the
Auburn station area in early 1998. The
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued its
finding of no significant impact for the Seattle–Tacoma commuter rail project in June 1998 based on an
environmental assessment submitted by Sound Transit. During the same month, the $74.7million contract (equivalent to $ in dollars) to manufacture the first order of 38 passenger cars was awarded to Canadian firm
Bombardier Transportation. The company had been the only bidder for the order,
Electro-Motive Division, part of
General Motors, won the bid to manufacture the system's
locomotives ahead of
Boise Locomotive. Design work was completed in February 1999, but property acquisition costs in Puyallup and Sumner led to several modifications to the "depot-like" shelters. , the first Sounder project to begin construction|alt=View of a train station with two platforms separated by three railroad tracks that extend into the distance. A large multi-story parking garage, several shelters with canopies, and a covered pedestrian bridge are also in the background. In April 1999, Sound Transit, WSDOT, BNSF (formerly Burlington Northern), and Union Pacific announced a preliminary agreement to operate Sounder's Seattle–Tacoma line. A total of $319million (equivalent to $ in dollars) in improvement projects—of which $200million (equivalent to $ in dollars) would be funded by Sound Transit—was part of the agreement, which was overseen by U.S. Senator
Slade Gorton at the request of local officials during an impasse in negotiations. Two months later, Sound Transit signed a ten-year agreement with Amtrak to maintain the Sounder trains at a new operating base in Seattle that would be partially funded by the agency. Construction of the Sounder stations and track improvements formally began with the
groundbreaking of
Auburn station on August 12, which was followed by another ceremony at King Street Station a week later. BNSF temporarily withdrew from the preliminary agreement in August after it found additional costs for track improvements, but signed an operating contract with Sound Transit by the end of the month. The extended negotiations with BNSF and expanded scope of the track improvements led Sound Transit to delay the launch of regular Sounder service to September 2000.
Initiative 695 (I-695), a statewide referendum to eliminate a
motor vehicle excise tax that funded transportation projects, was approved by voters in November 1999. It resulted in reduced funding for WSDOT, including their $47million share (equivalent to $ in dollars) of the Seattle–Tacoma track improvements and the Amtrak maintenance facility in Seattle. Additional stations in Seattle's
Georgetown neighborhood and at Boeing Access Road in Tukwila, which had been listed as preliminary options in the Sound Move plan, were deferred by Sound Transit. The
Puget Sound Regional Council allocated $60million (equivalent to $ in dollars) from its federal transportation grants in February 2000 to backfill the tax revenue eliminated by I-695. A final agreement with BNSF was approved by Sound Transit in April after the agency agreed to cover the state government's withdrawn $25million contribution (equivalent to $ in dollars) for track improvements. The first demonstration ride on Sounder for elected officials and journalists took place on December 9, 1999, two weeks after the first trainsets from Bombardier were delivered. The first public demonstration was a one-way trip from Seattle to Tacoma on February 29, 2000, which was followed by three round-trip trains for
Seattle Mariners games in April and May. The Mariners service traveled from the existing Tacoma Amtrak station to King Street Station making no intermediate stops; the second trip was sold out and carried 1,020 passengers. Sounder entered regular service on September 18, 2000, with two daily round trips between a temporary station in Tacoma,
Sumner station, Auburn station, and King Street Station in Seattle. A total of 657 passengers rode on the inaugural morning trains, while evening trains carried 452 passengers; ridership did not immediately increase due in part to the limited schedule and temporary Tacoma platform implemented while awaiting negotiations with
Tacoma Rail. Further design changes, cost overruns, and construction issues led Sound Transit to delay the opening of several stations, leaving Sounder to debut with only four stations. The
Puyallup and
Kent stations opened on February 5, 2001, and were followed a month later by
Tukwila station and the permanent platform at Sumner station. By then, over 1,800 daily passengers were using the two daily round trips on Sounder. In 2001, Sound Transit added weekend event trains with extra capacity for Seattle Mariners and
Seattle Seahawks home games as well as the
Washington State Fair in
Puyallup. BNSF began construction of the Seattle–Tacoma track improvements that year, which allowed for a third daily round trip to be added to Sounder in September 2002, ahead of the original April 2003 estimate. The temporary Tacoma station was replaced by a dedicated platform at Tacoma Dome Station's Freighthouse Square in September 2003.
North Line service begins train (
right) passing through
Everett Station, the northern terminus of the Sounder system|alt=An Amtrak passenger train passes a Sounder train parked on a separate track at a train station with a skyline of mid-rise buildings in the background. By early 2002, the estimated cost of the Sounder program had increased 32percent to $1.02billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) from the original 1996 budget due to high property costs and unexpected planning issues. These included additional environmental mitigation required on the North Line due to railroad construction along the
Puget Sound coastline's habitats for
chinook salmon and
bull trout, which were added to the federal
endangered species list in 2000. Sound Transit had initially proposed of fill near Mukilteo and Edmonds to carry a second track, which was later reduced by 90percent through the use of additional
trestle bridges after a review by the
Environmental Protection Agency. The coastline work was also criticized by a local group that sought to preserve beachfront land for a future trail and filed a lawsuit against Sound Transit that was dismissed by a
King County Superior Court judge. In March 2003, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
National Marine Fisheries Service approved the fill plan, which included funding to restore fish and
bald eagle habitats in the
Snohomish River estuary. The Seattle–Everett project's final
environmental impact statement had been approved by the FTA in December 1999 and was followed a month later by the selection of station locations. The plan had three provisional stations that were not funded by Sound Move and remained deferred: Broad Street in
Downtown Seattle,
Ballard, and Richmond Beach in
Shoreline. The
existing Amtrak station in Everett was removed from consideration by Sound Transit in June 2001 in favor of consolidated multimodal service at the new
Everett Station to the east, which opened in February 2002. The negotiations with BNSF missed its original March 2003 deadline set by the FTA to qualify for $25million (equivalent to $ in dollars) in federal contributions, but were allowed to continue until a preliminary agreement was reached two months later, on May 28. The terms allowed for use of the Everett–Seattle corridor over a 97-year period as well as an option for Sound Transit to purchase a Tacoma–Lakewood branch for a future expansion. The agency agreed to fund $250million (equivalent to $ in dollars) in track improvements and pay an annual fee to operate four daily round trips on the North Line rather than the original plan of six trips. The announcement by local officials was followed immediately by a ceremonial ride from Everett Station to Seattle on a Sounder train. Regular service began the following day with one daily round trip and free fares through the end of the month; a total of 213 passengers rode the inaugural morning train. The North Line averaged 315 daily boardings on weekdays in its first year of operation, about half of what Sound Transit had projected, while plans for a second round trip were negotiated with BNSF. The second daily trip debuted on June 6, 2005, and ridership from Everett and Edmonds increased to a weekday average of over 700 daily passengers by October. The remaining two trips were delayed under the terms of the agreement with BNSF, which required environmental permits for projects to be approved two years before service changes. A third round trip was added in September 2007 and was followed by the fourth a year later in response to higher demand amid an increase in gas prices. The first platform at
Mukilteo station opened on May 31, 2008, after a year of construction, with a 68-stall park-and-ride lot.
ST2 votes and Lakewood extension BNSF completed the first phase of Seattle–Tacoma improvements in February 2004, but the addition of six more planned Sounder runs was delayed due to an overpass project and construction issues with new tracks in Tacoma. The full project, completed in July 2008 at a cost of $350million (equivalent to $ in dollars), included the construction of nine new
crossovers able to handle trains higher speeds and a full replacement of the signal system with
centralized traffic control. A fourth round trip was added to the South Line in September 2005 as daily ridership increased to 5,800 on weekdays on the line by the following year. Sound Transit added a temporary fifth train from Puyallup to Seattle in August 2007 to accommodate higher demand during a partial closure of Interstate 5 in Seattle. The expected traffic congestion from the Seattle project drew 12,000 passengers on the first day and an average of 9,480 daily riders over the three-week period. At the end of the following month, two more permanent round trips were added to the South Line with temporary financing from WSDOT and Amtrak that was requested by BNSF. One of the trips was the system's first
reverse commute train, named the "City of Density" for Tacoma's nickname, that traveled southbound from Seattle in the morning and northbound from Tacoma in the evening. The
Sound Transit 2 (ST2) plan, initially part of the 2007
Roads and Transit ballot measure, included $280million (equivalent to $ in dollars) allocated to expanding parking at existing Sounder stations and building new platforms at Edmonds and Tukwila stations. A provisional station near Lakeland Hills or in North Sumner to relieve parking demand on the existing Sumner station and a future extension from Lakewood to
Thurston County were both part of the plan but remained unfunded. After the Roads and Transit ballot measure was rejected by 56percent of voters, Sound Transit approved a transit-only package for the November 2008 election with fewer projects and a 15-year timeline. The revised plan earmarked $1.3billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) for Sounder projects, retaining the previous proposal's parking and platform improvements, and also funded four additional round trips on the South Line with extended eight-car trains. The unfunded portions were changed to add provisional North Line stations in Ballard and at Broad Street near Downtown Seattle. The standalone ST2 ballot measure was approved by voters and enacted an increase to the regional
sales tax and
motor vehicle excise tax. Sound Move also funded the construction of a South Line extension beyond Tacoma to Lakewood that had originally been scheduled for 2001 but was delayed by over a decade. The extension's two stations,
Lakewood and
South Tacoma, began construction in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The route through Tacoma and Lakewood would use the Lakeview Subdivision, a former freight line that had been acquired from BNSF in 2004, and be shared with
Amtrak Cascades passenger trains on the
Point Defiance Bypass. The corridor was connected to Tacoma Dome Station by of new tracks in Tacoma, where a planned at-grade crossing of Pacific Avenue was replaced by an overpass to abide by federal rules on daily crossings. The design change was among several factors that delayed the launch of service to Lakewood and increased the total cost of the project to $325million (equivalent to $ in dollars).
Added trips and 2010s improvements , which was expanded with permanent platforms in 2015|alt=The front of a Sounder locomotive is seen on a track that passes through a station with a wide, uncovered platform. Another Sounder train's passenger car is seen behind the locomotive. In July 2010, Sound Transit approved a new agreement with BNSF to purchase four permanent easements on the South Line corridor for $185million (equivalent to $ in dollars) that would be used on additional round trips. The new easements, which could be used for mid-day and reverse commute trips, would be staggered between 2012 and 2016 under the agreement and funded by the ST2 program. The implementation of the new round trips was initially delayed by a year as part of cuts to the ST2 budget due to lower sales tax revenue during the
Great Recession and subsequent years. The cuts also delayed the construction of new parking garages at several Sounder stations by several years. Planning and construction proceeded on improvements to North Line stations, beginning with the renovation of Edmonds station in 2011 and the addition of a south platform and pedestrian overpass at Mukilteo station that was completed in March 2016. Two permanent platforms at Tukwila station were completed in 2015 using remaining funds from the Sound Move program and federal grants. Three new
locomotives were acquired by Sound Transit in 2013 to prepare for service expansion and allow for the original fleet to be rehabilitated and retrofitted to meet updated
emission standards. The agency loaned a spare Sounder trainset to Amtrak from May 31 to June 20 of that year to operate additional
Cascades service from Seattle to
Bellingham following the
collapse of an Interstate 5 bridge over the
Skagit River near
Burlington. The loan ceased after a temporary bridge was installed at the site and allowed Interstate 5 to reopen. Sound Transit redistributed its existing passenger cars from the North Line to the South Line in September 2013 to add two additional cars to trips on the busier Seattle–Tacoma corridor. The first new round trip on the South Line to be funded under ST2 debuted that same month and was followed by the system's first regular mid-day trips in September 2016. Two more round trips were added to the line the following year—a peak direction train from Lakewood and a third reverse commute trip from Tacoma. Sound Transit began its replacement of a wooden
trestle bridge east of Tacoma Dome Station in June 2016 using funds from ST2 and the federal government. Sounder trains were moved to a new, double-tracked bridge in February 2017 at a cost of $161million (equivalent to $ in dollars). Service on the North Line was frequently disrupted by seasonal
mudslides that covered or damaged tracks along the coastline section and required passenger trains to be suspended for a minimum of 48 hours after each incident. A record 170 trips on the line were cancelled from September 2012 to March 2013, including several consecutive weeks in late December; the previous record had been 72 cancellations in 2010–2011. By late 2016, six projects along the Everett–Seattle corridor had been completed by WSDOT and BNSF to prevent further mudslides.
Service reductions and restoration Sound Transit announced major reductions to its services in response to the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic and a large decline in ridership. Beginning on March 23, 2020, the South Line was reduced to eight round trips and the North Line only had two round trips—both halved from their normal schedules. Due to staffing issues, another South Line trip was cancelled in April; by then, commuter rail ridership had declined by 92percent. Fare collection and enforcement was suspended during the first months of the pandemic, but resumed on June 1 with a temporary "recovery fare" for the month. South Line service was increased to nine round trips in September 2020 and was fully restored to its thirteen-trip schedule in September 2022. Trains were temporarily shortened to five cars in 2022 and 2023 due to staffing shortages at Amtrak that prevented longer trainsets from being fully maintained. Sounder ridership on weekdays remained low compared to its pre-pandemic performance, especially on the NLine, due to reduced demand for commuting into
Downtown Seattle. The NLine remained at its reduced, two-trip schedule until service was restored in September 2024. 8 of 34 daily Sounder trips were cancelled for several weeks in February 2025 due to a shortage of available equipment after discrepancies in Amtrak's inspection reports were discovered. A total of 16 railcars were pulled from service due to insufficient time to be fully inspected, which was expected to take up to six weeks. In the interim, the remaining trips ran with shorter trains and Sounder passengers were allowed to use Amtrak
Cascades trains with their original payment method. ==Service and operations==