Background and early studies rapid transit system from the second referendum in 1970 The waters of
Puget Sound and the
surrounding region's navigable rivers were the primary transportation corridors for the indigenous
Coast Salish peoples as well as later settlers who arrived in the 19th century. A series of scheduled
steamboat trips in the 1880s grew into the "
mosquito fleet", the main mode of passenger and freight transportation for the growing region through the turn of the 20th century. It waned in importance as railroads and
streetcar systems were constructed around Puget Sound; these services, later supplemented by
interurban trains, grew in the early 20th century to serve a growing number of passenger commuters. The
Seattle Municipal Street Railway had a streetcar and
cable railway system by 1935, while private companies ran interurban services north to
Everett and south to
Tacoma. These rail services were all abandoned or converted into bus routes by 1941 as automobile adoption in the Seattle area contributed to a need for more developed highways and later freeways. The first major proposal for a
rapid transit system to serve Seattle and the surrounding region was drafted by urban planner and civil engineer
Virgil Bogue in 1911 as part of a
comprehensive plan. Bogue's plan was rejected by a wide margin in the March 1912 municipal election; the city's three major newspapers had all opposed it. The
Forward Thrust program, formed in the 1960s by civic activists, proposed the development of a subway system that covered Seattle,
Renton, and
Bellevue by 1985. Two-thirds of the $1.15billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) construction cost would be funded by the federal government, contingent on the approval of local funding. The first referendum in February 1968 failed to reach the 60percent
supermajority needed to pass; a second attempt was made in May 1970, but failed amid a spree of
layoffs by
Boeing that severely affected the local economy. The federal earmark was instead used to build the
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's subway system in
Atlanta, Georgia. Metro Transit's ridership reached 66 million passengers in 1980—exceeding its original projections—and an increase in bus trips led to congestion on downtown streets. A
tunnel for buses began construction in 1987 and was opened in 1990 for a fleet of
dual-mode electric and diesel buses; the tunnel was also designed for eventual conversion to accommodate a rail system. The
Washington State Legislature also convened a rail development commission to study a regional transit system that later incorporated Metro's unfinished plans. The commission endorsed the creation of a regional transit board composed of politicians from King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, which was authorized by the state legislature in 1990. The Joint Regional Policy Committee was formed in 1991 and approved its final long-range plan for regional transit two years later. The $12billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) plan comprised a light rail system from Everett to Tacoma and Redmond; commuter rail from Everett and Tacoma to Seattle; and improvements to local and express buses. It would be funded by
sales tax and
motor vehicle excise tax revenue within a district that covered the urbanized areas east of Puget Sound between
Marysville to the north and
Parkland to the south. From 1960 to 1990, the region's population had increased by 82 percent and was outpaced by the growth in the number of registered vehicles, which collectively logged 55.2million miles () traveled in 1991.
Establishment and Sound Move The formation of a regional transit authority (RTA) to create a
ballot measure to implement and fund the regional transit plan required the approval of the King, Pierce, and Snohomish county councils. The board of directors for the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, the official name of the RTA, held its first meeting on September 17, 1993, at a former
Washington State Department of Transportation office in
Bellevue. The new agency was provided space on the 15th floor of the
Exchange Building in Downtown Seattle by King County Metro (the successor to Metro) and began preparation of its first ballot measure. In October 1994, the RTA Board adopted its master plan for regional transit that would be sent to county councils for ratification and placement as a ballot measure. The plan, with a construction cost of approximately $6.77billion (equivalent to $ in dollars), was described as the largest public works project in Seattle's history. It included of light rail service that would be completed within 16 years with lines that would connect Downtown Seattle to
Lynnwood in the north, Bellevue and
Redmond to the east, and Tacoma to the south. The plan also called for a shorter timeline to launch a commuter rail system, which would use an existing of freight tracks from
Lakewood to Everett, and an express bus network with eight routes. A $2.5million (equivalent to $ in dollars) demonstration of commuter rail service on the Tacoma–Seattle–Everett corridor during peak hours and for
Tacoma Dome events was operated by the RTA in early 1995 as part of preparations for the ballot measure. The RTA ballot measure would only require a simple majority to pass and was part of a special election on March 14, 1995. The "no" campaign primarily comprised businessmen from the
Eastside region led by mall developer
Kemper Freeman; The ballot measure was rejected by 53.5percent of voters across the district, with only King County having a majority in favor of the plan due to strong support within the city of Seattle. In Everett, 83percent of voters rejected the ballot measure, attributed to the opposition of local elected officials due to the lack of light rail service for the city in the first phase. The defeat was also attributed to low
turnout, especially among younger voters, due to the timing of the election in a non-presidential year. The regional transit plan had cost $50million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to develop under the RTA and its predecessors; calls to run a second ballot measure with a modified version of the plan found support from the county councils and the
Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The RTA was reorganized to reduce its spending by 60percent and its 150-person staff was cut to 23 members; a new CEO was hired and
Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel was elected as board chair to represent a "clean break" from earlier transit planning. The new plan, named "Sound Move", was adopted by the RTA board in May 1996 and was placed on the November 1996 ballot; Sound Move only included of light rail within
Downtown Tacoma and from Downtown Seattle to
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, but retained the commuter rail element of the previous plan and expanded its use of express buses. On November 5, 1996, the Sound Move plan and its funding package was approved by 56.5percent of voters within the RTA district. It won a majority in all three counties and was approved by 70percent of Seattle voters. The "yes" campaign, largely supported by the same donors as well as smaller contributors, used wider advertisements and grassroots teams; the "no" campaign repeated their criticisms of the plan on fiscal grounds and raised its funds from real estate interests and lobbying groups representing the trucking, homebuilding, and road construction industries. The local funding for the plan would be raised through a 0.4percent sales tax and 0.3percent annual motor vehicle excise tax that took effect on April 1, 1997. The RTA began expanding its staff and moved out of its shared space with Metro in July 1997; its new headquarters occupied several floors at 1100 Second Avenue, a former bank building in Downtown Seattle. The agency moved its offices to Seattle's historic
Union Station in November 1999 after a renovation and restoration project that cost $23.5million (equivalent to $ in dollars). Over 100 names were suggested by consultants and members of the public to the RTA board; the other finalist for the agency's name was "Regional Transit", which went through several rounds of voting. The agency's logo, created by a local firm and described as a "heavyset T with an S winding through it", was approved in September by the board. Sound Transit approved funding for its first projects the following month by partnering with local transit agencies;
Pierce Transit received funding for 15 additional daily trips on its Seattle–Tacoma express buses, while construction of
Community Transit's park and ride at Ash Way in Lynnwood would be accelerated with new regional funds. The first component of the Sound Move plan to be fully implemented was the regional express bus system, which was later renamed to
Sound Transit Express and approved in late 1998. The first set of nine express bus routes launched on September 19, 1999, and served regional destinations and 33 park and ride lots in the three counties; an existing King County Metro express route from Seattle to Bellevue and Pierce Transit's Seattle–Tacoma express were also transferred to Sound Transit. The initial fleet of 117 buses were painted in the agency's new livery and included
low-floor articulated buses, high-floor coaches, and 20 dual-mode Breda buses leased from King County Metro for use in the
Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. The express buses accepted the PugetPass, a new inter-agency fare system that replaced commuter passes and was accepted by five regional transit agencies when it launched on September 1, 1999. The Sounder commuter rail system was originally scheduled to debut with nine daily round trips between Seattle and Tacoma in December 1999, but state funding for track improvements had been jeopardized by the
Tim Eyman-led
Initiative 695, which capped the state's portion of the motor vehicle excise tax at $30. The initiative was passed in November 1999 and later ruled unconstitutional by the
Washington Supreme Court, but the cap was passed by the state legislature; the state's withdrawn funding was filled by an allocation of federal transportation funds allocated by the
Puget Sound Regional Council. Sound Transit had reached an agreement with the
Port of Seattle,
Port of Tacoma, and railroad owners
BNSF and
Union Pacific in April 1999 for use of their tracks, contingent on funding the majority of a $319million improvement project for the Seattle–Tacoma corridor. A new, 40-year agreement was signed with BNSF in April 2000 for the railroad to operate the commuter rail system with its crews for an annual cost of $4million in 2000 dollars (equivalent to $ in dollars). The service used a temporary platform due to a dispute with
Tacoma Rail, which owned the tracks leading to the intermodal
Tacoma Dome Station hub; the dispute also limited the number of daily trips for trains until an agreement was signed in November 2000. Additional stations were completed and opened by March 2001 to bring the line to seven stations as originally approved in Sound Move; the platform at Tacoma Dome Station opened on September 15, 2003. The initial rollout of the 19 planned Sound Transit Express routes was completed in September 2002 with the launch of the Seattle–
Woodinville and Tacoma–University District routes. The bus fleet had grown to 194 vehicles and the service had carried 15million passengers in its first three years of operation. By 2005, Sound Transit had constructed several direct access ramps between bus hubs and HOV lanes on freeways, along with a total of 10,000 stalls at park and ride lots.
Light rail planning and financial issues In November 1999, Sound Transit selected its preferred route for the
Central Link corridor between
Northgate Transit Center in Seattle and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, which included a surface section in the
Rainier Valley area. The section from the
University District to the airport, which had been identified as the initial segment in Sound Move, was estimated to cost $1.85billion (equivalent to $ in dollars). The figure exceeded the original budget for the project in Sound Move because of overruns attributed to new elements as well as increased land prices. Construction of the section between Northgate and the University District was contingent on receiving additional funding from the federal government, which had appropriated large grants in the 1990s but was beginning to reduce its funding for new transit projects. Earlier meetings had criticized the use of surface sections through
Tukwila and the Rainier Valley, where a more expensive tunnel was rejected, due to their potential effects on displacement and travel time. The Central Link route included a tunnel between Downtown Seattle and the University District with intermediate stations on
First Hill and
Capitol Hill that crossed under
Portage Bay. The original budget for the tunnel was $557million (equivalent to $ in dollars), but Sound Transit's selected contractor produced a low bid that was $171million higher (equivalent to $ in dollars) than expected. The area's poor soils and other changes to the design led to a $680million increase (equivalent to $ in dollars) in the estimated cost of the project, which drew criticism from local media and elected officials. The
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had previously agreed to a $500million grant (equivalent to $ in dollars) for the tunnel section based on the previous cost figures, but informed Sound Transit that major design changes would require a new agreement. (
pictured in 2009) was the chief executive officer of Sound Transit from 2001 to 2014 In January 2001, the new chair of the
U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation called for an audit of Sound Transit's finances to be conducted by the
inspector general of the
U.S. Department of Transportation before allowing for further federal grants on the light rail project. Eight different citizens' groups called for various solutions to replace or dissolve the agency; among them were a new referendum, replacement of light rail with the planned
city monorail network, or a
fare-free bus system endorsed by two former Washington governors. CEO Bob White resigned and was replaced by
Joni Earl, previously chief operating officer; she is credited with salvaging the light rail project and restoring public trust in Sound Transit. Earl, an accountant who had little transit experience but was a
city manager and deputy county executive under Drewel, sought to make the agency more transparent and produce a more realistic budget for its projects. The inspector general's interim report, released in April 2001, criticized the FTA and Sound Transit for advancing in the grant review process without having a firm cost estimate, which had changed several times due to modifications to the preferred project. It recommended that federal funding for the project be withheld; new Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta then announced a hold on releasing funds from the federal earmark, which would not be redistributed while Sound Transit resubmitted its plans. The editorial board of
The Seattle Times published a call to pull the plug on the Link light rail project, while the cost overruns drew negative comparisons to the
Big Dig project in
Boston. The city's other daily newspaper, the
Post-Intelligencer, alleged that the Sound Move budget had concealed $350million in contingency funds (equivalent to $ in dollars) to reduce the estimated cost of light rail, similar to a criminal case of
securities fraud uncovered in the Big Dig megaproject. After Sound Transit officials presented their evidence to the
P-I editorial team, the story was retracted and a correction was published on the front page. A shortened, version of the Central Link project between Tukwila and Downtown Seattle was proposed as the initial operating segment for the network; it would cost $2.1billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) to construct under the revised budget estimates but would not reach Sea–Tac Airport. The revised plan, with a completion date set for 2009, was approved by the Sound Transit Board in September 2001 and formally adopted two months later by a 14–2 vote. The change in the project's scope from the original Sound Move plan was challenged in a lawsuit filed in February 2002 by an opposition group funded by Kemper Freeman; a county court ruled in favor of Sound Transit and the decision was later upheld by the State Supreme Court. A new grant application for the project's federal funding was submitted in July 2002 and final design began the following month with the FTA's approval. the report concluded that the agency had resolved its financial auditing issues and outstanding questions about rail–bus interoperability in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, among other issues. The full federal grant agreement was reinstated in October 2003 and construction of Central Link began a month later.
Service expansion and ST2 plans , opened in August 2003 The first section of the Link light rail system to be constructed was
Tacoma Link (now the TLine), a local
streetcar that connects Tacoma Dome Station to Downtown Tacoma. The line opened on August 22, 2003, and cost $80.4million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to construct over a three-year period. A second commuter rail line for Sounder, the
North Line (now the NLine), began service on December 21, 2003, and extended the network north from Seattle to
Edmonds and
Everett. Earlier that month, Sound Transit signed a 97-year lease of the track rights with BNSF for $258million (equivalent to $ in dollars); the agreement also included acquisition of the
Lakeview Subdivision for an extension of the South Line to Lakewood. Sound Transit began forming its long-range plan in 2004, which would include a new funding package for the remainder of Central Link as well as other projects to expand the rail and bus network. A total of 81 projects were included in the adopted plan, including near-term light rail extensions to the Eastside via
Interstate 90, north to Lynnwood, and south to Tacoma. The northern tunneled section of the original Central Link route was divided into two new projects in 2005:
University Link from Downtown Seattle to Capitol Hill and the
Montlake area; and
North Link (later Northgate Link) from Montlake to the University District and Northgate. The routing for University Link avoided the Portage Bay crossing but also eliminated a station on
First Hill, which had been deemed a risk to securing federal funding. To serve the neighborhood, Sound Transit offered to include the
First Hill Streetcar project in its next transit package. The second phase of the regional transit plan, a 20-year program named Sound Transit 2 (ST2), was adopted by the Sound Transit Board in May 2007. It would cost $10.8billion in 2006 dollars (equivalent to $ in dollars) and include of light rail expansion, the First Hill Streetcar, and planning for further expansions to be built with outside funding. ST2 was one component of the joint
Roads and Transit ballot measure, which also included $7billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) in highway and road projects proposed by the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID), which included areas in the three counties beyond the Sound Transit district. The RTID had previously proposed a joint ballot measure for the November 2004; a 2006 bill passed by the state legislature required both issues to be on the same ballot, but allowed them to run separately. The joint package—the largest tax proposal in the state's history—was opposed by Kemper Freeman on financial grounds and the local
Sierra Club chapter for its road expansions; the proposal also found little support among major political figures and opposition from some, including
King County Executive and former Sound Transit Board chair
Ron Sims. On November 6, 2007, the Roads and Transit package (officially Proposition 1) was rejected by 56percent of voters in the three-county region; a post-election survey commissioned by Sound Transit found that most respondents were uncertain of the package's costs and tax impacts or were opposed to the high cost. In response to the failure of Roads and Transit, a bill to expand Sound Transit into a regional transportation agency that was also responsible for highway development was proposed in the state legislature but died in the 2008 session. A standalone ballot measure for ST2 was proposed for the 2008 or 2010 elections, the latter after the scheduled completion of Central Link in Seattle. Ridership on Sound Transit services grew by 25percent from July 2007 to July 2008 amid a national increase in transit ridership driven by higher
gasoline prices. The increase in ridership and favorable political environment led to a push to prepare the ST2 ballot measure for the November 2008 election, which was expected to have greater turnout due to the concurrent
presidential election. It also retained the First Hill Streetcar and funded additional Sounder and Sound Transit Express service in the near-term to address crowding. On November 4, 2008, Proposition 1 (which authorized the ST2 plan) was approved by 58percent of voters despite the
ongoing economic crisis. The "pro" campaign raised nearly $1million in funds (equivalent to $ in dollars) over a four-month period and used targeted campaigning to improve turnout among young voters.
Link opening and early ST2 projects The initial of Central Link (now the 1Line) opened to passengers on July 18, 2009, between
Westlake station in Downtown Seattle to the north and
Tukwila International Boulevard station to the south. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, which underwent a two-year renovation to prepare for light rail service, became the only tunnel in the U.S. to have stations shared between buses and trains. The construction cost was $117million (equivalent to $ in dollars) below the $2.44billion budget (equivalent to $ in dollars) set by Sound Transit in 2003. An extension from Tukwila to Sea–Tac Airport opened on December 19 and cost $244million to construct (equivalent to $ in dollars)—financed primarily through
bonds. By September 2009, Sound Transit's services had carried over 100million total passengers, of which 82million were on its network of 26 express bus routes on 21 corridors. The
ORCA card, a
smart card system for seven of the region's transit agencies, debuted in April 2009 and replaced Sound Transit's paper transfer tickets and PugetPass monthly passes on January 1, 2010. The first service expansion using ST2 funds was rolled out beginning in May 2009, with additional trips for twelve bus routes and a ninth daily round-trip on the Sounder SouthLine. Sound Transit's primary revenue sources, sales tax and the motor vehicle excise tax, began to decline in late 2008 as a result of the ongoing economic recession. By late 2010, the agency expected that it would have a shortfall of $3.9billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) through the lifetime of the ST2 program, approximately 25percent of forecasted revenue. In response, several Sounder projects and a portion of the light rail extension to Federal Way were cut from the ST2 program or given a lower priority rating, as was preliminary engineering for other projects. The start of University Link construction was unaffected by the cuts, as it had already been budgeted and received federal funding, while planning for the Eastside's
light rail extension stalled over disagreements over the routing in Bellevue. Ridership on Sounder and Sound Transit Express declined slightly from 2009 to 2010, while Link light rail fell short of its projections; weekend and late-night trips on Central Link were also reduced to one railcar to save on operating costs. To cover increased operating costs, Sound Transit Express fares were increased twice over a two-year period and several routes or sections with low weekend ridership were cut or combined in June 2011. The agency also opened new bus hubs in
Kirkland and
Mountlake Terrace, where a
freeway station was constructed in the median of
Interstate 5. The first
infill rail station constructed by Sound Transit, at
Commerce Street on Tacoma Link, opened in September of that year. The Sounder SouthLine was extended from Tacoma to Lakewood on October 8, 2012, at a cost of $325million (equivalent to $ in dollars) and completed the original commuter rail network from the 1996 plan. The Lakewood extension used the northern section of the
Point Defiance Bypass, a corridor owned by Sound Transit and designated for use by intercity
Amtrak trains. It was rebuilt at a cost of $181million (equivalent to $ in dollars), primarily funded by the state and federal governments. On December 18, 2017, the first
Amtrak Cascades trip on the new corridor
derailed on a bridge over Interstate 5 near
DuPont; three passengers were killed and dozens of people were injured. The
National Transportation Safety Board determined the causes of derailment to be the lack of
positive train control and a hazardous curve that was not replaced due to budget issues; Sound Transit was criticized for not mitigating for both issues, while WSDOT and Amtrak were blamed for inadequate training through the curve. Amtrak service on the corridor resumed in November 2021 following the activation of positive train control and speed reductions. Ridership on the agency's services reached a new record high in 2012, with 28million total boardings and an average of 93,000 passengers on weekdays. Sound Transit began construction of the
Northgate Link Extension, which was deferred from Sound Move and funded by ST2, in August 2012. The agency extended Sound Transit Express service outside of its district into
Olympia in 2013 as part of a four-year pilot project funded by
Intercity Transit, the local transit operator in
Thurston County. The route of the Eastside light rail line, under the project name East Link, was approved in April 2013 alongside additional funding from the Bellevue city government to cover the costs of a downtown tunnel. The line would use the
Interstate 90 express lanes on the
Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge and become the first permanent railway on a
floating bridge; design tests were conducted using a two-car trainset on a model of the proposed transitions between the bridge's fixed and floating spans. An elevated extension of Central Link from Sea–Tac Airport to
South 200th Street station (now Angle Lake) also began construction in April 2013; it was the first
design–build project for the agency and was funded by ST2 and federal grants to accelerate planning by four years from the rest of the deferred
Federal Way Link Extension. In 2015, Sound Transit introduced its first double-decker buses to increase capacity on the Seattle–Everett corridor and other Snohomish County routes operated by Community Transit, which already had its own double-decker fleet. on the
University Link Extension took place on March 19, 2016. Central Link service was extended to Capitol Hill and the
University of Washington campus on March 19, 2016, via a tunnel that cost $1.9billion to construct (equivalent to $ in dollars) and was completed six months ahead of schedule. The southern extension to Angle Lake station opened on September 24 and was completed at a cost of $343million (equivalent to $ in dollars), below its original budget. The First Hill Streetcar, funded by Sound Transit and built as part of the
Seattle Streetcar network, opened two months earlier after a delay due in manufacturing streetcars with electric batteries. By late 2016, Light rail ridership reached a daily average of 66,203 weekday passengers—an increase of 89percent from late 2015—and necessitated the use of four-car trainsets. The agency carried 47million total passengers across all of its modes in 2017, with growth in its rail services and a slight decline in express buses. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel was fully transitioned to light rail use in March 2019 following the closure of the northern bus entrance; the tunnel's ownership was transferred to Sound Transit in October 2022 after the agency completed $87million in debt payments to King County Metro.
Sound Transit 3 The ST2 package included funds to produce studies on future transit projects for a potential third expansion package that would be known as
Sound Transit 3 (ST3). Studies of alternatives were launched in 2013 for several corridors, including a joint study with the
Seattle Department of Transportation for the Downtown Seattle–
Ballard corridor. Sound Transit proposed a $15billion package to fund a pool of projects that were identified in an updated long-range plan adopted in December 2014, including deferred projects from Sound Move and ST2. In July 2015, the state legislature approved a transportation spending package that included the agency's request to authorize a new set of taxes—including a
property tax—pending voter approval of ST3 in the November 2016 election. Long-time Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl went on medical leave in April 2014 following a brain injury and was replaced in the interim while a national search for a replacement was conducted. Former FTA administrator
Peter Rogoff was hired as the agency's new CEO in January 2016, while Earl was retained as CEO emeritus until the March opening of University Link, when she originally planned to retire. which was released in March 2016. The draft plan proposed a 25-year program that would open new transit projects from 2028 to 2041 that would include all modes and ultimately extend Link light rail to a network from Everett to Tacoma. It was estimated to cost a total of $50billion over its lifetime, consisting of $27billion in new tax revenue alongside federal bonds and existing taxes and bonds. The final ST3 plan was approved by the Sound Transit Board in June 2016 following several changes from the draft plan, including the addition of $4billion in bond capacity to accelerate the timeline for some projects and bring the total package to $53.8billion. It included the addition of to Link light rail with a network stretching to Everett in the north,
Issaquah to the east, and Tacoma to the south; a
bus rapid transit network on
Interstate 405 and
State Route 522; and capacity improvements to the Sounder SouthLine with an extension to DuPont. On November 8, 2016, the ST3 ballot measure was approved by 54percent of voters in the three-county district; it passed with a majority in King and Snohomish counties, but not in Pierce County. An attempt to restrict the motor vehicle excise tax collected for ST3 to $30 was launched by Tim Eyman and passed in 2019 as
Initiative 976, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court. In September 2019, Sound Transit announced plans to rename its services to use colors in preparation for the launch of more Link light rail lines; the existing Central Link would become the Red Line, while Tacoma Link became the Orange Line and East Link would become the Blue Line when it opened. The agency withdrew this plan after criticism from political groups for the use of the name "Red Line", which ran through areas where
redlining had been historically practiced. A new naming system based on numbers was announced in April 2020, with Central Link instead being renamed the 1Line. The first ST3 projects to begin construction were the
Downtown Redmond extension to East Link and the Federal Way Link Extension, which both were mostly deferred but had preliminary engineering funded by ST2. In 2020, Link became the first light rail system in the U.S. to run entirely on
renewable energy after Sound Transit enrolled in a direct purchase program for
wind power from
Puget Sound Energy to supplement its hydroelectricity from
Seattle City Light.
COVID-19 pandemic and ST2 openings The local onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to a 67percent decline in Sound Transit ridership by mid-March after
remote work policies were enacted by major employers in the Seattle area. The agency halted its fare collection and enforcement for several months and reduced service in response to the decline in ridership and lack of available staff during the beginning of state-mandated
lockdown measures. In April, Link service was reduced to a frequency of every 20minutes, several Sounder trips were suspended, and some Sound Transit Express routes were temporarily cancelled; by the following month, total ridership on the agency's services had declined 85percent to an average of 21,000 weekday passengers. Sound Transit also suspended most of its work on active construction projects until May due to the inability to meet public health guidelines on
social distancing. Normal frequencies on Link were restored in June 2021, shortly before capacity limits set by the state government were lifted. Some Sound Transit Express routes returned to normal service, while others remained suspended through 2022 due to a shortage of bus drivers. on its opening day in 2024 Light rail service on the 1Line in Seattle was extended north by three stations from the University District to Northgate on October 2, 2021. The majority of the extension is tunneled and the $1.9billion construction cost was funded by ST2. The new stations drove an increase in Link ridership above its pre-pandemic figures, reaching over 80,000 daily boardings by 2023, despite the slower recovery for ridership at downtown stations. The system also set several one-day ridership records in July 2023 due to special events in Seattle, reaching 136,800passengers on July 23. Tacoma Link, now renamed the TLine, doubled in length to over with the opening of an extension to the
Stadium District and
Hilltop neighborhoods on September 16, 2023. The project was delayed by a year and cost $65million more than its original ST2 budget due to issues with relocating underground utilities during construction. The
2Line, formerly named East Link, was originally scheduled to open from Seattle to western Redmond in 2023, but was delayed a year by construction issues and a four-month strike by concrete delivery drivers. The $3.7billion project is the most expensive section of the ST2 package and had already been delayed three years due to disputes during its planning process. The opening of the line was split into two phases to allow for the completed section between
South Bellevue and
Redmond Technology stations to be used by passengers. The initial section between Bellevue and Redmond opened on April 27, 2024, and an extension to
Downtown Redmond station followed on May 10, 2025. The western section of the 2Line, which uses the Interstate 90 floating bridge, opened on March 28, 2026, after 5,400 defective concrete
plinths under the rails were replaced. The 1Line was extended from Northgate into Snohomish County on August 30, 2024, with the opening of four stations in
Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood. The opening of the
Lynnwood Link Extension increased daily ridership on the 1Line to an average of 90,000 on weekdays in November despite reliability issues that led to major service disruptions by the end of 2024. The
Federal Way Link Extension, which extend the 1Line south by from Angle Lake to Federal Way, opened on December 6, 2025. The design–build project was delayed two years by the need to construct an unplanned bridge over weak soil that had been revealed by a landslide during slope stabilization work. A
night bus service is scheduled to launch in March 2026 and connect Downtown Seattle to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport as part of a pilot during hours when light rail service is unavailable. ==Organization==