Seattle Light Rail

Seattle’s Light Rail Finally Opens!!!

The long wait is finally over, Sound Transit opened in late July and a slick rail line now joins the airport (almost) with downtown. I say almost because the last mile to the terminal at SeaTac International won’t be finished until later this year, but we’ll forgive them the inconvenience of a short shuttle bus ride to the airport, because in the end, it’s finally worth the wait. We took advantage of a “no check-in” afternoon to try it out. The closest station to Salisbury House B&B is downtown at Westlake Center, but the north spur, which will run under Capitol Hill to the University of Washington, is already under construction. Eventually we’ll have a station on the hill near Seattle Central Community College on Broadway.

What we found out. The cars are no frills, but feature big windows and big doors and there’s plenty of room for luggage and hooks for riders to hang their bikes. The ride is very smooth, and the trains run on a seven minute schedule (a little more frequently at rush hour) so there’s no need for a timetable. And each station is interesting.

All public projects in Seattle must spend one percent on art and they did a nice job of picking intriguing pieces without getting anything overtly controversial. And the views of the city are pretty great, making the trip visually pleasing. The line runs underground through downtown, but hits daylight near the ball parks and then goes under Beacon Hill and then south through Rainier Valley (on a clear day you can glimpse some great views of our local glacier-clad volcano). My favorite part of the ride is where the line soars over Interstate 5 south of Boeing Field, is there anything more satisfying than looking down on stop-and-go traffic when you aren’t in it?

On the return trip we got off at the Columbia City station and walked two blocks east to the terrific Columbia City Farmers Market, which runs May thru October on Wednesday afternoons. We took a happy hour break at Island Soul for two dollar Red Stripe beers and a plate of coconut prawns. The chef comped us a couple of his coconut corn muffins, some of the best things to come out of an oven you’ll ever taste. We took the #48 bus back to the inn because we could ride all the way without transferring downtown, it was convenient but not faster, and much bumpier since we were back in city traffic, not gliding along Sound Transit’s smooth rails and dedicated right-of-way.