In General
Getting Here
Map
Station by Station
Sights
Pictures
Signals
Floobydust
USGS Maps
 

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In General

Location / Name:
Seattle WA

What's Here:
Light rail system operated by Sound Transit, the regional mass transportation operator.

Access by train/transit:
Amtrak - one block away from the International District / Chinatown station

The Scoop:
The light rail system had it's start in 1996, when the voters approved a bill to increase taxes to help, in part, to pay for a light rail system.  Sound Transit however, didn't have its groundbreaking until 2002.  The Tacoma Link Light Rail System opened 8/22/003.  Groundbreaking for the Central Link Light Rail System was on 11/8/2003.  The line opened on 7/18/2009, and ran between Westlake and Tukwila.  A few months later, on 12/19/2009, a 1.7mi (2.7km) extension was opened to Sea/Tac Airport.  The extension to the University of Washington was started in 2008, and opened on 3/19/2016, a 3.1mi add-on.  The small extension to Angle Lake was opened on 9/26/2016.  As of the end of 2016, the line is 20.3mi long (32.8km).

As of the end of 2016, the following extensions are planned:


A map of the extensions plus one idea for the I-90 bridge:
 

Acknowledgements:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_light_rail
http://joelrogers.photoshelter.com/image/I0000megaQRKxWBU


Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://www.globaltelematics.com/pitf/linksafetycertification.htm

Aerial shots were taken from either Google Maps or www.bing.com/maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product.
 

Getting Here

I-90 brings you in from the east, I-5 brings you up from the south and from Vancouver ONT (about 130mi) to the north.


Map


The above map in PDF format is here


Station by Station

 


University of Washington


Capitol Hill

 


Westlake

 


University Square

 


Pioneer Square

 


International District / Chinatown (Amtrak)

 


Stadium


SODO

 


Beacon Hill


Mount Baker




Columbia City


Othello


Rainier Beach

 


Tukwila International Blvd



  Photo by Joel Rogers


Sea/Tac Airport


Angle Lake

 


Sights


 


Signals



 


Floobydust


XXx

 


Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  I do these pages because I love spending my time doing them - although I do a reasonable amount of research to make sure the information presented is accurate! :-)  :-)

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in, oooooooops, oh well! :-)  

Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

BTW, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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