USA: The 12·6 km, three-station Federal Way Link extension of the Sound Transit light rail 1 Line that serves the Seattle-Tacoma area opened on December 6.
The extension took the 1 Line southwards from Angle Lake, which is located south of SeaTac airport, to Federal Way Downtown.
Extensive park and ride facilities are a feature of the expanded 1 Line. Car parks were added along the line to provide a total of nearly 2 000 new parking spaces: 500 at Kent Des Moines and 1 105 at Star Lake, while an addition to the existing facility at Federal Way Downtown provided 341 additional parking spaces to the 1 224 already in use. Further housing is expected to be built on surplus property adjacent to Federal Way Downtown station.
The project forms part of the Sound Transit 2 regional transport development scheme that was approved by voters in 2008. The Federal Way project groundbreaking was held in summer 2020.
Kiewit Infrastructure West was responsible for designing the extension and carrying out civil works. Mass Electric Construction Co carried out systems installation, testing and commissioning, including the integration of subsystems, operating with all legacy systems and interfacing with Sound Transit’s existing central control centre.
Of the $2·5bn project cost, $790m was directly funded by the federal government, and a $629·5m low-interest loan was provided by the federal Department of Transportation.
The 2 Line’s Crosslake Connection between South Bellevue and Seattle King Street is scheduled to open in early 2026, providing interchange at Pinehurst infill station on the 1 Line.
LRV procurement to start next year
The Series 3 LRV procurement is scheduled to start early next year, Sound Transit confirmed to Railway Gazette International on December 2.
ST held an early industry engagement in September, when it was decided to procure 58 m long vehicles, rather than the originally envisaged 29 m long LRVs, which is the length of the operator’s existing Series 2 fleet, built by Siemens Mobility.
ST expects the longer vehicles to improve passenger capacity by around 8%, reduce both procurement and maintenance costs, and enhance passenger experience.
The publication of a request for proposals is expected by the end of the year, and ST plans to call tenders early next year for 70 vehicles with options for up to 80 more.
The fleet procurement is intended to support planned and ongoing network expansion. It forms part of the Sound Transit 3 regional transport plan, which was backed by voters in 2016 and covers project timelines lasting until 2041.
- Read our feature article about the progress of Sound Transit’s voters-backed, long-term light rail expansion scheme in the January 2026 issue of Railway Gazette International.
