Sound Transit sets ridership records, new light rail

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Per Trains News Wire:

Sound Transit sets ridership records, names route for light rail expansion study



SEATTLE – Sound Transit has set annual ridership records in 2013 for boardings on its light rail, commuter trains, and buses. The agency saw 30.3 million boardings last year, an increase of more than 8 percent over 2012. Average weekday boardings have topped 101,000. Central Link light rail ridership has grown 11 percent.

"Light rail ridership has seen double-digit increases in every year of operation," says Sound Transit Board Chair and King County Executive Dow Constantine. "This new record only confirms how essential transit is to our regional mobility and prosperity."

The ridership increases include:

28,953 average weekday boardings and 9.7 million annual boardings on Central Link light rail, an 11 percent increase from 2012
11,587 average weekday boardings and 3.0 million annual boardings on Sounder commuter rail, an 8 percent increase from 2012

The full annual ridership report can be found at www.soundtransit.org/Ridership.

The Sound Transit board of directors has identified an alignment for the planned expansion of Tacoma Link light rail service. The alignment would continue north from the existing Theater District Station along Stadium Way to the intersection of North First Street and Division Avenue, then from the intersection of North 1st Street and Division Avenue to Martin Luther King Way and South 19th Street. In this alignment, an expanded Tacoma Link would operate in both directions on Martin Luther King Way.

The alignment will now advance to the environmental phase of the project for further study and refinement. During environmental review, the alignment will undergo conceptual engineering. Station locations will also be identified, and site options for an expanded maintenance facility in the vicinity of the existing facility near East 25th and G streets will be studied. The board is scheduled to select the final alignment after the environmental review is completed. Construction of the project is contingent on securing local and federal funding.

Voters approved funding for the Tacoma Link Expansion in the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure. The project is expected to require $50 million from ST2 tax revenues, $50 million from a local partnership, and $50 million from a federal Small Starts grant.