2 Line (Sound Transit)

2 Line
Construction in the median of Interstate 90 on the East Channel Bridge, seen in July 2019
Overview
Other name(s)
  • East Link Extension
  • Blue Line
StatusUnder construction
OwnerSound Transit
LocaleSeattle, Washington, U.S.
Termini
Stations
  • 8 (2024)
  • 25 (2025)
Websitesoundtransit.org/eastlink
Service
TypeLight rail
SystemLink light rail
History
Planned opening
  • April 27, 2024 (South Bellevue to Redmond Technology)
  • 2025 (Lynnwood to Downtown Redmond)
Technical
Line lengthNew segments: 18 mi (29 km)[1]
Number of tracks2
CharacterAt grade, elevated, and underground
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
ElectrificationOverhead line1,500 V DC
Operating speed55 mph (89 km/h)
Route map

(2025)
Northgate
Roosevelt
U District
University of Washington
Capitol Hill
First Hill Streetcar
Westlake
Seattle Center Monorail South Lake Union Streetcar
University Street
Pioneer Square
Colman Dock
International District/
Chinatown
Amtrak Cascades Sounder commuter rail First Hill Streetcar
Judkins Park
Mercer Island
Phase 2 (2025)
Phase 1 (2024)
South Bellevue
East Main
Bellevue Downtown
Wilburton
Operations and Maintenance
Facility East
Spring District
BelRed
Overlake Village
Redmond Technology
Phase 1 (2024)
Phase 2 (2025)
Marymoor Village
Downtown Redmond

The East Link Extension, also known as the 2 Line, is a future light rail line serving the Eastside region of the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It will be part of Sound Transit's Link light rail system, running 18 miles (29 km) from west to east and serving 12 stations in Downtown Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond. The first section of the 2 Line, between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology stations, is scheduled to open on April 27, 2024. It is planned to be followed in 2025 by an extension east to Downtown Redmond and west to Seattle, where it will continue into the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel and share stations with the 1 Line through to Lynnwood City Center station.

The East Link project was approved by voters in the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure, with construction costs projected at $3.7 billion. The line will use the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, one of the Interstate 90 floating bridges, which was constructed in 1989 with the intent to convert its reversible express lanes to light rail. Early transit plans from the 1960s proposed an Eastside rail system, but preliminary planning on the system did not begin until Sound Transit's formation in the early 1990s.

The proposed alignment of the East Link project was debated by the Bellevue city council in the early 2010s, with members split on two different routes south of Downtown Bellevue; city funding for the downtown segment's tunnel was also debated and ultimately included in the final agreement. The alignment was finalized in 2013, after more than two years of debate, and delayed the beginning of construction to 2016 and the completion of the project from 2021 to 2023. The line will be the world's first railway constructed on a floating bridge and is expected to carry 50,000 daily riders by 2030.

  1. ^ "Sound Transit updates East Link preferred route" (Press release). Sound Transit. April 22, 2010. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

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