Light Rail Plans Leak for Everett Link Extension - the completion of Sound Transit
Plans for the six-station Everett Link Extension -- including stops at Alderwood, Boeing, Paine Field and Everett have leaked Here's tip: buy cheap land by Mariner and Casino Road.

Decades and decades after Sound Transit’s inception, the finish line is in sight. The picture sharpened up significantly with the leak of planning documents for the north end Everett Link Extension this week. Today, 425-area folks can see how and where light rail will integrate into the local transit scape.
We’ve got maps and artwork for the new light rail stations headed to Alderwood Mall, Paine Field, Boeing and ultimately downtown Everett. J425 is hosting a file copy of the 24-page document, linked at the bottom of the post.
The leak also includes siting options for a massive 60-70 acre Sound Transit maintenance site that must open prior to the development of the rail project. The site will be hosted in south Everett somewhere and will house 400+ family wage jobs.
Of interest to readers throughout the 425 is how the multi-county agency intends to bring light rail through South County while hitting the necessary marks. Namely: Alderwood Mall, the Boeing/Paine Field loop, the reconnect to I-5 and the culmination in Everett. Hold the thought on the Boeing/Paine Field loop for a second — we’ve got the detailed view below, along with the entire leaked document.
Remind Me What Sound Transit is About?
Sound Transit is a public transit agency created in 1993 by King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to build a regional rapid transit system serving the Seattle metropolitan area and the tri-county region from Sea-Tac to Everett.
It operates the Link light rail system, the regional Sounder commuter rail, and Sound Transit Express bus service. Sound Transit services carries around 55 million passengers annually and averages about 160K riders each weekday.
Specifically for this article — and for the purposes of those of us who live in the 425 — we’re interested in the Link Light Rail portion of Sound Transit. Link is the tenth-busiest light rail system in the country and it’ll be in the top four. when finished. The project LINKS (get it?) Tacoma to Everett, hitting all the major stops along the way.
If you’ve ever had reason to arrive at Sea-Tac with a hotel stay in downtown Seattle as I did on a few occasions when I was living in the Bay Area and consulting for Pioneer Square -based tech and data company, you’d know the appeal of this project. Instead of fighting traffic, walked over to a raised platform near the rental car checkout, hopped on a light rail car, and a few minutes later I was dropped off in an underground station near Pioneer Square. It was so fast, so easy.
Well, they’re slowly but surely bringing that service up here. True, the Everett cap to Link Light Rail won’t be done until 2046. But if you look around next time you’re in the Alderwood area, you’ll notice that light rail construction is well into the 425.
Back to the leaked plans and what they detail: the future of 425 transit.
The Paine Field Loop and the Everett Link Extension
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