Seattle’s Link light rail celebrates first anniversary
Written by jrood
February 14, 2001 On July 19, Sound Transit will mark the first birthday of Central Link light rail, which during its inaugural year of operations attracted an estimated six million riders.
"This is a great
achievement for a region that has embraced light rail after years of waiting,"
said Sound Transit Board Chair and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon.
"Thanks to light rail, the people of this region have saved time, money
and precious natural resources. We’ll only see those savings grow as we expand
the system to the north, east and south."
Some quick facts about
Link’s first year of service on the 16-mile line serving 13 stations between
downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac International Airport:
• Total estimated
ridership for the year: 6 million.
• Passenger miles traveled:
43 million.
• Average rider trip
length: 7.1 miles.
• Total light rail train
miles traveled: 1.2 million.
Those numbers add up to
major environmental savings for Seattle and the region. Had those six million
riders driven cars instead of climbing aboard Link, Sound Transit estimates
they would have consumed 93,000 barrels of oil to make 1.8 million gallons of
gasoline.
Light rail trains run
every 7.5 minutes during peak hours and every 10 or 15 minutes at other hours
of the day, offering a fast and convenient way to move around. Light rail
stations offer easy connections to buses that serve other destinations
throughout the region. Commuters can secure bicycles at Link stations or bring
them onboard the trains.
Link currently carries
about 23,400 riders each weekday. The first-year ridership numbers are
particularly strong given that the recession reduced transit ridership across
the nation by about four percent last year.
The Central Link line is
the first portion of what will be 55 miles of light rail serving the Central
Puget Sound Region. A 3.1-mile underground extension from downtown Seattle
north to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington is under construction
and will open in 2016. Voters have also approved extensions to Northgate,
Lynnwood, Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island and northern Federal Way scheduled
to open by 2023.
