King County Metro wants to hear from people in Kent ahead of a potential earlier opening date of late 2025 rather than spring 2026 for the Kent and Federal Way light rail stations.
As the 7.8-mile light rail extension from Angle Lake to Federal Way gets closer, Metro is finalizing changes to bus service for a project called South Link Connections.
Transit riders have the chance to weigh in on proposed changes to bus routes through a survey that is open until Aug. 31. A link to the survey and more information about the project can be found at www.southlinkconnections.com/?lng=en.
These bus schedule changes are especially important because the light rail is running ahead of schedule and may potentially open sooner than the spring 2026 expected opening date.
The Sound Transit Board on Thursday, July 24 approved plans that will support an earlier than expected opening of the Federal Way Link Extension, now projected to begin operating as soon as winter 2025, according to a Sound Transit news release. As final testing and commissioning gets underway on the 1 Line extension from Angle Lake to Federal Way, work continues to open the Crosslake Connection of the 2 Line in early 2026 as expected.
This phased approach will enable the agency to successfully open both projects as soon as possible.
“Sound Transit is proving its ability to assess the way projects are progressing in real time and pivot quickly to provide people throughout the region with more transit options,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers. “This resequencing of opening dates reflects the actual status of each of the projects and allows us to continue moving them both forward in the most efficient way possible.”
The Federal Way Link Extension project has nearly completed system integration testing and is ready to move into the pre-revenue testing phase. At the same time, live wire testing, the second phase of system integration testing, is scheduled to start on the Homer M. Hadley floating bridge this month as planned.
“I’m excited to see the Federal Way Link Extension open ahead of schedule — bringing light rail to Kent, Des Moines, Star Lake and Downtown Federal Way,” said Sound Transit Board Vice Chair and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci. “Like the Eastside starter line, this early opening is another success in delivering transit to riders more quickly. Next up: completing the connection across the I-90 bridge and linking East King County to the rest of the system, which we remain fully committed to opening without further delay. Today’s (July 24) announcement is another big step to building a fast, frequent, reliable transit network that helps more people get to more places.”
New Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine first shared this goal and update when he visited Federal Way on July 8 for a town hall at the KOAM TV studio.
Sound Transit spokesperson David Jackson confirmed that news with Sound Publishing via email, sharing that while they don’t have an opening date yet, “things are trending toward late this year.”
Jackson explained: “Construction is going very well on the Federal Way Link Extension project,” and that they are “in testing now and the tests are going well.”
After some analysis, Sound Transit officials concluded that they can open the Kent Des Moines, Star Lake (Kent) and Federal Way stations sooner without impacting the Crosslake 2 Line project on the Eastside, which is set to open in early 2026.
Jackson added that the street grid should be restored by this fall and that people will start to see trains regularly on the guideway not long after Labor Day.
King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer shared that “as light rail comes to our communities, neighbors and small business owners frequently tell me that Sound Transit can be intimidating to communicate with due to its vast size,” but that “I am grateful that the new Sound Transit CEO, Dow Constantine, is working with me to build communication bridges with our local South King County residents.”
To ensure that the bus routes serving Kent, Des Moines, Federal Way and other nearby cities mesh well with the light rail and provide the most access to transit, the South Link Connections project has proposed several changes:
• New transit connections: Adding new connections to future Link light rail stations.
• All-day service: Investing in bus routes that operate all day, every day, with 47% more trips on weekdays and 80% more weekends trips.
• New and improved weekend service: New service on Saturdays and Sundays in Burien and new service on Sundays between Kent and Federal Way. More frequent service on weekends between Kent Des Moines Station, Kent Station, Kent East Hill and Green River College. In total, the Phase 3 network would provide 61% more trips on Saturday and twice as many trips on Sunday when compared to today.
• Improved east-west service: Enhancing important routes across the area, including:
• New frequent service connecting Highline College, Kent Station and Green River College.
• Frequent service between Twin Lakes Park & Ride, Federal Way Downtown Station and Auburn Station.
• On-demand services: Launching two new Metro Flex on-demand pilot services in Federal Way and Auburn to connect more people to transit.
• Faster service: Updating bus routes between West Federal Way and Downtown Federal Way to make this connection quicker, more direct and easier to navigate.
• Route changes: Removing some commuting routes between South King County and Downtown Seattle to:
• Avoid overlapping services with Link light rail.
• Reinvest resources from these routes to enhance the all-day, all-week services that connect to Link light rail.
King County Metro shared that in order to make these route expansions, they will be removing or reducing “lower-ridership routes and routes that overlap with other transit service,” according to the survey.
They also noted that “many of the routes proposed for removal have been suspended since Metro’s pandemic response and are not operating today.”
Routes proposed for removal include: 121*, 122*, 123*, 154*, 157*, 162, 165 (fully replaced by Routes 164/166), 177, 178*, 179*, 190*, 197*, DART 901. *Routes that are currently suspended/not operating
Sound Publishing reporter Keelin Everly-Lang contributed to this article.
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