You’ll soon see light-rail trains arriving in Federal Way. When will you be able to ride?
Sound Transit’s Federal Way Link Extension is now 94 percent complete and within weeks trains will be traveling up and down the 7.8-mile-long extension under construction from SeaTac.
Just don’t expect to take a ride until 2026.
The project’s opening date, originally scheduled in 2024, was pushed back when the construction of an unanticipated bridge just south of South 259th Place was deemed necessary to span a stretch of unstable soil between Interstate 5 and neighboring wetlands. The unexpected construction came after a landslide in summer 2022 revealed the weak soil. The redesign and added construction costs for the new bridge added $72 million to the final cost.
The Link extension from Angle Lake, just south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, to South 320th Street broke ground in 2020. When it’s operational, the $2.5 billion project will whisk passengers from Federal Way to Sea-Tac Airport in 18 minutes and to downtown Seattle in 46 minutes, according to Sound Transit.
The final segment to Tacoma, which has yet to break ground, won’t open until 2035.
New bus transfer station
Long before the Link starts running, the Federal Way Transit Center will move in March from its current location to a site adjacent to the new light rail station. Currently, it’s situated next to the parking garage in line with South 317th Street. The current bus station will be demolished, and South 317th Street will be opened to general traffic, according to Sound Transit.
Drivers who use the parking structure will have a slightly longer walk to catch buses. A newly built parking structure addition won’t open until Link trains begin carrying passengers in 2026.
This week, crews were taking advantage of weather breaks to pour concrete for the new bus station. Shelters are already in place as are electronic signs that will give arrival times.
Federal Way station
A few feet away from the new bus station is a gleaming new light-rail station. The structure is nearly complete. The station’s escalator has been installed. Sound Transit spokesman David Jackson said this robust escalator model shouldn’t have the malfunctions that plagued Sound Transit escalators when its Capitol Hill and University of Washington stations opened.
While tail tracks cross South 320th Street from the Federal Way station, the trains won’t go south of the street until a new operations and maintenance facility is built between South 336th Street and South 341st Place. It will become operational in 2030.
A large lot west of the Federal Way station now used for construction staging will eventually become transit-oriented development, according to Sound Transit.
The two other stations (Kent-Des Moines and Star Lake) and their parking garages are also assuming their final appearances.
A crossover section of track is just north of the Federal Way station. It will allow trains to switch tracks. Southbound trains arriving at the Federal Way station will use either side of the platform and then switch to northbound trains.
Testing
This year, the portion of the track between Angle Lake and the Kent-Des Moines stations became fully functional, and Sound Transit has been running trains on that stretch for testing.
The project’s deputy executive director, Sepehr Sobhani, said Sound Transit and its contractor, Kiewit, are now in a phase where major construction is nearing the finish line, and testing of the various systems is beginning. In early 2025, the public will see trains traveling between Angle Lake and Federal Way. At first, they’ll be towed. Later in the year, they’ll move under their own electric-fed power.
“It’s definitely not like a clean line in the sand where you finish one and start the other,” Sobhani said this week. “We’re kind of in that in-between spot.”
Tracks, power lines and communications are some of the major systems that need to be tested.
“All those tests need to be run and passed before we can say, ‘Hey, this is safety certified,’” Sobhani said.
He anticipates the system will be fully functional sometime in summer 2025 with a projected public opening in spring 2026.
Planes, trains and automobiles
At the northern end of the Federal Way Link Extension project, new tracks cross over both state Route 99 and a new segment of state Route 509. Overhead, jets make their final approach to the airport. It’s a confluence of nearly all of the region’s transportation modes.
The SR 509 Completion Project parallels the Link line as it stretches one mile between Interstate 5 and 24th Avenue South. It is scheduled to open by fall 2025, according to the state Department of Transportation.
The new tolled expressway is now fully paved. Signage, striping, highway lights and tolling infrastructure construction still needs to be completed. Crews are also in the final months of completing a rebuilt I-5 interchange with SR 516, according to WSDOT.
