Rail News: Passenger Rail
Sound Transit to jointly study transit expansion with Seattle, add parking at Edmonds Station

Sound Transit and Seattle city officials have agreed to jointly study transit improvements between downtown and the city's Ballard neighborhood.

For Sound Transit, the study will help update long-range plans for potential high-capacity transit expansion. Sound Transit will contribute up to $2 million for its portion of the study, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

For the city, the study will help update its transit master plan and expand its streetcar network. The city will contribute up to $800,000 for the study.

The Sound Transit 2 plan included studying potential high-capacity transit improvements in nine corridors, including Ballard to downtown Seattle. The corridor is identified in Sound Transit's long-range plan as a potential rail expansion.

The study is slated to begin in early 2013 and be completed by mid-2014, Sound Transit officials said.

Meanwhile, the agency's board has approved a five-year lease agreement with Salish Crossing L.L.C. to provide a 103-space parking lot next to the Edmonds Sounder Station. The new lot, slated to open May 1, 2013, will help accommodate Sounder North's increasing ridership.

Sounder ridership on the North Line rose 19 percent in September and 25 percent in August compared with the same months a year ago.