As you may have heard, the Seattle's LINK light-rail system recently completed their University of Washington station*. As a frequent commuter, I was incredibly excited by the early release of this resource, but I also had lingering feelings of skepticism as well. To satisfy my curiosity and quell any doubt, I decided to visit the station myself to see if it would be able to live up to the hype.
The station is impressively designed**. Enormous, sleek, and a little artistic, it reminds me of ones I have seen in Europe and Canada. My first thought: “Good, the United States (specifically Seattle) is finally starting to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of public transportation!” The areas are spacious (besides the standard escalator widths) and a sky bridge allows users to cross the street without fear of oncoming traffic. The train itself was fast. Normally, travelling to the underground tunnel would take me 20 minutes; the light-rail took me less than 10.
Despite its excellent speed and design, however, the new light-rail is not without its downfalls. The addition of the UW light-rail station has caused many bus routes to be cut, and some of the most frequented buses by UW students - namely, the 71, 72, 73, and 74 Express routes - have been altered. Previously, students like me could rely on at least one of these to arrive along the Ave (University Way) once every 10-15 minutes during the weekdays into the downtown underground tunnel. These rides have been cut and others have been drastically reduced, under the logic that a new UW light rail station makes other ways of traveling downtown from campus obsolete. However, I have found this is not true for all UW students. For example, I live on 18th and could easily walk to the Ave in five minutes. The UW station, however, requires a 15 minute speed-walk to the stadium. This difficulty has been combated by routes such as the 48 that are scheduled to arrive every 10 minutes during daytime hours and drop off right by the station. This does provide the added inconvenience of transfer, but is meant to provide options for reaching the UW station.
Additionally, the station did not seem disability-friendly to me. I will have to visit a few more times to get a more accurate feeling, but other than the two standard elevators, escalators are the only other main way to reach the train terminals. If one of the elevators was not functioning properly, as was the case when I was there, people dependent on wheelchairs or crutches would have had severely limited train access and a much longer wait time.
That being said, overall, the train station is extremely well constructed and has the potential to reduce commute time for many students and locals. I believe the UW station is a valuable investment that provides an excellent option for students to visit Capitol Hill (the Capitol Hill stop is a five minute walk from The Unicorn, and a 10 minute walk to Rhein Haus), head to the airport (~50-minute ride), or simply catch a ride to the downtown tunnel. The best part for UW students is that the UPASS covers payment – just tap your Husky card at any of the pay stations before boarding, and tap it again once you arrive at your destination. The UW train station is a great addition to campus: It may be a longer walk to get there, but it will be worth it!
*Another train station by the UW Tower (Brooklyn Ave, between 43rd and 45th ) is still under construction, and is projected to be completed by 2021. If all goes smoothly, however, we may be able to expect an early reveal of that as well. Travel from this station to Northgate would take five minutes, and a ride to the airport would be approximately 40 minutes.
**All of the included pictures were provided by Seattle Times - you can read their more in-depth review of the station here.
