We’ve opened five Link light rail extensions in just four calendar years, and now it’s official: the Federal Way Link Extension will be next!
Last week, the Sound Transit Board voted to amend the agency’s 2025 Service Plan to support extending 1 Line operations to downtown Federal Way, an opening we previously expected no sooner than 2026.
Updating the service plan is an important procedural step that gives us the authority to operate new service. It also ensures implementation aligns with public commitments and federal requirements, and it allows our transit partners to plan for the new connections.
Work on the 7.8-mile extension — from the current 1 Line terminus, Angle Lake Station, to the new Federal Way Downtown Station — has progressed rapidly over the past several months, such that it can now be ready ahead of the previous target.
And when new service is ready, we don’t want to wait. We want to welcome you aboard!
Why Federal Way first?
We’d previously planned to open the 1 Line extension to Federal Way after the “Crosslake Connection” (the remaining segment of the East Link Extension, which will connect the 2 Line from the Eastside to Seattle and beyond), in 2026.
But our most recent risk assessment and readiness review of the Federal Way project reflected great news, with several risks reduced and key constraints resolved.
Based on this evaluation and testing progress, we can confidently and responsibly advance the project and open earlier than expected.
The schedule shift isn’t a delay of one project in favor of the other, but a reflection of real progress and risk reduction on both. In fact, opening Federal Way as soon as it’s ready allows us to better manage shared resources and avoid bottlenecks.
In the past, we needed upwards of six months between light rail project openings, but as we’ve continued honing our activation processes through multiple successive openings in recent years, we’ve significantly reduced and condensed the amount of transition time needed.
Both projects now have their own engineering, construction, and activation teams, and we’ve implemented efficiencies and pilot programs with our operating partners at King County Metro to ensure operations staff are available for both projects without overlap.
By opening the 1 Line extension as soon as it’s ready, we can deliver new service to South King County riders months earlier than expected, without compromising the Crosslake Connection timeline.
What will service look like?
One constraint we’ve resolved to open Federal Way early is limited train storage and maintenance capacity at our South Seattle facility.
Thanks to some creative solutions we’ve identified throughout the system, we’re now confident that we’ll be able to offer the same service frequency — even before we have access to our second Operations and Maintenance Facility in Bellevue, which the Crosslake Connection will facilitate next year.
That means we’ll be able to maintain current service levels on the 1 Line, with four-car trains arriving every eight minutes during peak hours, all the way from Lynnwood to Federal Way.
What happens next?
The Federal Way extension has nearly completed system integration testing and is ready to move into pre-revenue testing. This phase includes training for operators and maintenance staff, as well as continued testing to ensure stations, tracks, utilities, and vehicles work together as expected in preparation for the start of service.
The 2 Line’s Crosslake Connection is progressing as well, and we’re on track to open in early 2026 as planned. You can expect to see trains operating on the I-90 floating bridge conducting live wire testing, the second step in the system integration phase, very soon.
As this testing advances, we’ll have a better sense of when in early 2026 this connection will open.
In the meantime, we’ll be closely managing our contractors’ performance on both projects, while balancing critical reliability and resiliency improvements on the existing light rail system.
Now that we’re officially moving toward an early winter opening for Federal Way, internal teams are working to narrow down specific possible dates.
While we can’t share an exact opening date just yet, we look forward to making that announcement in a matter of weeks, so be sure to sign up for project alerts and stay tuned for more updates!