If you’re an S Line rider or a regular visitor to Pierce or South King County, you’ve probably noticed a lot of construction activity in recent months around the train tracks in Sumner, Auburn, and Kent.
That’s because we’re making big investments to make it easier to take Sounder, Sound Transit’s popular regional train service that celebrated its 25th anniversary this fall.
In 2023, we opened a new garage and surface lot totaling more than 650 new parking spots at Puyallup Station—and that was just the first of four new facilities coming along the S Line.
In addition to more parking, these projects consider all kinds of access — whether you walk, use a rolling mobility device, bike, or connect from another transit mode, like a local bus.
That can include things like bike lanes to better serve cyclists, pedestrian crosswalks with pavement-embedded flashing signals, or tactile strips that help people with visual impairments navigate station areas.
Sumner Station
The new parking garage adjacent to Sumner Station is going up on the east side of the tracks, on Harrison St. When complete, it will be four and one-half floors, with approximately 600 parking stalls and electric vehicle charging stations. Outside the garage, a new pedestrian plaza will connect to the Sounder platform area,
Sumner’s garage will feature artwork by Paz de la Calzada, a San Francisco-based professional whose work investigates the significance of nature to human life using organic forms and repetitive patterns.
De la Calzada’s project for Sumner takes inspiration from camas prairies, featuring the purple wildflower that’s endemic to Washington state and traditionally used for food, medicine, and cultural purposes.
The camas design will be featured in the stair tower’s glass façade, making this architectural element a focal point of the station area and giving visitors a unique experience from both interior and exterior vantage points.
The Sumner project also included pedestrian and bicycle improvements, like better sidewalks and upgraded lighting around the station area. The city of Sumner also continues to deliver a number of Sound Transit-funded ADA and pedestrian lighting improvements in the station and Main St area.
In addition to making our stations easier to navigate, we’re also investing in projects nearby that make it easier and safer to get there. In Sumner, that’s included improvements around the Traffic Ave/SR 410 interchange, about a quarter mile from the station on the west side of the tracks, where we funded a new sidewalk and multiuse pathway as part of the city’s new bridge.
Auburn Station
In Auburn we’re adding a second garage, two blocks north of the existing one adjacent to the station. The new facility, located on 1st St NW on the east side of the tracks, will be six floors with about 675 parking spaces, and it will include electric vehicle charging stations.
The garage is currently about 32 percent complete and is scheduled to open in early 2027.
The exterior façade will have both metal and brick, with a glass and metal stairwell and elevator tower. We’ve tapped local artist Samuel Obrovac, an enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Tribe, to create an integrated artwork for the exterior.
Obrovac’s design will feature a story pole that honors waterways as traditional means of transportation, canoe culture, and the many hands and generations who have passed down these crafts since time immemorial. The stair tower will also feature patterns reminiscent of the Muckleshoot Tribe’s weaving traditions.
In addition to the garage at Auburn, we’ll be making improvements to city streets, sidewalks, lighting and storm drainage.
Kent Station
Parking upgrades in Kent will include a four-story parking garage on Railroad Ave N., just north of the existing bus loop, with approximately 465 spaces. A new surface lot at the corner of Railroad Ave N and E Smith St will add about 40 more spaces.
On the east side of Railroad Ave N, we’re also building a new bus layover facility for King County Metro while coordinating area improvements with their Rapid Ride I Line opening in 2027.
Kent’s new garage will have a glass canopy over a new arrival plaza and pick-up/drop off area at the southwest corner of the garage.
Tacoma-based public artist Ryan Feddersen will create the Kent garage artwork. Feddersen is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and she specializes in creating compelling site-specific installations that reflect on communities’ relationships to history, culture, the land, and our non-human kin.
Feddersen’s Kent garage artwork, titled “Estranged River,” is inspired by the greater Kent Valley river system and its changes throughout history. It will include a multifaceted conceptual account of the history of settlers’ interference with the natural environment. Feddersen’s design acknowledges the historical impact of human intervention on bodies of water that many living beings depend on, as symbolized by the school of salmon also depicted in the artwork.
Work on the Kent garage is currently 36 percent complete. Crews have finished the foundation and moved on to building the four-story structure, and we expect to begin work on the bus layover facility in early 2026.
Absher Construction Company and WJA Design Collaborative are working together to deliver both the Kent and Auburn projects. HNTB provides owner’s representation on all three projects.
Sit back and enjoy the ride
Whether you’re traveling for work, school, appointments, or fun, Sounder provides a great alternative to sitting in traffic. Onboard you’ll find comfy seats, free WiFi, power outlets, tables and restrooms.
You can find the full Sounder schedule here, and be sure to check out our special event trains on weekends.
Interested in keeping up on the access improvements at our S Line stations? Subscribe to project updates here, or check out our job-site cameras for Sumner, Kent, and Auburn to follow along.