Overview
A new Operations and Maintenance Facility (OMF) is needed in South King County to store and service a growing train fleet. This will support future light rail extensions to Tacoma, West Seattle, and serve the entire region.
An OMF is where light rail trains go 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for cleaning and repairs. To build this new facility, we need approximately 60-70 acres (for reference, one football field is 1.3 acres) near an operating Link line.
We need four OMFs across the region to support our system expansion. Currently, we service the existing light rail fleet at a central OMF on South Forest Street in Seattle.
Benefits of the OMF South
- This facility will create high-skilled, living-wage jobs for more than 610 people in South King County. At our existing OMF Central in Seattle and OMF East in Bellevue, the average employee wage is $45 per hour, or $85,000/year.
- OMFs ensure thousands of passengers ride clean, well-maintained trains. We suspend service every night between 1-5 a.m. so we can service our Link trains.
Current project status
The Sound Transit Board selected the South 336th Street site as the project to be built on June 27th, 2024. The Federal Transit Administration issued its Record of Decision for the project on August 7th, 2024.
Sound Transit is now beginning final design and construction for the project. The Board has identified an in-service date of 2032 (subject to change). We are currently in a procurement process to select a contractor for the final design and construction phase of the project.
The selection of the contractor for final design and construction is expected in late 2025. Once a contractor is selected, final design will begin. Ealy construction activities, like site preparation, clearing and grading, may start as early as the summer of 2026. Heavy construction would follow early to mid-2027. A more detailed schedule of activities will be developed after the contractor has been selected.
If you have further questions or comments, you can contact the project team at omfsouth@soundtransit.org.
We encourage you to sign up for project email updates for all the latest news as OMF South develops.
Aerial view of the Operations and Maintenance Facility in Seattle.
An inside look at the Operations and Maintenance Facility in Seattle.
Workers perform maintenance on Link light rail trains every night at the Operations and Maintenance Facility in Seattle.
