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 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. We've built a second facility in Bellevue and will add another OMF north of 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
Sound Transit Board selected the S 336th Street site as the project to be built on June 27th, 2024, and 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 a target in-service date of 2029. The agency is working to accelerate the current schedule to achieve that date.
Have any additional questions or comments? We're always here to help. 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.
What can I expect as a project neighbor?
If you live, own a business, or own a property near the future OMF South site, sign up for email updates to stay informed about the project. If you have any questions or want to schedule a meeting to learn more, contact the project team at omfsouth@soundtransit.org.
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.
