The light rail ride gives you runway views.
From the station, there's a pedestrian overpass--beyond, Tukwila awaits!
Two "sails" adorn the station's escalators
A worker inspects a bank of light rail pass machines
The view from the station of the pedestrian bridge
Still a little work to be done before the Saturday opening
A mesh gives you some good views as you walk.
Pedestrian bridge interior
A view of the pedestrian bridge and the station from the walkway along the parking garage
A view of the station from the pedestrian walkway.
Keep walking!
The walk to the terminal has a few different stretches, which is nice, since you're not looking down a straight 950 feet.
The airport station's upper platform. Escalators take you down to the walkway to the terminal.
As of 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 19, there will be a SeaTac light rail station open for business. For $2.50 (one-way), you can ride the full line from the Westlake station downtown to the airport, and the Central Link segment will be complete.
It's only a three-minute jaunt from the Tukwila station, where the line used to end, to the airport station, but it cost $268 million. (The whole trip from downtown takes about 36 minutes, and trains run every 7.5 to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day.) Besides its ahead-of-schedule opening--which was originally set for December 31--the airport station has come in under budget.
The Port of Seattle handed me a fact sheet on a media preview walk-through this morning, noting proudly that the road improvements associated with the station construction cost $10 million less than budgeted in Port funds, and the pedestrian bridge and walkway came in at $1.4 million less. Altogether it's 950 feet from the platform to the first terminal skybridge, which everyone is sensitive about.
You can arrange free wheelchair service from Huntleigh (call in advance 206-433-5287), but otherwise you're hoofing it. There will be baggage carts, but nothing for you to ride on. (A people-mover was ruled out because of logistical considerations--it wouldn't really fit--and extra expense.) You won't notice the length so much on your way in; it's the return trip, when you've already hiked a few miles through airports, that the extra quarter-mile will wear on you. Still, for transit riders, a hike was already in order to get to the bus stop south of the terminal.
The Port's SeaTac employees, interestingly, may provide a good deal of the light rail regular ridership. Some 22,000 people commute to work at the airport each day, and it's hoped that some will take the new train, in addition to travelers. I'm checking with the Port on how it currently encourages its employees to take transit, and if there will be a special light rail push.
UPDATE: Perry Cooper, the Port's media officer, says via email:
We can’t predict how many employees will move to riding light rail, but we have several Commute Trip Reduction qualified employers, including the Port, Alaska Air Group, Delta and Host (who run many of our concessionaires). Another one of the largest employee groups that may take advantage of light rail are the employees of TSA, who have a significant number of employees that utilize public transportation.
For the Port’s Aviation division here at Sea-Tac, we have approximately 280 employees that hold a FlexPass, which is good on King County Metro, Pierce County Transit and Sound Transit including the Link Light Rail. We continue to promote that throughout Port employees.
