(The Center Square) – Sound Transit opened its downtown Redmond extension after a year delay and $98 million tacked on after originally planned.
The 3.4-mile extension of the 2 Line opened for service Saturday with two new stations at Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond.
The latest extension is the first Sound Transit 3 project. The downtown Redmond extension was originally scheduled to open in 2024, but was delayed until May 10, 2025 after a multi-month concrete strike in 2020.
The Sound Transit 3 ballot measure was approved by 54% of voters in 2016 to establish a 14-cent tax on a $10 taxable purchase, a property tax of 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value and an additional 0.8% motor-vehicle excise tax to generate $54 billion in funding for the agency.
The agency uses the revenue toward the expansion of light rail services in 16 cities with construction anticipated to end in 2041.
The Downtown Redmond link extension cost $1.53 billion – $98 million more than estimated in 2017, according to Sound Transit documents.
In a press release on opening day, Snohomish County Executive and Sound Transit Board Chair Dave Somers celebrated the latest public transit expansion in the Puget Sound region, adding that it will create more economic opportunities.
“With the opening of Downtown Redmond Link, Sound Transit now operates 46 miles of light rail across all three counties we serve,” Somers said in a statement. “This system creates more connections and economic opportunities for people who live, work in, and visit our region.”
Sound Transit has seen more light rail stations open since September 2023, when the T Line opened service to Hilltop. This includes the opening of the $3.1 billion Lynnwood Link extension last August, adding four new stations going north into Snohomish County. The 2 Line between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology Station opened in April 2024.
The 2 Line – connecting Western and Eastern parts of King County – is anticipated to be completed within the next year, after previously being scheduled in mid-2023. The agency delayed the opening due to construction quality and durability concerns about plinths – the raised concrete structures that support tracks.
Sound Transit also expects the start of 1 Line services to the City of Federal Way to be complete sometime in 2026.
