Lynnwood Link Opening

On August 30th, Commute Seattle celebrated the opening of the Lynnwood Link, connecting light rail service from downtown Seattle to Lynnwood City Center. With this new extension, four new stations opened – two stations in Shoreline, one in Mountlake Terrace, and one in Lynnwood – and expanded the light rail’s reach into Snohomish County for the first time. (To learn more about the project and what it means for Seattle as a whole, read our blog post here.)

On opening day, Sound Transit sponsored festivities at each of the four new stations with night markets, music and dance performances, food trucks, and activities. Commute Seattle participated in Shoreline North station’s celebration, hosted by North City Neighborhood Association. At our booth, we offered attendees several different ways to commemorate the opening, and we were busy throughout the entire four-hour event engaging the public with our booth’s activities. Our team designed custom stickers, available only at the Lynnwood Link opening, that let everyone know that they were a “Day 1 Rider!” We also featured the ORCA mascot Boop with our Boop Box Give-away and a coloring station with Boop in a party hat. On a poster with the 1 Line route map, 250 attendees told us where they were excited to ride the 1 Line. By sticking a post-it with their response, we learned that many are not only excited to ride the light rail home, to work, and to the airport, but also to Korean BBQ, the Symphony, the Mariners, and to visit friends and family. One respondent even said to take the light rail to their weekly bad movie night! We love to hear about all the many trips people are taking in and through our community.

By the end of the event, we had counted (unofficially) over 2,000 people at our booth, and we had given away all of our Day 1 Rider stickers (over 7,000!). We had a blast talking to everyone about Commute Seattle, introducing everyone to Boop, and learning how much the Lynnwood Link extension means to so many people. We were so happy we got to share in the excitement of this moment in our region’s history, and the enthusiasm of the event had everyone at Commute Seattle buzzing through the long weekend and into the following week!