Sound Transit Pushes West Seattle Light Rail Opening to 2035

Sound Transit has rescheduled the target opening date for the West Seattle Link Extension from 2032 to 2035, with construction now slated to begin in 2028. Agency officials attributed the three-year delay to intensive cost-savings reviews and an elongated build schedule for challenging engineering components, including complex tunneling and bridge work over the Duwamish Waterway.

The agency's broader ST3 transit package faces an estimated $34.5 billion funding shortfall over 20 years, with total program costs reaching roughly $185 billion. A September 2024 review determined the West Seattle line was unaffordable under initial financial assumptions, prompting value-engineering efforts that identified over $2 billion in reductions, including the removal of the planned Avalon Station.

Despite the delayed launch, contract packaging continues. Sound Transit advertised the Duwamish River Crossing package in June and the SODO Station in August. Procurement for systems, trackwork, and the Alaska Junction Station is scheduled for October, while procurement for the West Seattle tunnels and Delridge Station will run between late 2027 and early 2028.

Transit-oriented developers and land investors in West Seattle must adjust pro formas and absorption timelines to account for a transit connection that is now nearly a decade away.