SEATTLE — Sound Transit’s Link trains began stopping at Pinehurst Station before sunrise Wednesday, dropping a new platform into the narrow strip of North Seattle that sits between I-5 and Jackson Park Golf Course and closing a long-standing gap between Northgate and Shoreline.
The elevated station at Northeast 130th Street and Fifth Avenue Northeast opened with the first southbound trains just after 5 a.m., five years earlier than voters were told when they approved the stop in the 2016 Sound Transit 3 measure. Officials cut a ceremonial ribbon on Tuesday. A community celebration with live music, local groups and an activity with station artist Romson Bustillo occurred on Wednesday at the plaza.
Pinehurst is the first infill station in Sound Transit history: a stop grafted onto a corridor that was already carrying riders. The 1 Line and 2 Line share the tracks here. Combined, they are scheduled to arrive every four to five minutes at peak, sending people south toward the University of Washington, downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport, or north toward Shoreline and Lynnwood. Agency figures put a ride to Westlake at about 15 minutes and a trip to the airport at about 53 minutes. Over time, Sound Transit expects roughly 3,400 daily riders, with project estimates ranging from 2,600 to 4,200 boardings as the neighborhood grows.
There is no parking garage. Riders are meant to walk, roll, bike, catch a bus or get dropped off. King County Metro’s new Route 77, launched in August, runs east-west along 130th and 125th. The station has a drop-off loop, bike lockers, a dedicated paratransit berth, elevators, a ramp and a street-level plaza. Seattle has been adding curb-protected bike lanes and rebuilt bus stops on Northeast 130th Street so the last few blocks do not feel like an afterthought beside the freeway.
The place has the particular feel of the city’s north shoreline suburbs even though it sits well inland of Puget Sound: firs and fairways on one side, the constant wash of I-5 on the other, bungalows and small apartments within a short walk, Haller Lake a few blocks west. Neighbors who wanted a station argued that Northgate, about a mile south, and Shoreline South/148th, less than two miles north, left a hole in the map.
Voters put the station on the ballot in 2016 as the NE 130th Street infill, with a 2031 opening. The Sound Transit Board moved it into final design in February 2020 and approved more money and contract changes in 2022 so crews could build the columns and platforms while Lynnwood Link was still under construction. That sequencing avoided later shutdowns on a live line. The station opened this morning, not in 2031. The project’s cost is about $240 million, far above the early ST3 estimate.
Federal money helped close the gap. Sen. Maria Cantwell announced a $79.3 million federal loan for the station in March 2023. She has also pointed to earlier appropriations that finished the Lynnwood and Federal Way extensions ahead of older schedules.
“This new station gives more north Seattle riders access to fast and affordable public transportation, with service every few minutes to UW, SeaTac Airport, and beyond,” Cantwell said. “Federal investment in our light rail system pays dividends in driving local economies and helping residents reach jobs, education, healthcare, and other essential services across the region.”
Rep. Rick Larsen called the ribbon cutting “the latest example of federal funding creating jobs and expanding public transit in Northwest Washington.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who has pushed for money for the station and the Lynnwood corridor since arriving in Congress, said the stop is “another critical stop in our journey to bring transit to everyone in our region.”
Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, who chairs the Sound Transit Board, framed it as a neighborhood win that also serves the wider line.
“People have been asking for a station here for a long time, and now they can finally access their neighborhood Link station and head anywhere from Seattle to Snohomish County and beyond,” Somers said in Sound Transit’s opening announcement.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, a board member, called the station “a spark” that could pull housing, shops and walkable streets toward the tracks. Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine said the opening is “another significant moment in what has already been an historic year for transit in our region,” and that the work of building on a live line will inform later infill stations at Graham Street and Boeing Access Road.
The Link itself is a different system than the short starter line that opened between downtown Seattle and Tukwila in 2009. The rails reached the University of Washington and Angle Lake in 2016, Northgate in 2021, Lynnwood in August 2024, downtown Redmond in 2025 and Federal Way in December 2025. The 2 Line crossed Lake Washington to Seattle on March 28, 2026, with new stops at Mercer Island and Judkins Park. Tacoma’s T Line is part of the same Link brand. By late September the network had grown to 50 stations and about 63 miles. Pinehurst makes 51.
Sound Transit does not expect another new station until Graham Street in the Rainier Valley, an infill stop between Columbia City and Othello that the board fully funded in May and is targeting for 2031.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
