KING COUNTY, Wash. — It’s finally here! The Judkins Park and Mercer Island stations are now open for commuters who use the light rail. The Crosslake Link now directly connects Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond.
KIRO 7 spoke with the first commuters on Monday to test the train.
“I was super excited to take the train this morning,” Writu Kakshapati shared, saying this first-of-its-kind train is what Seattle was missing. “I’ve lived in cities with really robust transportation I’ve lived in Singapore before and it was so convenient so to have a similar convenience here is awesome.”
Many said they were happy to leave I-90 traffic behind and enjoyed the streamlined payment system. “Piece of cake,” Craig Kairis, said. “There’s no line. Tap pay, get on and away you go.”
For many, the Crosslake Connection is giving people back what matters most: time. The trains run every 8-15 minutes, from 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
A grand opening ceremony was held on Saturday for people to check out the commute across Lake Washington. It is the world’s first railway over a floating bridge.
You can learn more about the Crosslake Connection and see the full maps of the 1 and 2 Lines by clicking here.