Lynnwood Transit Center

Lynnwood Transit Center, also known as Lynnwood TC, is a bus station and future light rail station in Lynnwood, Washington. It is the largest transit hub in southwestern Snohomish County and is served by Community Transit and Sound Transit Express. The transit center also includes a parking garage with 1,670 spaces and bicycle facilities.

In August 2024, Lynnwood Transit Center will become the northern terminus of Sound Transit's Link light rail system; the 1 Line and 2 Line will serve the Lynnwood City Center station as part of the Lynnwood Link Extension. The Link extension was approved in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure and began construction in 2019. The Stride bus rapid transit system will also terminate at the station, connecting it with areas along Interstate 405.

Location and layout
The Lynnwood Transit Center is located on the north side of Interstate 5 at 44th Avenue West, southwest of Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. The 17.5 acre transit center includes 20 bus bays and a park and ride. A five-story parking garage on the southeast side of the site provides 1,670 park and ride spaces and has driveways from two streets. The bus bays have passenger information displays that have real-time arrival information for inbound buses. A customer service center called "RideStore" is located at the north end of the transit center.

The transit center is also located adjacent to the Interurban Trail, which runs through the southeast parking lot and connects it to Alderwood Mall, Aurora Village and downtown Everett.

The 2003 renovation of the transit center came with the installation of two pieces of public artwork created by Claudia Fitch, known collectively as Shift. The art installation consists of a pair of 30 ft steel beacons resembling newel posts that are used to mark the two main crosswalks.

History
Planning for a large park and ride lot in Lynnwood began in the late 1970s with the formation of Community Transit and increasing population growth in Lynnwood that had begun to affect the nearby Northgate lot. Construction on 13 acre lot began in February 1980, with the project's $1.5 million cost paid for almost entirely by the Federal Highway Administration. It was scheduled to open in September 1980, but construction was delayed by the discovery of underground springs. The Lynnwood park and ride opened on May 25, 1981, with 808 stalls, becoming the largest park and ride in the state of Washington, serving Community Transit as well as Seattle-bound commuter buses operated by Metro Transit. It also became the main bus hub for southern Snohomish County, replacing a street on the north side of the Fred Meyer store in Lynnwood.

In September 2003, Sound Transit and Community Transit rebuilt the park and ride lot and renamed it to "Lynnwood Transit Center". The $33.6 million project expanded the lot to over 17 acre, added 300 parking spaces to the lot, and consolidated the bus bays on the site of an old warehouse; additional amenities built during the project included a coffee stand, bathrooms, public art, and a customer service center. The following year, a $31.2 million direct access ramp to Interstate 5's high-occupancy vehicle lanes, the first in the state, was opened to replace the congested onramp on 44th Avenue West.

Light rail


Lynnwood Transit Center was selected as the northern terminus of the Lynnwood Link Extension, a 8.5 mi light rail extension that is part of the Link light rail system. The extension and its $1.6 billion in funding was approved by voters in 2008. The extension is projected to carry 63,000 to 74,000 daily riders by 2035; 17,900 daily riders are expected to board at Lynnwood Transit Center's station.

The Lynnwood City Center light rail station will be elevated 24 ft above the direct access ramp and southeastern parking lot, crossing from the southwest to the northeast. The station will have two entrances connected to its mezzanine below platform level: one that travels across the roadway and leads to a ground-level plaza; and another with direct access to a five-story parking garage with 500 stalls. The existing bus station would be retained and slightly expanded to accommodate more layover space. Parking at the transit center would increase to 1,900 stalls, with room to expand further.



Construction of the station will require the demolition of a furniture store to the east of the bus bays, a well as a gas station, restaurant and strip mall. Demolition of the stores began in July 2018 and the project broke ground in September 2019. In early 2020, Sound Transit opened a temporary parking lot on the east side of 46th Avenue West to replace several closed areas of the park and ride that will be used for construction staging. Construction on the five-story parking garage began in October 2020 and it opened for use on April 17, 2023. The garage replaces the existing and temporary surface lots, which will be used for construction staging and bus layover space; 226 surface stalls will remain once construction is complete, giving Lynnwood Transit Center a total of 1,900 park and ride spaces. The station campus was awarded LEED Gold certification in 2024 for its environmentally-friendly and sustainable design features.

Sound Transit determined in 2011 that the area around the transit center had "moderate to strong" potential for transit-oriented development, including housing and offices. The area around the transit center is part of a regional growth center designated by the Puget Sound Regional Council; the Lynnwood city government designated the area between the transit center and the Alderwood Mall to the northeast as its city center, preparing for heavy development that is expected to follow light rail expansion. The city raised the height limits for buildings in the area to 350 ft in 2005, looking to "resemble downtown Bellevue". The light rail station's northeast construction staging area is planned to be offered for transit-oriented affordable housing development after 2024.

Light rail service is scheduled to begin on August 30, 2024, on the 1 Line and 2025 on the 2 Line. Trains from Lynnwood are anticipated to take 28 minutes to reach Westlake station in Downtown Seattle. Community Transit plans to truncate most of its commuter routes to Lynnwood Transit Center and add new all-day express routes along the Interstate 5 corridor; a temporary Sound Transit Express route that runs parallel to the 1 Line is planned to launch in 2024 to accommodate overflow passengers until the 2 Line opens and provides full capacity to Lynnwood. A further extension of the light rail system to Everett is planned to carry the 1 Line and 2 Line and be opened in phases from 2037 to 2041.

Services
, more than 40 percent of Community Transit's bus routes serve the transit center, with 500 total buses passing through each day. Buses arrive at Lynnwood Transit Center at an average frequency of every three minutes during peak periods. In 2022, Community Transit launched a ride-hailing service, called "Zip", to serve Lynnwood with a focus on connections between the transit center and local destinations.