Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 27, 2018

The East Link Extension is a future light rail line serving the Eastside region of the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It will be part of Sound Transit's Link light rail system, running 14 mi from west to east and serving 10 stations in Downtown Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond. East Link is scheduled to open in 2023 as part of the Blue Line, which will continue into the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel and share stations with the Red Line. A 3.7 mi extension to Downtown Redmond with two additional stations is scheduled to open in 2024. The line will use part of the Interstate 90 floating bridge, constructed in 1989 with the intent to convert its express lanes to light rail. The proposed alignment of the East Link project was debated by the Bellevue city council in the early 2010s, with members split on two different routes south of downtown Bellevue; city funding for the downtown segment's tunnel was also debated and ultimately included in the final agreement. The alignment was finalized in 2013, after more than two years of debate, and delayed the beginning of construction to 2016 and the completion of the project from 2021 to 2023. The line will be the first railway constructed on a floating bridge and is expected to carry 50,000 daily riders by 2030.