BELLEVUE, Wash. — A new light rail route will begin operating between Redmond and Bellevue at the end of the month. The new route is highly anticipated as it will allow people to beat sitting in traffic during the busy commutes.
"It's been a long time coming to have the Eastlink Line begin service," said Matt Sheldon, the deputy executive director of planning and integration with Sound Transit. “It gives them the option to get out of their car and have a fast convenient safe way that's reliable to travel between."
The South Bellevue Station is one of eight stations along sound transit's 2 Line. The route spans from south Bellevue up to the Redmond Technology Center. With trains running every 10 minutes from 5:30 a.m. in the morning until 9:30 p.m. at night.
"In recent decades there's a lot of travel, just within the eastside,” said Sheldon. “The tech employers and others, people want to get between those destinations downtown Seattle."
Sound Transit estimates 6,000 riders will use the line daily, hopefully reducing traffic woes.
"Sometimes are commute times on 405 are pretty significant and so I think for some of our community members in the region will take advantage of this and be able to alleviate a pretty significant commute for them," said Angela Birney, the mayor of Redmond.
She believes this line will provide a new opportunity for commuters and attract more people to the city.
"Get on a train to one of those great festivals we have or great community resources and leave their cars behind,” said Birney. “I think people are going to take full advantage of that and I see it as an opportunity for our city to host even more events."
The eight stations officially open Saturday, April 27 with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Bellevue Downtown Station at 10 a.m. Link service begins after the event.
Officials with Sound Transit said the Mercer Island and Judkins Park lines are expected to open sometime late next year.