SEATTLE — Sound Transit riders may need to consider finding another way to get around for the foreseeable future.
Right now, only one train is running at a time through the downtown Seattle tunnel until further notice. That's because the Westlake Station was damaged during recent construction.
"It's very frustrating and we can appreciate the inconvenience this is to folks but again it's something beyond our control," said Rachelle Cunningham, a public information officer with Sound Transit.
The situation stems from a recent construction incident where crews on the street broke through Westlake’s underground station's ceiling.
"So we felt that was a safety concern and closed the northbound platform of Westlake Station which necessitated the single tracking which is where we're at now," said Cunningham.
This isn't great for passengers, with this disruption impacting the stations from Westlake all the way down to Stadium station.
"It still poses a lot of challenges for everybody whether you're disabled or not,” said Elena Dean, who was waiting for Sound Transit at the Westlake station on Saturday.
For the time being, Sound Transit is requiring passengers who are traveling past Pioneer Square to transfer at the Pioneer Square station. Trains will stay at that stop a little longer to allow for that. They're running every 15 to 20 minutes at all stations.
"All of the trains will stop there; passengers get off and go up to the mezzanine and back down to the other side of the platform where there will be another train waiting for them and get on that train and continue their journey," said Cunningham.
Officials with Sound Transit said it will at least be a week or two until sound transit can fully assess the damage, and from there, it's unclear how long until this issue will get resolved.
"After that, we'll have a better idea of how long the delay will be sort of in total,” said Cunningham. “So, stay tuned, it will be a while I think but at this point we just don't know how long."