When voters approved Sound Transit 3 in 2016, they put forward a vision for fast, reliable light rail connections to SODO, Delridge, and West Seattle neighborhoods. Since 2017, Sound Transit has worked to advance the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE) from a voter-approved concept to a defined project, guided by extensive community input. This collaborative work led to the Sound Transit Board’s selection of the project to be built in October 2024 and the Federal Transit Administration’s issuance of a Record of Decision in April 2025.
The WSLE project has progressed amid significant financial changes for major infrastructure projects. These changes include rising costs to build and operate transit, rapidly increasing property values, and lower agency revenue forecasts. In 2024, updated cost estimates indicated that the project would cost significantly more than previously projected. The Sound Transit Board then directed staff to develop a workplan for programmatic, financial, and project-level measures and opportunities to improve the project’s financial situation (Board Motion M2024-59).
Identifying opportunities to reduce costs and effects on the community
Per the Board’s direction, the WSLE project team has been evaluating a range of strategies to reduce costs and community impacts, while still delivering on the vision to bring light rail to West Seattle. On March 12, WSLE project staff briefed the Board’s System Expansion Committee on key cost-saving opportunities that would meaningfully reduce the project’s cost estimate and reduce effects on the community:
-
Station consolidation: Staff presented information about the tradeoffs of eliminating Avalon Station. Doing so would create substantial cost savings and reduce the number of required residential and small business displacements. Eliminating Avalon Station would also unlock additional cost-saving opportunities by shifting a larger portion of the track alignment into a tunnel and enabling a reconfiguration of the Alaska Junction Station.
-
Station refinements and optimizations: Sound Transit is evaluating ways to refine station designs at SODO, Delridge, and Alaska Junction, while prioritizing a great rider experience. This includes consolidating entrances and back-of-house functions into more efficient station structures. Adjustments like these can reduce overall construction needs, shorten construction timelines, and limit the amount of property the project needs to acquire.
-
Light rail guideway and route adjustments: In Delridge, staff are revisiting an alignment that shifts the light rail guideway north from SW Yancy St to SW Andover St. This adjustment to the alignment is made possible by the potential elimination of Avalon Station and the associated shift in the tunnel portal location. This change allows the project to avoid displacing the West Seattle Health Club & Pool and reduces effects to Longfellow Creek.
-
Modifying special trackwork (track connections and tail tracks): We have been able to reduce property displacements by removing tail tracks at Alaska Junction that extend beyond the station and by reconfiguring special trackwork across the project alignment. These refinements can reduce property effects and simplify construction and operations, while still maintaining system reliability and resiliency.
The measures under consideration have the potential to unlock approximately $2 billion in savings, reducing the project cost estimate ranges from $7.1-$7.9 billion to $4.9-$5.3 billion in 2025 dollars. Further measures are being evaluated that have the potential to unlock additional savings. These concepts are not final decisions. More work needs to be done to confirm technical feasibility and community benefits and impacts. The Sound Transit Board will consider adopting these cost-saving measures into the Final Design for the WSLE project as soon as May 2026.
Additional details and information on the cost-saving opportunities outlined above are available in the WSLE team’s presentation from today’s System Expansion Committee meeting here.
For further discussion of potential cost-saving opportunities, Sound Transit Board member and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda has invited the community to participate in a West Seattle Light Rail Forum at 6:30 p.m. on April 1 at the Youngtown Cultural Arts Center.
