page_title: Line T (Sound Transit)
section_title: Background and proposals
hierarchical_section_title: Line T (Sound Transit) / History / Background and proposals
caption_attribution_description: English: Street scene showing street cars. Tacoma Photo Studio to right . On sleeve of negative: Tacoma. North on Pacific Ave. from 12th St. Subjects (LCTGM): Streets--Washington (State)--Tacoma; Business enterprises--Washington (State)--Tacoma; Photographic studios--Washington (State)--Tacoma; Automobiles--Washington (State)--Tacoma; Street railroads--Washington (State)--Tacoma Subjects (LCSH): Pacific Avenue (Tacoma, Wash.); Tacoma Photo Studio (Tacoma, Wash.); Tacoma (Wash.)--Buildings, structures, etc.
context_page_description: Line T, formerly known as Tacoma Link, is a light rail line in Tacoma, Washington, part of the Link light rail system operated by Sound Transit. It travels 1.6 miles between Tacoma Dome Station and Downtown Tacoma, serving six stations. The line carried 972,400 total passengers in 2016, with a weekday average of over 3,200 boardings. Tacoma Link runs for 8 to 14 hours per day, using streetcars at frequencies of 12 to 24 minutes. Fares are not charged and operating expenses are funded by a subsidy from a downtown business association.
  Tacoma Link was approved in a regional transit ballot measure passed in 1996 and began construction in 2000. It was the first modern light rail system to be constructed in Washington state and succeeded a former streetcar system that ceased operations in 1938. Service on Tacoma Link began on August 22, 2003, at five stations, replacing a downtown shuttle bus. A sixth station, Commerce Street/South 11th Street, was opened in 2011. It was designated as the Orange Line in 2019 and renamed to Line T in 2020.
  Sound Transit plans to extend Line T by 2.4 miles to the Stadium District and the Hilltop area west of Downtown Tacoma in 2022.
context_section_description: Public transit service in Tacoma began with the opening of the city's first horse-drawn streetcar line on May 30, 1888, running on Pacific Avenue between Downtown and Old Town. The city's streetcar system was expanded and electrified, growing to 125 miles (201 km) by 1912 and serving outlying areas while feeding into the Seattle–Tacoma Interurban. The streetcar and cable car network was gradually replaced with motor buses, with the final streetcar leaving service on June 11, 1938. Bus service in Tacoma was gradually consolidated under the Tacoma Transit Company, which was acquired by the city in 1961 and folded into Pierce Transit in 1980.
  A regional transit system, later named Sound Transit, was formed in the early 1990s to address traffic congestion in the region and proposed several projects for the Tacoma area. Tacoma had been targeted for urban revitalization, particularly around the University of Washington branch that opened in 1990. Among the proposed revitalization projects was the construction of a multimodal station near the Tacoma Dome that would be connected to Downtown Tacoma by a "shuttle" light rail line, costing approximately $40 million to construct. The Tacoma Dome Station would also be served by commuter rail and a regional light rail line continuing north to Federal Way, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and Seattle. The light rail lines were part of a $6.7 billion ballot measure that was rejected by voters in March 1995, but planning for the multimodal Tacoma Dome Station continued.
caption: Photograph of streetcars on Pacific Avenue in Downtown Tacoma, c. 1919
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