page_title: Northgate Transit Center
section_title: Light rail
hierarchical_section_title: Northgate Transit Center / Future / Light rail
caption_attribution_description: English: The south entrance of Northgate Station, a future light rail station in Seattle, Washington.
context_page_description: Northgate Transit Center is a bus station and future light rail station in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The transit center, located adjacent to the Northgate Mall, has six bus bays and parking for 284 vehicles.
  Upon the completion of the Northgate Link Extension project in 2021, it will become the northern terminus of the Link Light Rail system. It is also proposed as a major bus rapid transit terminal and an area with potential for transit-oriented development.
context_section_description: The Northgate Transit Center will become the terminus of the Link Light Rail system in 2021, with the completion of the $1.9 billion Northgate Link Extension project. The 4.3-mile-long (6.9 km) light rail line will extend light rail north from University of Washington station to Northgate via a tunnel and two stations at U District and Roosevelt.
  The Northgate area had been considered in several rapid transit studies in the late 20th century as a suitable terminus or major station. The Northgate Link project was proposed as part of the "Sound Move" ballot measure in 1996, pending additional funding, but was deferred until the voter approval of the Sound Transit 2 package in 2008.
  Construction of the light rail extension began in 2012 and will be completed in 2021. Absher Construction was awarded a $174 million contract in August 2016 to build Northgate station and the elevated guideway leading to the tunnel portal. On January 13, 2017, Sound Transit broke ground on the station, beginning construction with the demolition of two parking lots. By July, installation of the station's support columns and platform-level girders were underway.
  The Northgate light rail station will be elevated 25 to 45 feet (7.6 to 13.7 m) above ground level, on the east side of 1st Avenue Northeast, spanning Northeast 103rd Street. It will have two entrances, one adjacent to the Northgate Mall at the corner of 1st Avenue NE and NE 103rd Street and another adjacent to the transit center. Beyond the station, a 400-foot (120 m) pocket track will be built to the north for train storage and reversal, as well as accommodating a future light rail extension to Lynnwood Transit Center, planned to be completed in 2023. Two pieces of public art, a glass painting on the platform level and a sculpture outside the south entrance, are planned to be included in the station's construction.
  As part of the project, parking capacity at the transit center would be reduced by spaces eliminated for the station and a new bus station to the west of the current one. A partially below-grade parking garage with 450 spaces was opened in November 2018 on the southwest corner of the Northgate Mall parking lot. A larger garage with up to 900 vehicles was proposed but rejected after outcry from community and neighborhood groups. Sound Transit estimates that the station will have 15,000 daily boardings by 2030.
caption: Light rail construction as seen in November 2019
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