After 16 years and $3 billion, Lynnwood light rail set to open this summer

The long-awaited opening of a new light rail station in Lynnwood is scheduled to happen at the end of August. The station's completion marks the conclusion of a $3 billion project that voters approved back in 2008. And it's only the beginning of changes coming to Lynnwood.

Sound Transit's new light rail extension serving Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood will start taking passengers on Aug. 30, 2024, just before Labor Day.

Currently, the light rail system only goes as far north as Northgate.

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At Lynnwood's new station, workers in neon yellow vests are now applying decorative panels to the walls. While they work, a speaker blares out various test messages: “Do not hold train doors open.”

In a strip mall right across the street, there’s a Japanese restaurant called Q Sushi Bar and kitchen. Cecelia Zhao works there. She says she hopes the light rail will bring new customers.

“Maybe like, they can come here after work, and have small talk with friends,” Zhao said. She said she'd love her restaurant to become a favorite place for light rail commuters to pick up sushi on the way home. "We would love to do that."

Next door, there's a store called Warhammer. Alec Lachner drove up from Northgate to pick up some plastic monsters.

“I am part of the Tyranid faction, so I’m just here to get more Tyranids, which are these guys with all the spikes on them and the horns and all that," he said.

The new light rail station in Lynnwood is visible through a clear display case in the shop's window.

“I can definitely see myself being able to take the light rail up here instead of taking my car, would definitely save a lot of time, especially during rough traffic," Lachner said.

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Another Lynnwood resident in the store, Matt Francisco, says he's excited for another reason: His 10-year old son loves trains.

“I’ve taken him on a couple trips on the light rail and he just sits there, enjoying the hell out of it the whole time," Francisco said.

Customers say this little strip mall has been challenging to access, with all the construction going on around the new station. That's not likely to let up soon, even when the station's finished. That's because the arrival of light rail will usher in a new wave of development.

Just north of light rail, there's a planned development called Northline Village. The developers haven't even broken ground yet on that.

Shuttered big-box stores and a sea of parking lots are just the blank canvas upon which the owner plans to build a whole new transit-oriented community, with ground-floor shopping, office buildings and 1,400 apartment units.