image via Seattle Transit Blog

Over on the Seattle Transit Blog they have posted a link to Beethoven’s “Ode To Joy” because today the incredibly highly anticipated central portion of theSound Transit Link light rail has officially opened to the public spanning 13.9 miles from the Westlake to Tukwila with links to the University of Washington and the Seatac Airport still under contstruction. Their twitter feed has been counting down the days up to this moment and now they are feeding info about the growing wait times for each station. The public is excited to give it a whirl and it looks pretty sweet.

Some things have been noticed in the preview rides like bikes swinging due to their hanging position as perpendicular to the direction of travel versus in line with it, like the MAX trains in Portland. But all in all, people seem to be pretty happy and just generally excited that the city finally has something more to offer in terms of communiting options.

The stations themselves look quite nice and the Beacon Hill Blog has posted some great info and photos on the following stations:
Mt. Baker Station
Columbia City Station
Othello Station
Rainier Beach Station
Tukwila Station

The Link will also run through the underground tunnel that passed through downtown, previously used only by busses but will now share the same turf.

image via Justin Martin

Now the real question is not whether the public will like the new light rail but how the city will transform around the new transportation infrastructure. As hugeasscity points out, not all stations are the epitome of urban splendor. It will take time for the city and the trains to understand each other and I can’t help but think of my previous post about tracking urban pathways and how it could be helpful in understanding how people really use the infrastructure, where they come from and how to get a better sense of how the city could be transformed around the new stations.

image via hugeasscity

With things like the image above showing a wall between the housing and the Tukwilla station…the station and the people that want to use it…it’s obvious that a little neighborhood understanding could be helpful.

Hugeasscity has a good recent post about the future of Othello Station and the Great City Initiative is currently undergoing a green infrastructure campagin that is focusing on the analysis of southeast Seattle to include discussions, mapping and events designed to better understand the existing neighborhoods, the people in the community and what can be done to strengthen these areas. This area has been chosen as the focus for the GI group specifically because of the major changes going on due to the new Link light rail stations. So far they have hit the Othello, Mt. Baker and Beacon Hill station areas in their group audit walks.

It will be interesting to see how the land surrounding the new stations will change as development moves in, the density grows and hopefully, the green infrastructure develops and strengthens the neighborhoods.