/h/eswes
Ballard-UW Light Rail: A North Seattle Connector
Sound Transit forcing everyone downtown completely ignores how people actually live and move in the north end. A Ballard-to-UW line would link up Fremont, Wallingford, and the U-District, or Greenwood/greenlake depending on how you draw the line. Imagine getting from Ballard to Cap Hill in like 15/20 minutes flat without ever dealing with Westlake. Game changer. Also this avoids the inevitable multi-billion-dollap nightmare of building a new Salmon Bay bridge.
A Ballard-UW line is the smartest infrastructure investment we can make right now. It saves $2-3 billion in bridge costs, cuts commute times by 20+ minutes, and serves 45,000 daily riders who are currently stuck on slow buses.
This proposal would finally connect two of Seattle's most diverse and working-class neighborhoods without forcing riders through downtown. The current Route 44 bus is overcrowded and unreliable, and low-income residents in Wallingford and Fremont deserve a direct, fast connection to jobs at UW.
History shows that rail lines connecting suburban job centers to downtown fail when travel patterns shift. The 1960s BART system in the Bay Area was designed for downtown commuters, and now it's struggling to adapt to cross-suburb trips. Seattle has a chance to build for actual 2025 travel patterns, not 1990 projections.
What happens when Ballard and Fremont residents still need to get downtown? This line doesn't replace the downtown connection—it just delays it.
/b/Casey Kim
A Ballard-UW line unlocks the north end's full potential as a connected urban hub, not just a bedroom community for downtown. Imagine grabbing dinner in Ballard, catching a show in Fremont, and studying at UW—all without a car.