Microsoft workers, welcome to the world of light rail

Eastside tech workers now have another option for commuting aside from cars and corporate shuttles: light rail.

Microsoft and other major employers describe the new East Link Starter Line, also called the 2 Line, as an affordable, sustainable option for employees to go between home and office. The 2 Line makes eight stops from South Bellevue to Redmond Technology stations. The Redmond Technology Station is the closest to the Microsoft campus.

Trains take 17 minutes to cover the entire 6.3 miles, with a train coming every 10 minutes. The line operates from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day.

“As the largest employer on the Eastside, we’re excited for our employees to embrace a new means of commuting that can help provide increased accessibility to our offices and neighboring communities while also helping to reduce vehicle traffic and environmental impacts,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

Preparations to welcome Microsoft’s approximately 47,000 employees by light rail have been underway for years. The tech giant funded a pedestrian bridge between the Redmond Technology station and its campus across Highway 520. The 1,100-foot-long bridge opened Tuesday and belongs to the city of Redmond.

Sound Transit expects between 4,000 and 5,700 daily passengers to ride the 2 Line. The two-car trains are meant to carry up to 300 people, according to Sound Transit service standards.

The 2 Line, which started operating Saturday, has been a long time coming. Voters authorized it in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 measure to increase sales tax to 0.9%, which also promised extensions to Lynnwood and Federal Way. Since then, voters approved additional sales and property taxes and car-tab fees in 2016 to pay for about a dozen big rail and bus projects, to be finished by the 2040s.

The light rail extension from Northgate to Lynnwood will open in August.

For Eastside worker Jeffrey Holman, who travels from South King County to his office on Microsoft’s campus, the new line won’t have a big impact until the expanded 2 Line connects Seattle to the Eastside. 

Sound Transit said it is targeting next year for the full 2 Line to be operational after enduring delays.

Holman’s commute entails leaving his home in Auburn shortly after 5 a.m., hopping on the Sounder train to King Street Station in Seattle before taking the commuter bus to Redmond. Because he is a Microsoft contractor, he said he does not have access to the company’s shuttle program, Connector. But the company provides Holman, 59, with free ORCA transit passes, he said.

His whole commute takes 90 minutes. He said he hopes taking the light rail will cut that time considerably.

“I’m looking forward to the light rail being completed so that I can take first the big train and then the little train to work,” Holman said.

Still, there are opportunities for bridge-crossing commuters to use the new line, said Bellevue Chamber CEO Joe Fain. There is a park-and-ride station in Bellevue after crossing the Interstate 90 bridge. From there, workers can take the light rail to their offices, Fain said.

Among the Eastside employers who might benefit from the new line is Amazon, which has 12,000 employees at Bellevue offices and 50,000 in Seattle. According to the company, its downtown Bellevue campus is designed to be walkable with offices a few blocks from the transit stations.

Amazon’s Bellevue presence is growing. The company announced this month it is resuming construction of a 42-story building called Sonic, which will accommodate more than 4,500 employees when complete. Sonic is across from a transit center in Bellevue

Fain said the 2 Line may also activate Bellevue neighborhoods that have seen slow growth, including the Spring District. The area will have a 2 Line station close to residential and office buildings and to Bellevue Brewing Co.

The Spring District “was really built in large part with a vision of being a transit-dependent model,” Fain said.

John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities, said the company has built and supported coalitions in favor of transit expansion around the Seattle area.

“The opening of the 2 Line this month to connect the Eastside, and the extension of the 1 Line to Lynnwood this August, will help open up our region and bring new opportunities to neighborhoods across Puget Sound,” Schoettler said in a statement.

Like Microsoft, Amazon has a shuttle program, which the company says is designed to complement the public transit system. Amazon said it does not anticipate changes to its shuttle program. Microsoft declined to say whether there will be changes to the Connector, but said the new transit line offers employees another convenient way to get to and from the Redmond campus.

Kristina Hudson, chief executive of Redmond’s Chamber of Commerce OneRedmond, said the light rail will help attract more talent to Eastside companies because it means “easier and stress-free commutes.”

For Hudson and Bellevue’s Fain, the new light rail will stimulate economic growth for small businesses besides serving as another commuting option, especially as people look to shop and eat after work.

“Anytime you can bring more people and bring that foot traffic to our small businesses, that’s going to increase their opportunity to thrive,” Hudson said.