WA: Light rail’s push to Federal Way gives students, workers front-door access

Unless you were looking for it, Highline College used to be kind of hard to find, even when it was right next to you.

Drivers on Highway 99 were hard-pressed to see the entrance for the community college — one of the state's largest, with more than 14,600 full- and part-time students. An alley tucked between a Baskin-Robbins and an empty lot with the occasional food truck was the only way in from the busy road.

Not anymore, thanks to the region's growing light rail and its new Kent Des Moines Station directly across 99, which, not coincidentally, was almost called Highline Station. With the train coming, Highline reoriented itself to the east, widened the alley and renamed it College Way, demolished the ice cream shop and, in 2019, erected the Campus View building, which has retail and office space on the first floor and housing for 160 students on the four floors above. Two tall signs blare out the college's name on either side of College Way, for any driver — or light rail passenger — who may be unaware.

This Saturday, Highline's station will open, and the region's light rail system will grow by nearly 8 miles, its fourth expansion in the past two years. It is expected to add up to 23,000 riders to the 120,000 who already take the train on the average weekday. With three new stops in South King County — Kent Des Moines, Star Lake and Federal Way Downtown — the spine of the system will stretch 40 miles.

While last year's extension to Lynnwood opened up the northern suburbs, and this year's spurt to Redmond better connected the tech-heavy Eastside while it awaits its 2026 link to Seattle across Lake Washington, this southern addition is anticipated to be a boon for the workers and students who use transit every day to make a living or earn a degree.

These are the transit riders that rely on transit the most. The pandemic showed that these are the communities that really keep our city running," said Kirk Hovenkotter, executive director of Transportation Choices Coalition. "It's also an affordable option, and these communities face the affordability problem the most."

The $2.5 billion light rail expansion to the south comes as the nation grapples with an affordability crisis that defined recent mayoral races in Seattle and New York City, and took on extra urgency when the federal government shutdown threatened programs funding child care subsidies, nutrition assistance and housing vouchers.

Among the workers who may be feeling the squeeze are the 25,000 who work at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Though the airport has programs to help them get ahead, many are wage earners living south of the airport, where the county's income disparities are most evident.

Students also will depend on the train, said Vongseyvitou Chhit, an elected student leader at Highline College. To get to school, to reach internships in Seattle and even for concerts or Mariners games.

"Public transportation is my main mode of transportation. I don’t have a car," said Chhit, who goes by Tou. "So, yes, I definitely will use it."

Essential days

When the pandemic hit, Seattle learned just how much it depended on the workers of South King County.

Much of the region shut down, rush hour disappeared and transit ridership collapsed. But the fallout wasn't spread equally. The 10 lines that lost the fewest riders during those harrowing days all served South King County.

The reason: Many of those residents work in health care, logistics and hospitality outside of the south county. Their shift-based jobs were considered essential during the early days of the pandemic, and they had to get to work.

In other words, Seattle relied on them and they relied on transit.

Yet, transit service to South King County falls short, even before the 67% increase in jobs in its biggest cities by 2050 that's projected by the Puget Sound Regional Council.

According to King County Metro's 2024 System Evaluation, the vast majority of "equity priority areas" that need more and better transit service due to overcrowding and lack of reliability are in the southern half of the county.

To be sure, light rail has its own reliability issues. As of May, trains made only 78% of trips on time, far afield from Sound Transit’s goal of 90%, and mechanical problems continue to pop up, leaving riders delayed and on shuttle buses. Earlier this year, the system averaged 15 hours of unplanned service disruptions a month. In 2024, that figure was at 38 hours. For 2026, the goal is fewer than 10 hours.

That's a problem, said Jeremy Warren, director of impact for the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, noting that South King County has "more net commuters. That means more people are commuting out than commuting in."

" Seattle has a good median wage, but a lot of people can’t access that because they don’t have reliable transit to get where these wages are and where these jobs are," Warren said. "Lower-wage areas tend to rely on public transportation as part of their commute."

Though King County has higher average incomes than the rest of the state or nation, its income disparities are "vast and fall along racial lines," according to data from Warren's organization. The county's greatest income inequalities are concentrated in South King County, home to the majority of the region's communities of color, where no single racial group makes up more than 28% of the population.

The populations of Federal Way and Kent, for instance, are much more diverse than Seattle. Federal Way's population is 19% Hispanic, 18% Black and 15% Asian descent, and Kent's population is 21% Asian descent, 16% Hispanic and 15% Black. Seattle, meanwhile, is 17% Asian descent, 9% Hispanic and 6% Black.

Reliable transit helps both employees and employers.

"It reduces tardiness and absenteeism. It's that overlap where employers say the same thing as employees. Transportation is a job-retention tool," Warren said. "Having that light rail really meets the need for both employers and employees."

Hovenkotter said the demand for more transit is so strong that commuters will ride the train and continue to use the RapidRide A Line that travels between Tukwila and Federal Way along Highway 99 and International Boulevard. The A Line, he points out, kept nearly two-thirds of its ridership during the worst days of COVID while the Metro system in general lost 80% of its riders.

"This opening means the people who live along this corridor, who grind through slow unreliable commutes today, are never going to get stuck in traffic," said Hovenkotter.

Airport University

Outside the windows of Mary Kajoka's classroom, ticketed passengers with roller bags wander around Sea-Tac Airport, unaware of today's lesson.

Inside, Kajoka, a Highline College business instructor, is leading her 11 students through logistics. A particularly knotty concept — "incoterms," short for international commercial terms — comes up, and the students say they've never heard of it.

"No?" Kajoka says with a laugh. "You can't remember what we covered last week?" Spurred by the rebuke, one student offers a quick definition. "Now you remember," Kajoka says, laughing again, and the class moves on.

It's just another day at Airport University, a partnership begun in 2005 between the Port of Seattle and Highline, South Seattle and Green River colleges. The program offers classes for airport workers to help them get better jobs or better pay, everything from ground-support equipment mechanics to aviation maintenance technology.

If light rail is going to help students and workers, that Venn diagram crosses right here, in Kajoka's class. Two-thirds of Airport University's students live in South King County, and all of them work at the airport, taking "one course at a time, between working long shifts and family obligations," said Heather Worthley, executive director of Port Jobs, which was created by the Port of Seattle as a way to train workers. That includes Airport University.

In the first nine months of 2025, 548 airport employees took free courses needed for various certifications, and 75 completed college courses for credit, the bulk of them in Highline classes.

Kajoka and her students mirror the diverse workforce of the airport and that of the population of South King County. At Highline, 80% of its students come from communities of color. More specifically, 28% of students are Black, 25% of Asian descent and 22% Hispanic. Just 18% are white.

At Airport University, the diaspora is evident, as its students speak more than 80 languages at home, with the most common — other than English — being Amharic, Dari or Pashto, French, Spanish and Somali.

That diversity extends to the airport's ranks. Over 60% of the airport's workforce lives adjacent to or south of the airport. What's more, 1 in every 5 airport employees live in ZIP codes next to the three new light rail stations.

"This light rail opening, more so than any other recent opening like Lynnwood or the Eastside, will have an outsized impact on airport workers," Perry Cooper, the airport's spokesperson, said in an email.

About 10% of airport employees ride the train. The airport station is the second busiest in the system, just behind Westlake in downtown Seattle, but many airport workers first drive and park at Angle Lake, the current end of the line, with a vast, 1,050-space garage. When the new stations open, a combined 3,100 spots will be open for parking and riding north. Right now, the airport has 4,100 spots for employees, and there's a waitlist.

Kajoka, though, said light rail means more than a convenient commute. Soon, a light rail trip between Highline College and the airport will take 12 minutes, opening up a world of possibilities. The ride from campus to Westlake Station will be 45 minutes.

"Here, we are motivating students. Yes, you are working, but you can also advance," she said. "I feel the light rail will be very helpful for our students in this way."

Future shade

Josh Gerstman, vice president of institutional advancement at Highline College, speaks both plainly and expansively about the college's relationship to light rail.

“That’s Kent," he said, standing in the window of an empty four-bedroom student apartment in the college's newest building, and pointing across Highway 99, when asked about the station name. "This is Des Moines."

But student involvement in light rail, which began over a decade ago and continues to today, makes him wax poetic.

"Three or four generations of students have been involved in this," he said. "This is the true tree planting so future generations can have shade."

Ruth Krizan was student body vice president in 2015 and one of the first student leaders involved in Sound Transit planning.

"One of the main things we wanted was the station on the west side" of the high-speed, six-lane Highway 99, Krizan said, recalling protests she helped organize on 99, holding signs that read, "No Roadkill," and "Which Side? West Side!"

"It's going to be filled with Highline students," Krizan said, "so it's got to be super convenient."

Convenient enough, at least, to convince them to avoid driving. Though the college has 15,000 students, up to 5,000 come on the average day. The campus has 2,300 parking spaces, usually full.

Highline doesn't keep statistics on how students get to school, said Francesca Fender, the college's transportation coordinator. But counts at the bus stops serving the college show an average weekday ridership of about 2,000 people.

Even though the effort to bring the station onto campus failed, it is much closer than some of the early proposals had it, and Fender said she believed some students will be better served by light rail.

"I am definitely going to use it," said Jasmine Nyabigo, the student body president at Highline College. "We have students who live in Seattle, and if you live in Seattle, you have to ask yourself if it makes sense to take three buses to get here. This will make it so much easier to get to campus."

Nyabigo and Chhit said the train would do more than bring students to campus.

"I see an opportunity to apply for jobs and internships in Seattle, and to get there easily and reliably," Nyabigo said, adding that the train opens up the city in all kinds of ways for South King County residents. "Most of the time, when I go to Seattle, it’s just for fun. This makes it much easier."

Chhit, a business major, said he's had to make trips to downtown Seattle without a car as part of his involvement in the college business club.

"Transportation is always the problem," he said. "Now, light rail solves that problem."

Gerstman, with the college, envisioned even more opportunities for students, the college and more.

He noted that with the airport just two stops north of campus, a flight and quick train ride could bring Highline conferences big and small, or collegiate sporting events. He also looked forward to a business boom benefiting Highline.

"By creating a mainstay to develop around, this (light rail) will be a catalyst for attracting business," Gerstman said. "People can bring their business here and not to have worry about traffic or not having access to Seattle."

In the end, Gerstman was confident about what was in store.

"We know what light rail is going to do for us: It continues to put us in the center of a lot of activity," he said. "But our campus has always been a bit hidden. We want the tens of thousands of people who will ride every day to see Highline."

And, perhaps, see their own future. With the extension to Federal Way, just 4 miles north of the Pierce County line, that foresight extends to the people of Tacoma, where regional light rail is forecast to connect in 2035.

"This is the first line that arrives on the doorstop of Pierce County," said Hovenkotter, with Transportation Choices Coalition. "It's going to open up the perspective to a lot of people down there that light rail is going to make a direct difference in their lives.

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