WA: Light rail delays persist as Federal Way opening approaches

Twenty years ago, when the only light rail in Washington state was a 1.6-mile line in downtown Tacoma, transit riders might've wondered if the train would ever arrive in Seattle.

Some probably still do, as delays have become a frustrating and somewhat common feature of Sound Transit's regional light rail system, bedeviling everyone from commuters on their way to work to late-night revelers on their way home.

In October, light rail trains made 83% of trips on time, short of Sound Transit’s goal of 90% but better than the 77% on-time performance it had in May.

Although service disruptions don’t occur every day, and most of the train's nearly 120,000 daily passengers hit delays less often than drivers do, persistent issues have beset light rail since spring 2024, as new stations opened and old equipment declined.

Sound Transit officials said this week the issues are partially symptoms of a rapidly growing system … that’s composed of older and newer segments, which each have different issues."

With an extension to Federal Way opening this weekend, the fourth expansion in two years, those reliability issues may linger. Three new stations and 8 miles of track open in South King County, with speeches and a ribbon-cutting in Federal Way starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, stretching the main north-south line to 40 miles, from near the Pierce County line to Lynnwood in Snohomish County. Trains will first run around 11 a.m.

"Some of the recent disruptions have been caused by new issues we haven't previously addressed related to integrating new and existing parts of the system," Rachelle Cunningham, an agency spokesperson, said in an email.

Cunningham pointed to older sections of the system — the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel and a segment in Tukwila — where the rail is aging and needs to be repaired or replaced, as well as issues on the Eastside's 2 Line, which opened last year, where "we are encountering new situations with power systems and overhead power system configurations."

Sound Transit officials initially responded to questions about light rail reliability with a lengthy answer about the on-time performance of the agency's Sounder trains, a separate and distinct heavy rail commuter system that operates on tracks owned and used by BNSF Railway, as well as Amtrak.

Pressed about the root cause of the system's reliability issues, a timeline on resolving the problems and whether the flaws could eventually be fixed or something riders should simply get used to, Cunningham said the agency was still at work.

"Our investigation into root causes is ongoing and we are learning and improving with each issue we successfully address," Cunningham wrote. "The areas we identify, and the lessons we learn in correcting them, are incorporated into the ongoing extended monthly maintenance program."

The agency has made progress on unplanned light rail disruptions since 2024, when it averaged 38 hours a month of unplanned outages or delays. Earlier this year, the system averaged 15 hours a month. In October, Cunningham said there were just nine hours of unplanned disruptions.

The improvement, Cunningham said, is due to Sound Transit’s plan to make night maintenance routine for a few days each month, an initiative from the agency's new service delivery director, Ed Cobean, that began in October. The work occurs after 10 p.m. and affects a handful of stations, and shuttle buses replace train services during the work.

Monthly maintenance will occur for the next two years, perhaps longer, Cunningham said, to avoid a backlog of deferred maintenance that has led to "catastrophic breakdowns and extended passenger impacts" felt by transit riders in places like Boston and Washington, D.C.

Over the three-day late-night maintenance window in November, Sound Transit workers completed 39 projects between Stadium and Capitol Hill stations, including replacing a broken arm on an overhead catenary system, testing a signal system, installing 90 feet of new rail and cleaning the trackway at Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square and International District/ Chinatown stations, among other work.

Still, last weekend had another spell of mechanical and signal issues that led to delays and suspended service.

On Saturday night, for instance, train service on the south end, from Angle Lake to Stadium stations, was suspended for about an hour for an unexplained mechanical issue. Sunday morning, another mechanical issue slowed downtown service, between Stadium and Capitol Hill stations, for about an hour.

The outages were brief, but Sound Transit warned of reverberating delays, as trains arrived every 20 minutes in some cases, longer than the scheduled 10-minute headways.

On Monday morning, a signal issue led to trains sharing one track at Tukwila International Boulevard for more than an hour, leading to 15-minute wait times during the morning rush.

On Wednesday, signal issues again delayed trains, which arrived every 15 to 20 minutes, but the issue was resolved in about a half-hour.

Elevators also weren’t working across the system over the weekend and through the week, at Beacon Hill, Bellevue Downtown, South Bellevue, Marymoor Village, Mountlake Terrace, Pioneer Square, Shoreline, U-District and Westlake stations.

Not every delay is related to Sound Transit's operation. On Tuesday, for instance, train service at Othello Station was completely stopped after Seattle police officers shot and killed a man who had allegedly waved a gun at a nearby intersection. Beginning at about 1:30 p.m., trains were delayed up and down the line, and Othello remained closed for the rest of the day. Trains ran north and south of the station, and buses shuttled people on the congested streets around Othello.

In October, Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine downplayed the system's reliability issues, saying "there have been a number of notable disruptions, but most days for most trips, everything is moving on the prescribed headways and on the prescribed schedule.

Constantine also said that $16 million is budgeted for projects in 2026 to improve service, including replacing old power lines and substations, part of a multiyear, $80 million program.

Sound Transit’s on-time performance, which has hovered around 80% for the last year, isn’t that far afield from the nation’s other transit providers.

The New York City subway was on time 82.2% in 2024, and the vast majority of delays were caused by infrastructure and equipment problems, planned maintenance work and emergencies.

Denver’s light rail was on time 90% of the time in July 2025, up from 60% a year earlier.

Regionally, Sound Transit has mixed company. Portland’s MAX light rail wavered between 77.4% and 81.5% on-time reliability over the last year. Vancouver SkyTrain, an automated line, reported on-time arrivals between 93% and 95% in 2025 through September.

Los Angeles Metro, home to the only other light rail service growing as rapidly as Seattle's, doesn't publicly share performance metrics for its system, which has four lines.

Correction: This story has been updated to show that opening ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Trains start running around 11 a.m.

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