[nfbwatlk] Light Rail Grand Opening on July 18th

[Kristina Lawrence]

Hello All,

For those of you wishing to attend the Grand Opening of the Sound
Transit Light Rail here is some information that was passed along to
me. Anyone wishing to get together and have breakfast and then ride
the train from one end to the other or attend any of the festivities,
please let me know. I would love this to be a chapter / affiliate
"outing" so to speak.

Kris

As for the opening weekend, yes there are festivities planned.  There
will be an opening ceremony at the Mt. Baker Station at 8:15 AM on
Saturday, 7/18.  There will be speeches and a ribbon cutting.  As for
the rest of the opening weekend here's the plan:

Riding Link will be free on Saturday and Sunday.
There will be crowd control at all of the stations and people must
wait in line for the opportunity to board the train.  All of the
waiting areas and stations are fully accessible.  That is the only
accommodation that will be made. Riders with disabilities will have to
wait in line with everyone else.
We are expecting between 80,000 and 100,000 people to ride that first
weekend.  Waits may be up to three hours at certain stations.  There
will be entertainment at each station. People should come prepared to
wait.
There are welcome booths at each station with information about the events.
Riders will be able to ride to the end of the line Tukwila or Westlake
Stations) in which ever direction they are going.  At the end of the
line the train will be emptied and the riders need to wait in line
again to go back the other direction.
There will be special buses running parallel to the Link route.
People may ride these for free rather than standing in line for the
return trip on Link.  There may be short waits for these buses
depending on demand.
Since there is no parking at the stations we are encouraging people to
walk, bike or take the bus to whatever station they will be starting
at.
There will be more publicity coming out as the date gets closer,
including an insert in the Seattle times about the whole weekend.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Michael