Flanked by King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine and the Emer­ald City’s First Gen­tle­man, Michael Shiosa­ki, Seat­tle May­or Ed Mur­ray this morn­ing used a giant pair of cer­e­mo­ni­al scis­sors to cut open a rib­bon at the entrance of Sound Transit’s new Capi­tol Hill Sta­tion, sig­nal­ing the open­ing of Sound Tran­sit’s Uni­ver­si­ty Link light rail to the pub­lic after sev­en years of construction.

Con­fet­ti can­nons fired after the rib­bon was cut, cre­at­ing a fes­ti­val-like atmos­phere (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

A large crowd of “Gold­en Tick­et” win­ners, who’d just tak­en their first ride on U‑Link, burst into cheers and applause as con­fet­ti filled the air and began stream­ing back into the sta­tion to get on trains going north to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton and south to West­lake Cen­ter in down­town Seattle.

The cer­e­mo­ni­al rib­bon cut­ting end­ed an hour of open­ing morn­ing fes­tiv­i­ties that began with a “Pow­er Up” cel­e­bra­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Sta­tion (led by Exec­u­tive Con­stan­tine), an inau­gur­al ride for the Gold­en Tick­et win­ners (who were joined by mem­bers of the media and VIPs) and a sec­ond “Pow­er Up” cel­e­bra­tion at the Capi­tol Hill Sta­tion (led by May­or Murray).

Mur­ray pro­ceed­ed to shake hands with the first few dozen peo­ple wait­ing in line to go into the Capi­tol Hill Sta­tion, thank­ing them for their patience dur­ing con­struc­tion and their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the open­ing festivities.

And with that, the Capi­tol Hill and Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Sta­tions offi­cial­ly opened for busi­ness. They’ve been very busy all morn­ing long, but Sound Tran­sit has done an excel­lent job keep­ing peo­ple mov­ing. The agency is run­ning three-car trains at six minute inter­vals to han­dle the demand.

Rid­ers detrain after inau­gur­al “Gold­en Tick­et” ride (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

As a thank you to tax­pay­ers, Sound Tran­sit is offer­ing free rides up and down the line all day long. (Click the link to open a vir­tu­al com­mem­o­ra­tive tick­et good for unlim­it­ed free rides on your smart­phone pri­or to board­ing at any station.)

So far, it’s been smooth sail­ing, with no glitch­es or delays of any kind.

Hap­py, smil­ing pas­sen­gers are get­ting their first taste of what it’s like to zoom under­ground between down­town, Capi­tol Hill, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton… a trip that takes just eight min­utes or less.

Inside and adja­cent to the new sta­tions, there are musi­cians, food trucks, infor­ma­tion­al booths, and games for all to enjoy.

Sound Tran­sit and the City of Seat­tle invite you to come on down and expe­ri­ence Uni­ver­si­ty Link for your­self. It’s your turn to ride!

Getting to University Link

Sound Tran­sit rec­om­mends you walk, bike, or take the bus to get to one of the new sta­tions. Or, alter­na­tive­ly, you can get on Link itself at one of the orig­i­nal sta­tions, and trav­el north to reach Capi­tol Hill and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington.

Get there. There is no park­ing at either sta­tion. Tran­sit, bik­ing, ride-shar­ing and park-and-ride are all great ways to get to the event. Spe­cial event shut­tle ser­vice will con­nect North­gate Tran­sit Cen­ter to Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Sta­tion dur­ing the event.

Be pre­pared. We’re plan­ning for sun­ny skies, but North­west weath­er in spring can be unpre­dictable. Stay com­fort­able by dress­ing in lay­ers and keep­ing a small umbrel­la handy. Many areas will be covered.

Get social. We love to hear from you! Share your launch day expe­ri­ence with #ULink2016 on Face­book, Twit­ter, and Instagram.

We’re here for you. For your con­ve­nience, our cus­tomer ser­vice office will be open dur­ing Launch Day. They can be reached at 1–888-889‑6368 from 8 AM to 5 PM.

Enjoy your ride!