Trainspotting with NPI: Watch Link test trains roll through the Eastside on overhead power

For the past week, NPI has been offer­ing fol­low­ers on our social net­work­ing chan­nels a treat: clips of Sound Tran­sit Link light rail trains mak­ing test runs between three dif­fer­ent forth­com­ing sta­tions in Belle­vue. These test runs are part of a sys­tem tri­al that Sound Tran­sit began last month to pre­pare for the inau­gu­ra­tion of rev­enue ser­vice on its sec­ond light rail line in 2023.

Today, we are delight­ed to bring our “Trainspot­ting with NPI” series to the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate for the enjoy­ment of more of our sup­port­ers and readers.

Each clip in our Trainspot­ting series is less than two min­utes long, and shows Kink­isharyo-made Sound Tran­sit LRVs rolling along por­tions of the new East Link/Line 2 align­ment using over­head power.

Sound Tran­sit has been doing its test­ing exclu­sive­ly at night thus far, so we’ve only seen the trains oper­at­ing in low light. For­tu­nate­ly, we were in a posi­tion to record a lot of high-qual­i­ty footage while we were out in the field!

Let’s get to the clips. Note that none of these videos have any sound.

I: Leaving the Spring District

This clip shows a test train leav­ing the Spring District/120th Sta­tion in the Bel-Red neigh­bor­hood. This sta­tion uses a trench con­fig­u­ra­tion, with the tracks and sta­tion plat­form locat­ed below street level.

II: Heading West Between Wilburton and Downtown

This clip shows a test train going west on the ele­vat­ed tracks between Wilbur­ton and Belle­vue Down­town, prepar­ing to cross over Inter­state 405.

III: Entering Bellevue Downtown

This clip shows a test train enter­ing the Belle­vue Down­town Sta­tion, which is locat­ed adja­cent to Belle­vue City Hall. Belle­vue Down­town marks the tran­si­tion in the align­ment from ele­vat­ed to under­ground. The sta­tion itself is at the surface.

IV: Heading East Between Downtown and Wilburton

This clip is sim­i­lar to Part II, except it shows a train going east on the ele­vat­ed tracks between Wilbur­ton and Belle­vue Down­town instead of west.

V: Entering Wilburton

This clip shows a test train enter­ing Wilbur­ton Sta­tion, which is locat­ed near Over­lake Med­ical Cen­ter, Whole Foods, and numer­ous car dealerships.

VI: Closeup View (Westbound)

This clip is sim­i­lar to Part II, except it was made using a high­er focal length to pro­vide a close-up view of the train as it rounds the bend.

VII: Closeup View (Eastbound)

This clip is sim­i­lar to Part IV, except it was made using a high­er focal length to pro­vide a close-up view of the train as it rounds the bend.

Sound Tran­sit’s East Link / Line 2 should be open before 2025, adding ser­vice to ten new sta­tions locat­ed in Seat­tle, Mer­cer Island, Belle­vue, and Redmond.