Mount Baker station is a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

located in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. It is situated between the Columbia City and Beacon Hill stations on the 1 Line, which runs from

Seattle–Tacoma International Airport Seattle–Tacoma International Airport is the primary international airport serving Seattle and its surrounding metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is in the city of SeaTac, which was named after the airport's nickname Se ...

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

, the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, and Northgate as part of the

Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail system with some rapid transit characteristics that serves the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit pro ...

system. The elevated station consists of two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

s located west of the intersection of

Rainier Avenue Rainier Valley ( ) is a neighborhood in southeastern Seattle, Washington. It is located east of Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seward Park, and Leschi; south of the Central District and north of Rainier Beach. It is part of Seattle's Sou ...

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in the

Mount Baker Mount Baker (; ), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most ...

neighborhood, part of Seattle's

Rainier Valley Rainier Valley ( ) is a neighborhood in southeastern Seattle, Washington. It is located east of Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seward Park, and Leschi; south of the Central District and north of Rainier Beach. It is part of Seattle's So ...

. A light rail station in the Mount Baker area was first proposed in 1995 and approved the following year. Construction began in late 2005 and the station was opened for regular service on July 18, 2009. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on most days; the

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...

between trains is six minutes during peak periods, with less frequent service at other times. Mount Baker station is also served by five

King County Metro King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

bus routes that connect it to Downtown,

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...

Rainier Beach Rainier Beach ( ) is a set of neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington that are mostly residential. Also called Atlantic City, Rainier Beach can include Dunlap, Pritchard Island, and Rainier View neighborhoods.Wilma (21 March 2001, Essay 3116) Th ...

, the Central District, and the University District.

Location

Mount Baker station is located west of the

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way intersection in the

neighborhood of

, at the foot of Beacon Hill. The area surrounding the station consists of

single-family detached home A single-family detached home, also called a single-detached dwelling, single-family residence (SFR) or separate house is a free-standing residential building. It is defined in opposition to a multi-family residential dwelling. Definitions ...

s and retail

big-box store A big-box store, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a megastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The ...

s, housing 6,675 and employing 2,208 respectively. Nearby pedestrian amenities include a

bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...

for

routes one block northeast and an

overpass An overpass, called an overbridge or flyover (for a road only) in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that is over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and '' underpa ...

of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way connecting to Mount Baker Boulevard and Franklin High School. In 2014, the

Seattle Department of Transportation The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is a municipal government agency in Seattle, Washington that is responsible for the maintenance of the city's transportation systems, including roads, bridges, and public transportation. The agenc ...

began planning of its "Accessible Mt. Baker" plan, which would rebuild the street grid surrounding the station and adding facilities for bikes and buses. Part of the $10–20 million plan would move bus stops at the existing off-street transit center to the plaza under Mount Baker station, with bus lanes and a special bus-only street on South Winthrop Street between Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way; the proposal was funded as part of the "Move Seattle" levy passed by voters in November 2015.

Transit-oriented development

A 10-block, area surrounding Mount Baker station was designated as the Mount Baker Station Area Overlay District and approved for rezoning by the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-larg ...

in June 2014. The rezone raised building heights from a maximum of to with hopes of attracting

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of Real estate development, urban development that maximizes the amount of Residential area, residential, business and leisure space within Pedestrian, walking distance of public t ...

around the station. The first major development in the rezoned area was the four-story Artspace Mount Baker Lofts, which opened in 2014 and has 57 units and no parking spaces. The triangular block on the south side of the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way is planned to have two apartment buildings. An

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...

complex with 95 family units managed by Mercy Housing opened in 2020 with funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Immediately to the north is ViV Crossing, a planned eight-story building with 172 units and underground parking for 74 vehicles and 148 bicycles. The west side of Mount Baker Station is occupied by the former

Consolidated Laundry and is proposed for redevelopment into a mixed-use affordable housing complex along with an adjoining property owned by Sound Transit.

History

From 1891 to 1937, the

was served by the

Rainier Avenue Electric Railway Rainier may refer to the following: People and fictional characters * Rainier (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Places United States * Rainier, Oregon, a city * Rainier, Washington, a city * Mount Ra ...

, an

interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...

railway on

that traveled to

, including a stop at McClellan Street in the vicinity of the modern light rail station. A failed

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

proposal published in 1928 by the Seattle Traffic Research Commission recommended that a future southern extension on Rainier Avenue terminate at either McClellan or Winthrop streets in

. A modern

system for Seattle was proposed in 1995, including a station at the intersection of Rainier Avenue and McClellan Street in Mount Baker. The proposal was rejected by voters on March 14, 1995, and was condensed into the "Sound Move" that was approved the following November, retaining the proposed station in Mount Baker. In 1999,

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Se ...

, the agency charged with planning and constructing the light rail system, chose an elevated station at McClellan Street to be situated between a tunnel under Beacon Hill and a surface line on Martin Luther King Jr. Way as part of the

Central Link The 1Line, formerly Central Link, is a light rail line in Seattle, Washington, United States, and part of Sound Transit's Link light rail system. It serves 23 stations in King County, Washington, King and Snohomish County, Washington, Snohomi ...

route (now part of 1 Line). The light rail station, designed by Seattle-based

Boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...

and engineered by

Federal Way Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States and part of the Seattle metropolitan area. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the 10th most p ...

-based BergerABAM, was tentatively named "McClellan Street" and unveiled to the public alongside Beacon Hill station at public hearings held in 2003. The station was named "Mount Baker" after the surrounding neighborhood by the Sound Transit Board in January 2005. Sound Transit awarded the

construction contract A construction contract is a mutual or legally binding agreement between two parties based on policies and conditions recorded in document form. The two parties involved are one or more property owners and one or more contractors. The owner, ofte ...

for Mount Baker station and the Beacon Hill tunnel to Japanese firm Obayashi in June 2004 for $280 million, the costliest component of the Central Link project. Construction began in September 2005 with the permanent closure of Stevens Street and utility relocation to clear the station site. By the following April, Obayashi completed erection of columns that would be used to support the elevated guideway and station. Mount Baker station was declared substantially complete in June 2009, excluding work on the

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

s and

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

s. Mount Baker station was opened to the public on July 18, 2009, during the first day of Central Link service. The station hosted the

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

for the line and served as the point at which the inaugural trains met and departed with passengers.

Station layout

Mount Baker station, designed by

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countr ...

Boxwood and engineered by BergerABAM, consists of two elevated station platforms, a community plaza beneath the station building, and a nearby

. The , brick-clad station building contains the

s situated above a plaza with

ticket vending machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

s at ground level. The station also has 24 spaces in a secured

bicycle locker A bicycle locker or bike box is a locker or box in which bicycles can be placed and locked, usually 1 or 2 per locker. They are usually provided at places where numerous cyclists need bike parking for extended times (such as during the worki ...

. The station also houses three

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often cal ...

s as part of the "STart" program, which allocates a percentage of project construction funds to art projects to be used in stations. Sheila Klein's "Sky Within" consists of six

chandelier A chandelier () is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now inca ...

s, recycled from former

street light A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

s, that are suspended above the plaza level on the underside of the train guideway. The southbound platform has two

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows made by Guy Kemper, facing away from the station and towards the surrounding neighborhood: "Rain, Steam and Speed" serves as a colorful contrast to clear and

overcast Overcast or overcast weather, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization, is the meteorological condition of clouds obscuring at least 95% of the sky. However, the total cloud cover must not be entirely due to obscuring phenomena near ...

skies, while "Seattle Sunrise" represents a

sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

against the

horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

. The station's former

pictogram A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

, a pair of

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s, depicted

and

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

(both visible from the station). It was created by Christian French as part of the ''Stellar Connections'' series and its points represented nearby destinations, including Franklin High School, the former site of

Sick's Stadium Sick's Stadium, also known as Sick's Seattle Stadium and later as Sicks' Stadium, was a baseball Baseball park, park in the Pacific Northwest, northwest United States in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. It was located in Rainier Valley, ...

, Colman Park, Cheasty Boulevard, and Mount Baker Park. The pictogram series was retired in 2024 and replaced by station numbers.

Services

Mount Baker station is part of Sound Transit's 1 Line, which runs from between

Lynnwood Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located north of Seattle and south of Everett, near the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. It is the four ...

, the

campus,

, the

, and

. It is the sixteenth southbound station from Lynnwood City Center and sixth northbound station from Angle Lake; Mount Baker is situated between Beacon Hill and Columbia City stations. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on weekdays and Saturdays, from 5:00 am to 1:00 am, and eighteen hours on Sundays, from 6:00 am to 12:00 am; during regular weekday service, trains operate roughly every eight to ten minutes during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

and midday operation, respectively, with longer

s of twelve to fifteen minutes in the early morning and at night. During weekends, Link trains arrive at Mount Baker station every ten minutes during midday hours and every twelve to fifteen minutes during mornings and evenings. The station is approximately 46 minutes from Lynnwood City Center station, 14 minutes from Westlake station in Downtown Seattle, and 23 minutes from

SeaTac/Airport station SeaTac/Airport station is a light rail Metro station, station in SeaTac, Washington, serving Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. It is on the 1 Line (Sound Transit), 1 Line between Angle Lake station, Angle Lake and Tukwila Internatio ...

. In 2023, an average of 1,918 passengers boarded Link trains at Mount Baker station on weekdays. The station is also served by six

bus routes that stop at the Mount Baker Transit Center, a three-bay

located on Forest Street between

and Martin Luther King Jr. Way that opened on September 19, 2009. Routes 7 and 9 Express run through the transit center, connecting the Rainier Valley to Downtown Seattle and

; Route 8 terminates at Mount Baker, running north to the Central District, Capitol Hill, and the

Seattle Center The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, 1962 W ...

Uptown Uptown may refer to: Neighborhoods or regions in several cities United States * Uptown, Chicago, Illinois * Uptown Manhattan, New York City, New York * Uptown, Richmond, Virginia * Uptown, Dallas, Texas * Uptown, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania * Upt ...

; Route 14 runs through the transit center, connecting Downtown and the

area of the city (that the station was named after); Route 48 terminates at Mount Baker, running north to the University District via the Central District; Route 106, which begins in the International District, switches to local, frequent-stop service at Mount Baker, running on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South to Rainier Beach and towards

Skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of Cover ...

and Renton. On weekends, a Trailhead Direct shuttle connects Mount Baker Transit Center to several popular hiking trails in the

Issaquah Alps The Issaquah Alps is the unofficial name for the highlands near Issaquah, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, including Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain, Tiger Mountain, Taylor Mountain, Rattlesnake Ridge, Rattlesnake Mountain, and Grand Ridge. Th ...

References

External links

Sound Transit Rider Guide
{{good article 2009 establishments in Washington (state) Link light rail stations in Seattle Railway stations in the United States opened in 2009 Transit centers in the United States