Track construction begins at King Street Station in Seattle, WA on March 11, 2016

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WSDOT Press Release

Track construction begins at King Street Station March 11

Minimal disruption expected for trains, schedules at the historic station

OLYMPIA – Construction begins this week on track and signal improvements at Seattle’s King Street Station – but all trains will continue running on regular schedules.

The work starts Friday night, March 11, and is part of the $50.4 million King Street Station Track Improvements project overseen by the Washington State Department of Transportation. The project will extend tracks, install additional turnouts and add a new platform and canopy. In addition, decades-old hand-thrown switches will be replaced by a modern, computerized system, further improving train movement at the station.

The improvements will make it easier for trains to enter and exit the station, which will help reduce delays and make train travel throughout Washington and the entire Amtrak Cascades corridor more convenient. Amtrak Cascades trains run from Eugene, Oregon, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and are jointly administered by WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

King Street Station will remain open throughout the construction, which will conclude in early 2017. Passengers and neighbors may notice construction work at and near the station, but the work will not significantly disrupt the Amtrak Cascades, Sound Transit or Amtrak long-distance schedules. At times, 10 to 15 minute delays may occur and some Amtrak passengers may be directed to different platforms to accommodate construction. Sound Transit boarding areas will not change.

This project is part of the nearly $800 million federally funded Cascades High-Speed Rail Capital Program, that includes 20 projects throughout the state. The King Street tracks project is the final of the 20 projects to start construction, an important milestone within the program. Ten of the projects are complete and all will be done by spring 2017.

Once complete, the work will allow WSDOT to add two more daily Amtrak Cascades roundtrips between Seattle and Portland, reduce travel times between the two cities by 10 minutes and increase on-time reliability to 88 percent.
 
Many years ago I had an old railroader tell me "It's impossible for a train to enter or exit King Street Station without backing up!"

While that's not true any more, they still seem to have a rather convoluted track layout and hopefully this will help.
 




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