Last week I was in Seattle, working with my sister on a project for a longtime client. I looked forward to the opportunity to finally try out the city’s Link light rail system. I lived in the Seattle area from 1988 until 2002, and virtually that entire time there was a great deal of back and forth about developing a rapid transit system. Voters approved funding in 1996, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the first cars rolled. Certainly, one might expect that the city that introduced the Monorail at the 1962 World’s Fair would have established a more modern transportation system sooner than that, but Seattle’s steep hills and lakes, Puget Sound and canals and rivers made for some major challenges. Today the Central route is fairly modest, linking the downtown core through a series of 13 stops to SeaTac airport. Future plans call for extensions east to the University of Washington campus and across Lake Washington to the cities of Bellevue and Redmond (home of the Microsoft campus), north up the I-5 corridor and south to Tacoma. I was delighted to discover that I could catch the train to the airport just one block over from the building in which I worked all week. I maneuvered my luggage easily enough down the escalators (elevators are also available) deep under the city streets to the spotless, cavernous, marble-tiled platform area. (Hurrah! No turnstiles to struggle through!) The transit tunnel also hosts several bus lines, but I was surprised to see that, even at 5:30 p.m. on a workday night, there were very few commuters about. Maybe I’d just missed the rush? Perhaps, but Puget Sounders have notoriously been stubborn about giving up their cars, even when gas prices are high. The fare for the 35-minute ride to the airport is $2.50; although signage warns that one must have proof of purchase before boarding the train, and I’m sure there must be spot-checks, it seems it’s mostly an honor system. The cars (being less than two years old) are sleek and clean and, like Portland’s, have designated areas for hanging bicycles. I appreciated the very narrow, perfectly level gap between platform and car which allowed me to roll my bags across easily. Part of the route is underground; the rest passes through mostly working-class, diverse neighborhoods served by stations of brick and clean lines. My biggest beef with the trip was the location of the station at the airport: It is waaaay out on the far side of the parking garages, a good quarter-mile hike if it’s a foot away from the terminal. Although the route is covered, it is open on the sides to the elements, and in Seattle that can mean cold winds and blowing, soaking rain or even snow. I didn’t investigate the options a mobility-impaired person might have for making that trek from train to terminal; I would certainly hope there are some! Overall, I’d definitely give the experience a thumbs up, especially since I was able to avoid rush-hour traffic on the interstate and parking at the airport. I look forward to some point in the future when light rail travel in the greater Seattle area will be expanded further. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor