Idea: SODO-Georgetown-East Marginal Way elevated Link route

The current 1 Line segment from Mount Baker to Rainier Beach is mostly at grade. This means train speeds are limited. It also means there are constant conflicts with cars and pedestrians. This makes travel between downtown and the airport (and soon, Federal Way) slower and less reliable.

I think there should be a fast, grade separated route between downtown and the airport. So I had the idea to build on the planned West Seattle Link extension, shown in pink, which would build a bridge over S Spokane St and head west.

We could have an elevated route, shown in orange, branch off this bridge around 4th Ave S and travel south, following 4th Ave S. It would continue over the BNSF tracks and along 4th Ave S until East Marginal Way S, where it would turn and follow that road until meeting the existing Link tracks.

The entire route would be elevated, so it would be totally grade-separated. 4th Ave S and East Marginal Way S are wide roads, so I think there would be room to put the elevated Link guideway supporting columns. Since the route goes through mostly industrial areas, I hope there would be minimal NIMBY pushback.

We could also possibly have stations in Georgetown (maybe near the intersection of 4th Ave S and East Marginal Way S) and/or the industrial district (maybe just north of the Costco). I have shown approximate possible station locations.

If we built this route, travel from downtown to the airport would be faster, because there would be fewer stops and trains can travel faster on this grade-separated route than on the current at-grade route. It would also be more reliable since there would be no conflicts or crashes with at-grade cars or people.

This could also increase the frequency of trains between downtown and the airport, if we had separate train services from downtown split off with some taking this new route and some continuing on the current route, merging back up to head to Tukwila International Blvd station, the airport, and Federal Way.

We could then also rebuild the current at-grade route down MLK Way S to be elevated without removing rail service between downtown and the airport.

What do you think?