One of the best train stores I've ever been to with the staff and owners crying ashame that they…read moregot put out of business

I bought a starter set and then added two remote switches. The store failed to mention that I would…read moreneed a larger transformer. I spent unnecessary hours trying to figure out a short. The switches turned out to not be remote, and when I asked to get a store credit, I was told the box had a small tear and that they would not do it. Not a customer friendly environment. Not impressed.

Driving used to be fun but not anymore…read more I took Driver's Ed in high school. Studied the WA DOL manual. Got up at 5am on the weekends and mastered parking maneuvers in empty parking lots. Practiced driving on I-5 and steering control on E Mercer Way. Passed the written and driving tests. It was a milestone celebration unlocking freedom and independence at 16 years old. Learned how to use the stick shift and feared the red light at 15th & Spokane St. on rainy days. Drove to Dick's on Capitol Hill with friends. Never had to share the road with electric bikes and scooters because they didn't exist. Never saw distracted drivers with smartphones because these devices weren't available to the public yet. We only had to worry about cars with California plates, the occasional BC plate, or someone who said, "DMV." ;p Driving in Seattle is different now. Traffic is worse. Nobody gives the "Thank you" wave anymore. I know someone who's been driving well over 10 years and they slapped a yellow New Driver sticker on their car and uses it as an excuse to drive like a crazy person. On I-5 I saw a guy texting at the wheel, saw a girl playing a game on her phone at the wheel. Cars without license plates, cars with expired tabs. People driving in the Bus Only lane, people driving with high beams. Motorcycle lane splitting. Witnessed illegal left turns from the far right lane and people driving down the yellow center lane. A lot of these habits and behaviors didn't happen when I first started driving. Seems like the WA DOL manual doesn't apply anymore. Unwritten driving rules and etiquette taught and passed down by old school Seattleites are fizzling out. Those OGs have moved to Clark County near the WA/OR border, Eastern WA, out of state, and out of country. Gas is over $6+ a gallon and if theres an event near the stadiums parking can be between $70-$120. So if someone asks me why I take public transit, I have many reasons why. I take the light rail when my destination is near a station. I take it for peace of mind. I take it to save money. I've become mindful of my carbon footprint. The 2 Line trains from the Eastside are newer and cleaner than the workhorse 1 Line trains. There's the occasional smelly person, the sleeper, and the tweaker but I know have a choice to sit or stand away from them or get up and move. No fare gates or platform screen doors at the stations. Signage and announcements could be better too. As for the near future, I want to attend roll out celebrations for the Graham St. and Boeing Access Road infill stations. I'm also looking forward to the West Seattle and Tacoma expansions.

Awesome light rail. Very clean, efficient and with a lot of stations including SeaTac airport. Very…read morecheap too. One way is only $3 senior rate $1. Best way to get from the airport...

With the recent opening of the expansion of the 2 line going to Lynnwood from Redmond, this…read moreWestlake Station (like all the other stations in downtown Seattle) now services both the 1 AND 2 lines of the Sound Transit Link system. This means that one can take one train without transfer from here to Bellevue and Redmond, crossing Lake Washington on the world's first light rail pontoon railway. My wife and I took this route while visiting our daughter and son-in-law in Bellevue, and the crossing was a routine non-event, just like it is supposed to be. My last review for this station was 2 years, at which time, only the 1 line serviced this station. Because of the way they designed the routes, the inclusion of the 2 line was seamless, requiring no station outages during the transition. My only small gripe is the signage at a major connection point at the center near the elevators, still only shows the 1 line (with its stops at the airport and university), instead of now the opening of the entire East side of Puget Sound area, accessible via the 2 line. It's confusing for visitors...better just to state that lower level is for Sound Transit, instead of explicitly naming each line, if they don't want to change the signage every time. Another big addition that occurred earlier this year (Feb '26), is the use of tap-to-pay (using a tap enabled payment card to pay for fare at the point of entry) at all stations and bus lines (like NYC and London has). We still ended up using our preloaded Orca card this trip, but can discontinue that for future (unless taking the Monorail, which still requires an Orca card). Transfers are free for 2 hours from the first tap (excluding the Monorail), with initial charge being $3. There are no gates, with the pay stations being intentionally out of the way...it really is about the honor system to tap. We also used Westlake station as the transfer point to get from the monorail on the 3rd floor of the Westlake shopping center down to the lower level where the station actually is. Connecting to the 1 line, we got to Sea-Tac airport station in 41 minutes (though from there, it's quite a walk to get to the terminal area).

So this is a major hub station and named after the most obvious point nearby - Westlake Shopping…read moreCenter - with its accompanying plaza (often free events and music here), major shopping, and major hotels and dining. This station has had some safety issues in the past so I don't frequent it as much as I would if it weren't for that concern.

Built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, the monorail is the fastest way to travel between downtown…read moreSeattle (5th Avenue & Pine St.) and Seattle Center. It has 2 stations total and was never meant to be actual transit. After our visit to the Space Needle, my partner and I took this 1.2-mile elevated train system and got off Westlake for our next attraction, Pike Public Market. It saved quite a bit of walking with one-way $4. It is an iconic, historic piece of Seattle and still serves to connect downtown with the Seattle Center 60+ years later.

Connecting the busy Westlake light rail station to the touristy Seattle Center in downtown, the…read moreSeattle Monorail is 0.9 miles long, traveling on an elevated track, with the endpoints being the only stops. It takes about 3 minutes to travel between, costs $4 per one-way ride, and operates every 10 minutes. My wife and I took it twice during our one night trip to Seattle, and it was a good way to cut off a bit of a walk traveling from/to the airport and our hotel located at the Seattle Center. The monorail system was built in 1962 to take visitors to the World's Fair, which was being held at what is today the Seattle Center. It consists of 2 parallel single rail tracks, each with one train. After each 3 minute journey, the conductor has to walk the length of the train to get to the other forward facing 'locomotive' car, so there is a bit of time between the train arriving and the train leaving again (in the opposite direction). The two trains (Blue and Red) can run concurrently (often during high traffic times like during a Kraken hockey game), but I've only seen one of them run at a time. The space between the two tracks are where people boarding the train must wait, entering this space using an Orca card (tap-to-pay has yet to be implemented). There are no discounts for transfers to other Orca enabled transit. There is one seat on the locomotive car right next to the conductor, providing an unobstructed view facing forward. Would highly recommend doing that if riding it for the first time. It was my 4th time riding, but 1st time on that seat. Spoke to the conductor a little, and learned that for her, it's 42 round trips a day during her shift. Also noticed that the train passes right by the upper level windows of the Hyatt House hotel, so imaging guests in those rooms could get a cool view of the train as it zipped by.

The King Street Union Station is only few blocks from the Seattle Seahawk's Lumen field Stadium…read more Actually the ramp from the station to street level has a wonderful view of the arena. The station primarily servers Amtrak trains, but there's adjacent entrance to the subway line as well, accessible via the ramp. The main building of the station has the iconic clock tower. The station's interior was also beautiful, with high ceilings, art decor on the walls, marble floors and shafts. There were plenty of benches for passengers to sit. Multiple displays were showing the arrival times of the trains. The atmosphere inside the station was much nicer than its exterior suddronding. Once we got to the station, we went to the baggage drop off area. A friendly staff member behind the counter helped us with weighing both of our luggages, tagging them and lining them up for the train. Our train arrived at the platform on time. Our tickets were checked at the door. Staff members were available on the platform to help us find the correct car. Overall I had a wonderful experience of boarding Amtrak train for the first time ever from this station.

We booked tickets Seattle to Portland in advance. Got the business class. Ground crew was very…read moreefficient and helpful. Checked baggage is available at both Seattle (King St) and Portland (Union Station). Passengers can also check up to four bags, first two free, next two with charge, 50 lbs per luggage. Lots of benches for travelers. Coffee station. Bathroom is good. Information board is clear. There was a homeless guy with blood on the head came to sit on a bench. Security came and asked if they need to call ambulance. Some words exchanged. Didn't escalate the situation. We left around that point. I think the security handled it well. Hopefully the guy got medical attention.

It's like being transported to another time and place when you step in here…read more Everything is impressively organized with a tag, and love all the vintage / secondhand goods, alongside the new items, it really gives you a lot of options to be creative. I know zero about trains but I was just jaw-dropped walking in here. There's a little kids table for your child to play at by the door while you browse the "boring" more expensive things haha The store owner is nice and super knowledgeable, he said hi to us and basically left us alone to browse without making it feel suffocating. It's a super safe and fun store, I'm so happy this place exists.

Prices range on size, or type, one passenger car was 6 dollars! the service is absolutely amazing,…read morethe staff were kind and were surprised i knew ALOT about trains

4 and a half our in on our 20 hour journey.... So far so good…read more... A few rough looking passenger and one of them loud , know it all lady who cut in line cause she gets priority. Privilege people. LOL -Coast Starlight: was very hesitant at first. Paid twice as much as i would for a plane ticket and 10 x the travel time...yaaaYy... -Seat is spacious and comfortable. -View is amazing, even from the seat. They also have an observation cart. It's cool. -and we're off....will update of anything changes and at the conclusion of the journey....

We traveled on the #8 Empire Builder train route from Seattle to Chicago in approximately 44 hours…read moreand through 3 time zones. The food was terrific. The train car attendant, cafe car attendants, conductor, engineer, and station attendants were all great. The Roomette sleeping compartment was a great choice for this longer journey. I sleep quite well when I'm on the train other than a few times when we hit rougher tracks. The train cars could probably use a good refurbishment. Bathroom and shower facilities were okay. It's not the same as a hotel since it's constantly moving, but it suffices. Would repeat the trip with no hesitation. Saw gorgeous countryside via passing through the United States, which is epic.

Place is very clean inside the station. The amtrak itself could use an update. The table we sat on…read morewas broken but we managed. The line here can get very long if you are checking in a luggage so arrive early. Staff was friendly and very helpful. The ride from Seattle to Vancouver was beautiful, plenty of scenery.

Having had to change our plans due to needing medical care and being in Canada, we took the train…read morewith way too many bags to Seattle. Upon leaving the station, there were several taxis waiting. Several of these taxi drivers were grabbing at our bags and trying to fit my 6 foot tall husband (who has back issues as well and cannot move easily because of his medical condition) and the bags into the back of not one but at least two Prius vehicles--- we kept telling them that it was too small and to put our bags down and they refused to listen. Heated words broke out from them, and they would not listen to us. Finally, an Uber driver came with a large vehicle and we were able to be accommodated more comfortably. I totally am in support of the cab drivers, as I know, they have been squeezed out of the market by individual ridesharing, but these morons changed my mind, at least here in Seattle. UPDATE: 08:35Thursday, June 11... hubby has not received the promised call from customer service, which he was told he would re rice at 08:00 yesterday while in contact with the company ... good thing we didn't skip breakfast to re rice it.....

Used to have a trolley. Call and check if it's scheduled to run before you go. It is a 1925…read moretreasure!

Around ten yrs ago when I moved to Issaquah, the Issaquah Depot Museum was just an old train…read morestation with one main building and some train carts. Thanks for the effort from Issaquah historical society, over the years it got renewed, improved and offered more activities for local community. My kid loves this depot museum and all the train carts around it. Ever since he started watching Thomas, he got fascinated by the trains. With all the tracks and train carts, he could spend lots of time here admiring them. And there is hidden treasure among the carts. Inside one of the cart is the model for old Issaquah town and train station, with all the detailed models of buildings, tracks, vehicles, trains. Excellently made model and IMHO it should be placed in the main building to attract more visiters. The main building was OK, typical small museum. Santa Clause is there around the holidays to take pictures with kids. About two yrs ago, local volunteers fixed the trolley and now it's running at the depot every weekend. It attracted quite some visitors ever since. With the red, golden and white paint, the trolley is simply beautiful and smooth. It also became the object for many photographers. It's nice to have such a nice museum around the neighborhood.

My first time to take the light rail from Sea-Tac to my destination to meet my college friend who…read morelives up here. Easy to purchase the one-way $3 ticket. Easy to figure out which platform to stand on by following the map. The light rail announces every stop as it approaches and as it stops, announcing which side will be opening its doors. It was a smooth ride with a pretty view of the greenery and blue skies. Convenient, easy, good value.

Love this commuter train to downtown Seattle. $3 one way ride is lowest cost option to get…read moredowntown providing a nice glimpse/view of the surrounding area on your 30 minute ride to downtown. Beats the heck out of an Uber and Taxi any day of the week at a fraction of the cost. The only downside is it is probably a Half mile walk to get from the airport terminal to the train platform but if you don't mind walking you can save your self a lot of money here!