express buses on Interstate 5 from Everett and Lynnwood to Seattle and Bellevue. The regional transit agency, renamed to Sound Transit the following year, began operating its Sound Transit Express buses under contract with Community Transit in September 1999. The new express buses connected park and rides in southwestern Snohomish County, the only part of Community Transit's service area within the Sound Transit taxing district, to Downtown Seattle, including the newly opened, 1,000-stall Ash Way Park & Ride in northern Lynnwood. Sound Transit funded several capital projects to improve bus service on the Interstate 5 corridor, including direct access ramps from HOV lanes to Lynnwood and Ash Way park and rides that opened in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2011, the existing Mountlake Terrace park and ride was expanded with an 890-stall parking garage and bus platforms in the median of I-5 connected by a pedestrian bridge. Commuter rail service to Snohomish County on the Sounder North Line began in December 2003 with a single round-trip connecting Everett and Edmonds to King Street Station in Seattle during rush hour. Service was expanded to a second round-trip in June 2005 and a third round-trip in September 2007, while an infill station opened at Mukilteo in May 2008, also bringing additional service in the form of a fourth round-trip the following September. An expansion of the Link light rail system in the "Sound Transit 2" package was approved in November 2008, including 54% of southwestern Snohomish County voters, funding the extension of light rail to Lynnwood. The light rail line will run along Interstate 5 from Northgate station in Seattle to Lynnwood Transit Center and is scheduled to begin construction in 2018 and open for service in 2024. With the passage of Sound Transit 3 in 2016, light rail service to Everett via Paine Field is anticipated to begin service in 2041. Administration Community Transit is administered by a nine-member board, composed of two members of the Snohomish County Council, two elected officials from PTBA cities with populations of 30,000 or more, three elected officials from cities with between 10,000 and 30,000, and two elected officials from cities with less than 10,000, that meets monthly at their headquarters in Everett. The board is led by a non-voting chief executive officer, a position held by Ric Ilgenfritz since January 2021. CT adopted an operating budget of $133.2 million for 2015; 65 to 70