Title: Line 2 (Sound Transit) - Wikipedia
Headings: Line 2 (Sound Transit)
Line 2 (Sound Transit)
Contents
History
Background and early proposals
Planning and ballot measures
Floating bridge engineering and litigation
Route refinement in Bellevue
Construction
Downtown Redmond Extension
Route
Stations
Service plans
References
External links

Content: A smaller, $3.9 billion system was proposed the following year, with a light rail line serving Seattle and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport instead of a system spanning the entire metropolitan area; express buses from Seattle to the Eastside would be funded by the package in place of light rail service. The removal of the Eastside light rail line was opposed by politicians and business groups in the area, with prominent developers funding an opposition campaign. The package was approved by the Puget Sound region's voters on November 5, 1996, earning a majority of votes in Eastside cities. Express buses between Seattle and the Eastside, funded by Sound Transit, began operating in 1999. Planning and ballot measures
In the late 1990s, Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) co-led a study into congestion-relief measures on the State Route 520 corridor, including the use of light rail on either of the floating bridges. The final Trans-Lake Washington Study, published in 2002, recommended further development of a high-capacity fixed transit system on Interstate 90 to supplement a new floating bridge carrying State Route 520. While the Trans-Lake Washington Study was underway, Sound Transit formed a steering committee in 1998 to assess configuration options for Interstate 90 and its existing reversible express lane. The committee recommended the addition of high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) to both directions of Interstate 90 by narrowing the existing lanes, leaving the reversible lanes ready for future transit use. The lane conversion, coupled with additional HOV ramps on Mercer Island, was approved by Sound Transit, WSDOT, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2004.