Beacon Hill station is a light rail

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

located in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. It is situated between the

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

and SODO stations on the 1 Line, which runs from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport to

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

as part of the

Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail rapid transit system serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit providers, and consists of two non-connected lines: t ...

system. The station is located under the southeast corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Lander Street in Seattle's

Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...

neighborhood. Beacon Hill station was first proposed in 1998 and was opened on July 18, 2009, as part of the inaugural Link line, after five years of tunnel boring and station construction. It consists of a single

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

, divided into two sections by the twin bores of the Beacon Hill Tunnel; four high-speed elevators ferry passengers from the platform to the surface entrance. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on most days; the

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

between trains is six minutes during peak periods, with less frequent service at other times. The station is also served by three King County Metro bus routes that stop at a pair of sheltered bus stops on Beacon Avenue.

Location

Beacon Hill station is part of the Beacon Hill Tunnel, with its platform situated at a depth of and located under the intersection of Beacon Avenue South and South Lander Street. The station's only entrance is located at the southeast corner of the intersection, in the North Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The area surrounding the station consists of a mixture of low-density commercial and residential areas, housing a population of 6,081 people and businesses employing 1,453.

El Centro de la Raza El Centro de la Raza in Seattle, Washington, United States, is an educational, cultural, and social service agency, centered in the Latino/Chicano community and headquartered in the former Beacon Hill Elementary School on Seattle's Beacon Hill. It ...

, a local social service agency, is situated north of the station complex and built 112 units of affordable housing adjacent to the station in 2016. The Beacon Hill branch of the

Seattle Public Library The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the public library system serving the city of Seattle, Washington. Efforts to start a Seattle library had commenced as early as 1868, with the system eventually being established by the city in 1890. The syste ...

is located two blocks south of the station, at the intersection of Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street.

History

Proposals and planning

Beacon Hill Station - under construction, May 2009

Several of the first proposals for

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

in the Seattle area included a north–south route from

to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport that bypassed

in favor of a shorter route through Georgetown and

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

. The failed

Forward Thrust The Forward Thrust ballot initiatives were a series of bond propositions put to the voters of King County, Washington in 1968 and 1970, designed by a group called the Forward Thrust Committee. Seven of the twelve propositions in 1968 were success ...

initiatives of 1968 and 1970 proposed a

heavy rail Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid accelerati ...

line between Downtown Seattle and Renton that ran along the

Duwamish River