Kent station is a
train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...
in the city of
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and t ...
, United States, served by the
S Line of the
Sounder commuter rail
Sounder commuter rail is a commuter rail service operated by BNSF on behalf of Sound Transit. Service operates Monday through Friday during peak hours from Seattle, Washington, north to Everett and south to Lakewood. In , the system had a ride ...
network. It is located in downtown Kent and consists of two train platforms connected via a pedestrian overpass, a parking garage, and several
bus bay
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
s. The station also has 996 parking stalls and is served by
King County Metro
King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...
and
Sound Transit Express
Sound Transit Express (ST Express) is a network of regional express buses, operated by the multi-county transit agency, Sound Transit. The routes connect major regional hubs throughout 53 cities in three counties (King, Pierce, and Snohomish) in ...
buses. Train service to Kent began in 2001 and the station's garage opened the following year. King County Metro began service from the bus bays in 2005, after a third phase of construction. Sound Transit plans to build a second parking garage in 2027 to accommodate additional demand at the station.
Description
Kent station is located in the northern part of downtown Kent, one block west of Central Avenue at the intersection of Smith Street and Railroad Avenue.
It is located adjacent to the Kent Station
shopping center
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
The first known collec ...
, which includes a
movie theater
A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
and auxiliary campus for
Green River College.
To the northwest is the city-run
ShoWare Center
The accesso ShoWare Center is a multi-purpose arena in Kent, Washington, United States.
About the venue
The construction of the arena began September 2005, with the venue opening in January 2009. The principal tenants are the Seattle Thunderbi ...
arena and the county's
Maleng Regional Justice Center.
The area around the station consists primarily of commercial and office spaces, with some
multifamily residential buildings.
The station consists of two
side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...
s that run between 1st Avenue to the west and Railroad Avenue to the east.
The east platform includes a
transit center
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...
with several
bus bay
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
s arranged on a center island.
To the southeast is a small plaza that leads to Burlington Green, a park along the railroad tracks between Smith and Meeker streets.
Kent station has a total of 996 parking spaces, divided between a
parking garage
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
and two small surface lots.
The five-story parking garage, located southwest along Smith Street, holds 877 vehicles and includes a pedestrian overpass connecting it to both of the platforms.
An auxiliary
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...
lot on James Street holds an additional 713 vehicles.
The garage and plaza also house ''Cornucopia'' by Lydia Aldredge, a
public art
Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
installation commissioned by
Sound Transit
Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...
and the city government that consists of several sculptures referencing Kent's agricultural history.
These pieces include
glass tile
Glass tiles are pieces of glass formed into consistent shapes.
Early history
Glass was used in mosaics as early as 2500 BC, but it took until the 3rd century BC before innovative artisans in Greece, Persian empire, Persia and India created glas ...
mosaics resembling a river, a "garden of measurement" with
weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...
tools, several
trellises, and a clock shaped like a
train whistle
A train whistle or air whistle (originally referred to as a steam trumpet) is an audible signaling device on a steam locomotive, used to warn that the train is approaching, and to communicate with rail workers. Modern diesel and electric locomot ...
.
History
Predecessors and planning
Kent's first staffed train station was opened in October 1889 as part of the
Puget Sound Shore Railroad The Puget Sound Shore Railroad (properly The Puget Sound Shore Railroad Company() and successor Northern Pacific and Puget Sound Shore Railroad (properly Northern Pacific & Puget Sound Shore Railroad Company() built a branch line of the Northern Pac ...
, a subsidiary of the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
. The town was originally called Titusville but renamed itself after the English county of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, reflecting a shared dependence on the
hops
Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...
industry, after receiving the train station. Days after Kent's depot was opened, two would-be robbers were injured by the
station agent using an iron
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
. The depot was replaced in 1893 by a larger brick building, which was renovated extensively in 1927 and served passenger trains until the 1950s. It was used by the
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996.
Its historical lineage begins in the e ...
(later
BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...
) as a maintenance shed and still stands two blocks south of the Sounder platforms.
The city government proposed re-using the depot as a
railroad museum
A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives (steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic equ ...
or a downtown transit center in the 1980s, but neither were pursued.
In the late 1980s, officials in King County proposed a modern
commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...
system running between
King Street Station
King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak's '' Cascades'', ''Coast Starlight'', and ''Empire Builder'', as well as Sounder commuter trains run by Sound Transit. The station also anchor ...
in Downtown Seattle and Auburn, including a single stop in Kent. The city government produced a shortlist of three sites for the commuter rail station: at James Street in downtown, near a
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
facility north of downtown, or the disused Burlington Northern depot. Although the Burlington Northern depot was favored by the mayor,
Metro Transit selected the downtown Kent site at James Street for inclusion in the 1993 regional transit plan, intended to serve as a framework for a future
ballot measure
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
. The city government began preparing for a major redevelopment of areas around the future station in hopes of revitalizing the downtown area.
Ahead of a scheduled ballot measure to fund a regional transit system, including the Seattle–Tacoma commuter rail line, Kent was selected as a stop for a demonstration commuter rail service in February 1995. The temporary station, located between Meeker and Smith streets in downtown Kent, was served by daily trains to Tacoma and Seattle during peak periods and event trains for baseball and basketball games. The March 1995 ballot measure was rejected by voters, but a modified plan was approved in November 1996, including funds for a commuter rail system managed by Sound Transit.
Sound Transit's
environmental assessment
Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...
for the Seattle–Tacoma commuter rail project identified two potential sites for the station in downtown Kent, approximately apart: a northern site between James and Smith streets, and a southern site between Gowe and Willis streets adjacent to the historic depot.
The debate over the station's location took months to settle, with Sound Transit and the mayor favoring the northern site because of its proximity to two major arterial streets serving the city's suburban neighborhood and the Kent city council recommending the southern site to promote downtown commerce and avoid property acquisition. In June 1998, the Sound Transit board selected the northern site with a promise to design the station in a way that would minimize the amount of property to be acquired, replacing a surface parking lot with a parking garage that would be partially funded using $4 million in city-issued
bonds.
![Sounder train at Kent Station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Sounder_train_at_Kent_Station.jpg)
The budget for Kent station was originally set at $12 million, but was increased to $25 million in July 1999 to accommodate the proposed 680-stall parking garage. The station and garage site was occupied by a
feed mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...
and
hardware store
Hardware stores (in a number of countries, "shops"), sometimes known as DIY stores, sell household hardware for home improvement including: fasteners, building materials, hand tools, power tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing suppli ...
, which were relocated after settling a
condemnation lawsuit with Sound Transit for $1.85 million the following month. Gary Merlino Construction was awarded a $3.66 million contract to construct the station, leaving the garage and bus station to be completed in later project phases.
Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...
on Kent station was celebrated on October 20, 1999.
Opening and expansion
Kent station was dedicated by Sound Transit and local officials on February 3, 2001, and service began two days later on February 5.
200 people rode trains from Kent on the opening day, which also marked the beginning of service from
Puyallup station
Puyallup station is a train station in the city of Puyallup, Washington, United States. It is served by the S Line, a Sounder commuter rail line operated by Sound Transit that runs from Pierce County to Seattle. The station is located nor ...
.
The second phase of construction, including the $10 million parking garage,
pedestrian bridge, and bus bays, began in 2000 and was completed three months ahead of schedule in March 2002.
King County Metro opened a new transit center at Kent station's completed bus bays in June 2005, replacing a park and ride northwest of downtown on James Street. The city government opened the Kent Station shopping center and
mixed-use development
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...
in late 2005, using $16 million to cleanup of a former
resin
In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...
chemical plant adjacent to the commuter rail station.
The parking garage and surface lots at Kent station are used by 51 percent of the station's 1,900 daily riders and reach capacity early in the morning.
The Sound Transit 2 plan, approved by voters in 2008, allocated $35 million for a second parking garage at Kent station, but planning was suspended in 2010 due to a decline in
sales tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
revenue. The project was revived in 2016 and expanded to also include pedestrian and bicycle improvements in the vicinity of the station. A shortlist of four sites for the 450-stall parking garage was drafted by Sound Transit and the city government in March 2017, including a proposal for Kaibara Park that was withdrawn after it was discovered that the property was owned by BNSF Railway and leased to the city. The remaining three sites were located to the north of the station along James Street at its railroad crossing.
A site on the south side of James Street and east of Railroad Avenue was chosen by Sound Transit in November 2017 as the preferred site for the garage, following a recommendation from the city government. The parking garage was originally scheduled to open in 2023, but was later postponed to 2027 due to longer planning times and funding issues caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
The project originally had a budget of $35 million, but increased to $65 million after corrections based on similar garage projects at other Sounder stations as well as rising costs for real estate and contractors.
The increase in costs, which reached $100,000 per parking stall, was criticized by the local
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
, but defended by officials in Kent as a preventive measure against "hide-and-ride" parking by commuters in local neighborhoods. The proposed garage's construction would also require the realignment of Railroad Avenue, which the city government claims would jeopardize the planned expansion of bus service to the station.
Services
Kent station is served by 13 daily round-trips on the
Sounder S Line, which travel north to
King Street Station
King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak's '' Cascades'', ''Coast Starlight'', and ''Empire Builder'', as well as Sounder commuter trains run by Sound Transit. The station also anchor ...
in
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 south to
Tacoma Dome Station
Tacoma Dome Station is a train station and transit hub in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak trains, the S Line (Sound Transit), S Line of Sounder commuter rail, the T Line (Sound Transit), T Line of Link light ...
or
Lakewood station
Lakewood station is a commuter rail station in Lakewood, Washington, United States. It is the terminus of the S Line of the Sounder commuter rail network, operated by Sound Transit in the Seattle metropolitan area. The station, located a ...
on weekdays.
Sounder trains travel from Kent to Seattle in approximately 27 minutes and to Tacoma in 35 minutes.
The station is also a major transit hub for
King County Metro
King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...
and
Sound Transit Express
Sound Transit Express (ST Express) is a network of regional express buses, operated by the multi-county transit agency, Sound Transit. The routes connect major regional hubs throughout 53 cities in three counties (King, Pierce, and Snohomish) in ...
, with nine bus bays served by several routes.
Sound Transit Express routes 566 and 567 travel from the station to
Auburn station,
Renton,
Downtown Bellevue
Downtown Bellevue is the central business district of Bellevue, Washington, United States. It is bounded by I-405 to the east, NE 12th Street to the north, 100th Ave NE to the west, and Main Street to the south, and covers an area of around . I ...
, and
Overlake Transit Center
Redmond Technology station, formerly Overlake Transit Center, is a bus station and future light rail station in Redmond, Washington, United States. The current bus station opened in 2002 and is located on the headquarters campus of Microsoft; i ...
during peak periods. King County Metro operates all-day service from the station to eastern Kent,
Tukwila, Downtown Seattle, Renton,
Auburn
Auburn may refer to:
Places Australia
* Auburn, New South Wales
* City of Auburn, the local government area
*Electoral district of Auburn
*Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region
*Auburn, South Australia
*Auburn, Tasmania
*Aub ...
,
Maple Valley,
Federal Way
Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the tenth-largest city in Washington and the fifth-larges ...
,
SeaTac,
Burien. The agency also has peak-only service to Downtown Seattle via
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...
and the
Boeing Everett Factory
The Boeing Everett Factory is an airplane assembly facility built by Boeing in Everett, Washington, United States. It sits at the northeast corner of Paine Field and includes the largest building in the world by volume at 13,385,378 m3 (472,37 ...
.
In additional to traditional bus service, Metro provides
dial-a-ride
Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...
service to eastern Kent and areas northwest of downtown Kent.
References
External links
Sound Transit Rider GuideKent Station Access Improvements Project
{{Sound Transit railway stations, South=y, state=collapsed
2001 establishments in Washington (state)
Buildings and structures in Kent, Washington
Railway stations in King County, Washington
Railway stations in the United States opened in 2001
Sounder commuter rail stations