Light rail is not the only thing getting a rebrand by Sound Transit next year. In an announcement on Thursday, the transit agency outlined a full rebrand of current and future light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit services. Chief among them is the Central Link light rail line that will become the 1 Line. The full suite of services will use an alphanumeric naming approach with color as a secondary means of identification. Sound Transit hopes to launch the new branding in 2021 when the Northgate Link light rail extension opens.
This service rebranding effort was spurred on from public outcry in the fall that shortly followed the launch of color-based branding of light rail. In September, Sound Transit began referring to Central Link as the “Red Line” and Tacoma Link as the “Orange Line”. The rider community quickly responded by raising concerns that the Red Line name evoked an association with “redlining”. Nationally, redlining was an institutionalized housing and economic practice used in the mid-20th century to racially segregate people of color. But this practice was also used in Seattle, particularly in communities now served by Central Link like Beacon Hill and Mount Baker.
The new service branding approach is much sleeker and brighter than the track Sound Transit was on last year. Pulling from international best practices, the transit agency has sought an alphanumeric approach paired with colors and shield shapes. The latter aspect is particularly noticeable with rail-based services using circle shields and bus-based services using square shields.
Initially, Sound Transit plans to use numbers for the first four regional light rail lines while Tacoma Link will use a letter to differentiate it as a local service. All of these will be paired with bright colored shields to emphasize their importance in the Sound Transit service pantheon. The first line to get a number will come next year.
