It was a busy week at Sound Transit headquarters. Agency staff briefed regional policymakers on a range of topics from Connect 2020 progress to equitable transit-oriented development, but perhaps most interesting was station renaming and an update on the fare enforcement policy evaluation process. The Sound Transit Board of Directors’ Rider Experience and Operations and Executive Committees convened on Thursday to receive the marathon of reports and took action to move forward with renaming University Street Station.
Renaming University Street Station
As has been widely discussed in the past year, University Street Station (USS) is in need of a new name to reduce confusion with two other “university” stations in the light rail system. Sound Transit inherited US from King County Metro which had owned and operated the underground station exclusively for buses nearly two decades until Link light rail service was introduced in 2009.
Then in 2015, light rail was extended north of the Montlake Cut on the footsteps of the University of Washington campus. Naturally, the station there became “University of Washington Station.” When the Light rail system expands again in 2021, one of the new stations on Central Link will be “U District Station”. Sound Transit tried to reduce confusion with the “U” in the name, but everyone knows it as the “University District”. Thus, a change of names is warranted to achieve the stated objectives of the system station naming policy.
In the fall, Sound Transit surveyed the public on six shortlisted station names, which included the Arts District, Benaroya Hall, Downtown Arts District, Midtown, Seneca Street, and Symphony. These naming options were chosen because they reflect different attributes of the area, such as literal adjacent street, the city symphony hall and artistic venues, and geography. Over 14,000 people participated in the station naming contest, which led to a very narrow plurality victory for Symphony Station.
Symphony Station beat out Benaroya Hall by only 0.39%, reaching 24.89% of the vote. Agency staff recommended this name with caveat that it include Union Street in it, making it Union Street/Symphony Station. The rationale for this is to reduce backend costs and ensure that emergency professionals will be sent to the correct station.
For years, Sound Transit has referred to University Street Station as “USS” and has built electronic systems upon this code. Staff also use the code in common parlance as do external emergency professionals familiar with the station. Picking only Symphony Station or “SS” would be more costly and risky, agency staff said. Implementation cost for station renaming is pegged at $5.3 million if just Symphony Station is ultimately chosen, in large part due to those backend costs. Choosing Union Street/Symphony Station, however, would save over $4 million in implementation costs. That is because the bulk of the cost would be just in replacing signage rather than also updating backend systems.
However, the station does not have direct access to Union Street. The station entrance front onto Third Avenue, University Street, Second Avenue, and Second Avenue. With no Union Street access, the name could wind up being a bit of a misnomer. Nevertheless, the Rider Experience and Operations Committee supported the recommended Union Street/Symphony Station, sending it forward to full board for consideration and final action later this month. (Update: On January 23rd, the Sound Transit Board of Directors adopted the Union Street/Symphony Station name, which will go into effect when the Northgate Link extension opens.)
