Outside Seattle, paid parking starts at some light rail garages

If the best things in life are free, then parking at some of the most popular light rail stations in the Seattle area will soon be less than best.

Make that far from best, according to several commuters on a recent morning.

Sound Transit, which runs the 58-mile train system, is inaugurating a new paid parking program, starting Friday at three stations: Northgate and the two in Shoreline. Most spots will remain free and first-come, first-served. But up to a quarter of spaces will be reservable, for $60 a month or $6 a day, for those who want a spot but don't want to show up while most people are still hitting the snooze button.

Permits will be needed only from 4 to 10 a.m. on weekdays, and only in permit parking zones. The spots will revert to being free for all after 10 a.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends and holidays.

These are the first to charge, but more garages will join the permit program as demand grows.

Katya Korneva - who normally arrives at the Shoreline North light rail station around 9:15 a.m. and, usually, there's nowhere to park - said parking should be free at the garages built with taxpayer dollars.

It's a bad idea. I think they need more parking," said Korneva, who had a few minutes to spare before a southbound train took her to Symphony Station, near her work. "I wouldn't pay. That's why I take public transit. To save money."

Since light rail expanded to Lynnwood in 2024, the garages at all of the new stops have seen crushing demand. Each of them - in Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline - recorded a 100% occupancy in recent counts by Sound Transit.

Demand for parking is far less at some other station facilities, like at Marymoor Village, at 41% occupancy, and South Bellevue, with 72%.

But other stations' garages may soon see permit parking, judging by demand. The garage next to Angle Lake Station had 88% occupancy, Redmond Technology had 98% and Tukwila International Boulevard was at 100%.

Northgate, 8 1/2 miles south of light rail's current northern end at Lynnwood, was the terminus of the 1 Line from 2021 to 2024. For most of those years, and to this day, the main park-and-ride and the three other garages have filled to capacity early in the morning.

"The goal is to create some turn in the parking, so there's more availability for people at our train stations," said David Jackson, Sound Transit's spokesperson, about the reasoning behind the paid parking program.

The idea is simple enough: By charging for a slice of available parking, only the people with the most intense need will opt to pay for something that is otherwise free. With fewer free spots, Sound Transit expects others will choose to take a bus to the light rail station, freeing up more space.

"We certainly advise people to take transit to transit when they can," Jackson said. "That's always a message of ours. But putting a price on something that's in high demand can only increase access to that resource."

Yet, like with all things parking, the permit program has stirred intense passion in some drivers.

Tod Harrick is one of them.

Harrick lives in Lake City and commutes to Capitol Hill. On his way, he first drives to Northgate. If it's full, which is likely after 7:30 a.m., he'll drive to Shoreline South, where he was Wednesday, at about 8:30 a.m.

If that commute hopscotch put him in a trying mood, discussion of the permit program didn't help.

"It's a bad idea," he said. "I think it's going to decrease ridership."

Harrick said he's run the numbers: A $6 round trip fare plus $6 for parking at Shoreline won't make paying for parking at the light rail garage pencil out, he said.

"It's already more expensive to take the train and back than it is to park," he said. "If I had to pay to park to take the train, I'd drive."

There are ways around paying the fee, though they may not work for solo drivers like Harrick. Carpools of at least two people can get permits for free, and people who qualify for Orca card discounts can get discounted permits.

The money from the permits will go into managing the program, Jackson said.

'Long and winding road'

Sound Transit wasn't seeking to be in the parking garage business, Jackson suggested, noting that the facilities were largely built as part of an agreement with the cities the train runs through.

"The park-and-ride facilities are viewed as an amenity by our partner jurisdictions," he said.

Creating a paid parking permit program has been a "long and winding road," Jackson said, and was delayed by the pandemic, which cratered ridership on transit agencies across the U.S.

The program will someday be at all garages adjacent to light rail stations. The trigger for permit parking to come to a garage is regular occupancy of 90% or more on weekdays.

Even with the North End garages meeting that benchmark, Sound Transit has encountered some roadblocks to rolling out its program.

Ownership issues between Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation have prevented the transit agency from starting a permit program at Lynnwood, despite the garage going beyond capacity some days, as people park illegally in and out of the garage.

The same goes for Mountlake Terrace, where WSDOT is "slowly but surely" handing ownership of the garage to Sound Transit, Jackson said.

"We can't charge fees for facilities we don't own outright," Jackson said, adding that the two garages "are full enough to merit the program."

The demand is also there, and Jackson said he's getting "lots of inquiries" about buying permits for both stations.

For people who want to buy permits at Shoreline, it's too late. For now. The allotted permits for both station garages were sold out within a week. Jackson said that the agency has only partitioned off between 5% and 10% of the garage for permit parking, so there's room for the program to grow before it hits its cap of 25% of spots being allowed to be reserved by permit.

Back at Northgate, Calvin Apreku was one of those people who would not be buying a permit. He pays enough for parking, he said, even though he's often found a full garage at the station, forcing him to find somewhere else to park.

"I already pay for parking at my apartment, said Apreku, who was on his way to work in Redmond, at the other end of the 2 Line. His parking at home costs him $250 a month.

Another $60, he said, just isn't worth it.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 6:37 AM.