Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Before the sun rose Wednesday on the new Pinehurst Station, a stream of commuters and train fans journeyed to the woodsy neighborhood along Interstate 5 for a novel experience.

They stepped onto elevated trains that zip past traffic and trees, then dive like moles underground.

Pinehurst Station’s first-ever commuter, Anne Kang, walked to the station and showed up before Wednesday’s first southbound train at 5:12 a.m., heading toward her job at an assisted-living home near International District/Chinatown Station.

Her workplace needed her to cover a shift earlier than normal, “and I offered,” she said. “It happened to be a perfect day.”

The new stop means she can quit driving to Northgate Station, where she has found the parking garage 80% full by 6:30 a.m. “I can also go to the airport without having to worry,” she said.

A small group, some wearing caps with Sound Transit’s “1” and “2” insignia for the two light rail lines, hopped onto a Lynnwood-bound train.

North Seattle’s $240 million new station is Sound Transit’s 39th and final light rail stop until at least 2031, as the agency hits a lull after a tsunami of construction that brought six extensions in the 2020s.

In a speech Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett vowed to “keep fighting for federal opportunities for funding transit.” He’s the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

What this stop along the I-5/Northeast 130th Street interchange lacks in housing and jobs, it offers in convenience: a nine-minute ride to the University District and 19 minutes to downtown.

“Whenever I take the light rail, north or south, the fact that I’ll be able to just walk quickly to the station, or take a 77 bus for a couple minutes, to get on the train, is a huge plus for me,” said Daigoro Toyama, president of the Pinehurst Community Council.

Metro’s Route 77, which began a month ago, forges a new east-west connection along 130th. People going from Aurora Avenue to Lake City Way can do it in 17 minutes, compared with past trips of over 45 minutes where someone had to reach Northgate then transfer back northeast to Lake City, said Yingying Huang Fernandes, a King County Metro lead service planner.

The station, however, has no parking garage. Supporters hope that when people go to Pinehurst without a car, they’ll free up space in the crammed garage at Shoreline South/148th Station.

Sidewalks are being built next to the station, and there are 30 bike lockers plus staple-shaped outdoor racks, with room for more.

In the station lobby Tuesday, people had to shout because of loud traffic din from the drizzle-soaked freeway. Visitors may also notice how the overhead beams and utilities are wrapped in mesh to repel pigeons and guano. All the public areas are cordoned by steel bollards or concrete benches, so vehicles can’t veer in.

Most everyone will witness the brilliant tile art by Romson Bustillo, loaded with warm yellows, oranges and reds, presenting images inspired by his Filipino heritage and by growing up in Seattle.

Jana and Perry Tapper, who live nearby, showed up at 5 a.m. Wednesday to satisfy their curiosity. They said a favorite part of rail will be looking down on the I-5 traffic. Another is more flexibility around when to wake up and when to commute.

“I don’t have to be at work until 8,” Perry Tapper said. “I would be very happy to get on the train, go home for coffee, and get back on a train. I could do this all day.”

Pinehurst Station was forecast to attract only 1,100 daily boardings, but if the area grows more dense and light rail extends farther someday, the agency hopes for 2,600 to 4,200 boardings, comparable to the Mountlake Terrace, Beacon Hill or Othello stations.

By 7 a.m. the southbound I-5 traffic was stop-and-go at Shoreline, while the parking garages north of Seattle were nearly full. Those are normal patterns and don’t seem related to the lightly trod Pinehurst Station opening day.

At 7:30 a.m., about a half-dozen people per train boarded Link southbound at Pinehurst, finding nearly all the seats full from people using the four stations upstream.

Charles Prestrud, transportation analyst at the Washington Policy Center, said in an interview that the Pinehurst Station — an “infill” stop added to an existing line — won’t be heavily used at first.

He said it illustrates the region’s “divergent views of what light rail is supposed to accomplish.” Is it for fast trips between suburbs and cities as pitched in the ’90s, or for local trips inside Seattle, or a substitute for buses?

Each infill station adds about 40 to 45 seconds of travel time for people already aboard the train.  

“The Sound Transit board has never really resolved that debate,” said Prestrud, who says express buses should be improved instead.

The station was added to the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure in 2016 because of community pressure along with a push from Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez.

It opened five years ahead of the 2031 date promised on the ballot, as engineers and contractors tackled the challenge of constructing in a narrow strip along I-5.

Seattle has proposed land rezoning to encourage midrise housing, five to eight stories tall, on two sides of Pinehurst Station, bringing more riders to light rail. But that’s yoked to a citywide plan that took 10 years to pass and is stalled in court.

The next light rail station is scheduled for the early 2030s at Graham Street in South Seattle, a surface stop that calls for deft detours during construction along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and the existing 1 Line tracks, for an estimated $214 million. Another infill station, at Boeing Access Road in Tukwila, is voter-approved and could be added later, whenever leaders find $476 million.