Tacoma Dome Station

Station Art Features:

Artwork at this station reflects both the train yards just across Puyallup Avenue (plus the history of Freighthouse Square as an actual freighthouse for the Milwaukee Road), and the various sawmills that used to be in this area. Seats that look like railroad spikes and a footbridge that look like a trestle reflect the influence of the railroad. Sculptures on top of the building that holds the clock look like dust removers from a sawmill.

This is also the first multimodal station in the Puget Sound. From here riders can choose between Link, Sounder rail to Seattle and Everett, express and local buses, and national Greyhound buses. Plus, a 2,400 stall free garage supports riders of all these systems.

Station Design:

Single track. Platform on North side of the street (next to garage), across from Freighthouse Square.

Links:

Clock, Tacoma Dome Station

Map of Tacoma Dome Station (click to enlarge) area

Area Links:

Ben's Thoughts

This station shows how to design a end point for a transit system. A large parking garage allows users to park here and ride Link into downtown, where parking is limited and expensive. Furthermore, riders can transition to and from buses, including regional and national lines here, as well as to and from the regional Sounder system. In fact, across the street and down a couple of blocks is an Amtrak station, allowing access to the national rail system.

On the other side of the street is Freighthouse Square. This is a large indoor mall with restaurants, food court and shops. Considering that the Link stations run past a college, businesses, hotels and a conference center this allows people using those facilities to ride down to Freighthouse for lunch or to do some quick shopping. Furthermore a couple blocks up the hill is the Tacoma Dome, which hosts concerts, sporting events and exhibitions.

If I were working in downtown Tacoma near a Link station I would normally park here and ride Link to my job. If I were living downtown and working in Seattle, I would take Link to this station to either catch a bus or Sounder to my job. I have started all my rides on Link from this station and would always use it to visit businesses downtown rather than paying to park or fighting over a space

History

This area of town used to have several sawmills in it, like much of the Northwest. That is why the artwork reflects sawmills. Freighthouse Square had been a freighthouse for the Milwaukee Road, and the former tracks running past it are now the tracks that Sounder runs on. These tracks are currently also used by Tacoma Rail. My main memory of the Dome area itself is a large grassy field with a large building (a former Indian school) in it. I had not been to Freighthouse Square until a couple years ago. It is actually a pretty interesting place with many options for food and shopping.

Maintenance Base (coming soon) <-------Tacoma Dome Station-------> S. 25th

Puget Sound Transportation Projects