As Sound Transit board members get closer to making a decision about a preferred route and station locations for the planned Lynnwood Link light rail extension, the agency has released computerized animation showing what each route option would look like between the Northgate Mall and Lynnwood.

The animation shows the light rail line running primarily alongside I-5, then offering a few different route options through Mountlake Terrace and into Lynnwood. You can view the animations here.

There are numerous combinations of route and station options that Sound Transit officials are considering for the 8.5-mile light rail extension. In Mountlake Terrace, route options include running the line north of the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center up the middle median of I-5 or along the freeway’s west side. Station options include one just north of the current freeway flyer platforms used by Sound Transit and Community Transit buses, a station on a platform above 236th Street Southwest and the surface parking lot at the Transit Center, and/or a station raised above 220th Street Southwest just west of I-5.

The Capital Committee of the Sound Transit Board is scheduled to meet on Thursday, Nov. 14, and may at that meeting make a recommendation about a preferred route and station locations. If they do, it is anticipated that the full Sound Transit Board of Directors will identify their preferred alternative at their Nov. 21 Board meeting. While selection of a preferred route and station alternative doesn’t kill the other options, it would direct Sound Transit staff to concentrate their efforts on the board’s preferred choice.

Sound Transit officials anticipate design of the Lynnwood Link will begin in 2015, construction beginning in 2018, and service to get underway in 2023.

– By Doug Petrowski/MLT News editor