The route made a stop at NE Pacific Street on the other side of the ship canal before the main U District Station at N 45th Street, on the east side of 15th Ave NE where the Burke Museum of Natural History stands now. Rather than veer off toward Montlake, the planned tunnel was envisioned as running directly north from Broadway and John, after a circuitous detour to First Hill that would later prove too ambitious. In 1999 the Sound Transit board selected a route for the initial segment that went all the way to the heart of the University District. But the opening of these new stations offers an opportunity to look at Sound Transit’s original plan for light rail to the University District- and the plan for a second station in Capitol Hill that never came to pass. Northgate, Roosevelt and U District stations will bring those neighborhoods exponentially closer to Capitol Hill for transit riders, with travel times of around eleven minutes between Capitol Hill Station and Northgate Station. In less than five weeks, Sound Transit will open three new light rail stations in North Seattle. A North Broadway station was eliminated from further study by two votes on the Sound Transit board.

Routes marked with a star drive onto campus the others stop within the University District.The light rail line envisioned in 1999 was planned to head directly north from Capitol Hill Station. These are the most popular of the dozens of bus routes that serve the University District.

Capitol hill light rail