Link Light Rail – Beacon Hill Station

Beacon Hill Station is the main stop for me whenever I visit my parents in Seattle. The station is located on a busy street, right across from Red Apple grocery store and a few steps from some fancy-​looking condos. Also a bunch of coffee shops and cafes within easy walking distance.
My only minor gripe is that the Link itself runs underground in a tunnel, which seems to be accessible only by four large, heavy duty elevators. Nothing wrong with this since it seems fast, convenient, and reliable. However, the engineer in me says a better design might be to have escalators and/​or stairs in addition as alternatives for customers.
Other subway systems like BART in the Bay Area, NYC Subway, and London Underground have these. I use elevators as a last resort in most places, and daily at work — since there I know someone is closely monitoring if there’s a maintenance issue or emergency.

Now that the Capitol Hill station is open, I find myself using the light rail to get to parts of the city that I would otherwise drive to. Last weekend, my friends and I decided to take the light rail to Beacon Hill to check out a newly opened brewery (Perihelion Brewing – I highly recommend it!).
The Beacon Hill light rail station was, of course, our gateway to excellent beer. This station is certainly smaller and older than the Capitol Hill one, but still functional and easy to navigate. It even features some art installations that lend it a modern vibe. The only oddity was that the station had no escalators, just a series of elevators. I suppose this might work since this station is not the busiest on today’s light rail route, but I could see it being a bottleneck if traffic increases here over the coming years.

I love the using the Light Rail. Clean and well maintained, this station is safe and staff are friendly. Take it all the way to the airport or go downtown. So much cheaper than a taxi or über.

Yay! So glad we are close to a station. It means we can actually utilize the light rail. We also have friends that drive and park at our house then take it to airport. It also makes for an easy trip to other stops for activities like stadiums or Columbia City bakery. Glad we have it, don’t really understand why it takes so long to build (but accept that it is what it is) and it’s reliable, clean and part of orca system.

For the most part clean, and for the most part safe. It smells a little bit like sulfur or gunpowder once you get down there but it’s really quite nice, with a lot of art installations and a cool vibe. The light rail system itself is awesome too, and the Beacon Hill station is no exception.

A convenient and economical way to get downtown, to the airport, or to a game from BH. There are some weirdos so it’s best to keep an eye out, but mainly just locals commuting. Park in the lot across the street for only $ 5/​day.