Everett (Sounder, Amtrak Casacades and Empire Builder)

Everett Station is located in the Everett Transit Center that opened in February 2003 and also has stops for Community Transit (including the northern terminus of the Swift BRT route that uses off-board Proof-of-Payment fare collection), Everett Transit, Sound Transit Express Buses (with hourly or better service south to Seattle), plus County Connection Island Transit and Skagit Transit buses to northern destinations (including Stanwood and Mount Vernon, to their Amtrak Stations).

The station is the Sounder terminus for what was a maximum of four North Line peak direction only round-trips to Seattle. As of 2024 and lower ridership caused by changes in work patterns from COVID-19, this has been reduced to just two round-trips. Amtrak serves the station with the twice-daily Amtrak Cascades Service to Vancouver, BC (one trip continues south to Portland, OR), plus the Seattle section of the Empire Builder stops daily just before it turns east to begin the long trek along the Hi-Line across Montana to Chicago. There is also an additional midday Amtrak Thruway Bus round-trip north to Bellingham. All Amtrak trains also include checked baggage service to the station.

The previous train station to serve Everett (it has had almost continuous Amtrak service but only from Empire Builder, which used the Milwaukee Road's more southern and now abandoned route until 1981) was fully staffed at 2900 Bond Street, along Pudget Sound and the Port of Everrett.

Today's Transit Center and station is away from the water and has 1107 parking spaces in various lots on both sides of the tracks. The main depot is a modern glass and brick four store building whose upper floors host a WorkSource office, a Washington state job training and placement agency. The middle lobby serves, as the waiting area with only a few benches and ticket counters for Amtrak and Greyhound, along with what else since this is Washington State but a Coffee Americano store.

This depot is located towards the northern end (railway south, the station is on a tiny section of track where trains are running briefly in the opposite direction) of the station complex, just south of Pacific Avenue's overpass. Trackside it leads out to an electric gate that is only opened when an Amtrak train is due to arrive, providing access across the track used by Sounder to Amtrak's long platform with a few benches with their own little canopies, and windscreens, a tactile warning strip and Sound Transit format signs saying Everett, Washington. This platform is along a two-tracked mainline railway.

The Sounder platform begins just south (railway north) of depot and is on a single tracked siding fenced off from the main line. The four Sounder round-trips per day pull-up beyond the platform and layover for the night on the siding using must use a first train in becomes the last train-out method, and all maintenance is done during middays under contract by Amtrak (although trains are operated under contract by BNSF) at Seattle Maintenance Facility just south of the King Street Station. This low-level platform is canopied for most of its length, along the opposite side of it are bus stops for some of the 24 bus routes that serve the station. More bus stops are located along two canopied islands just beyond this one.

Trains can stop at different locations along the platform so there are not one but two mini-high level platforms for ADA compliancy (these use a bridgeplate as well), along with also a mobile-lift on the platform. Continuing south is a footbridge across the railroad tracks to some of the parking lots on the otherside of the tracks. This has two elevator shafts and staircases up for access with brick walls, and the bridge itself is simple with mesh sides. Continuing south the platform ends and a fence protects the early Sounder sets to pull into the train yard and the special bus loop for the Swift BRT route that uses POP off-board fare collection is located.
Photos 1-23 taken on October 10, 2011; 24-54 on October 12, 2011; 55: April 13, 2024;

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