Lakewood is the southern terminus of Sounder, on an extension that opened on October 8, 2012. The parking garage and transit center opened for buses on Sunday, September 21, 2008. All southern line trains, except for the two reverse direction peak and the trains that turn in Tacoma to become these trips are now extended to Lakewood and overnight in a train yard a bit north of the station. Except for the short trackage to Tacoma Dome away from the BNSF Line, this extension is the only portion of Sounder not shared with Amtrak. Amtrak though is planning to use this line for Amtrak Cascades service to avoid the bottleneck of Port Defiance and the tunnel there as part of the Port Defiance Bypass project, once the track improvements are extended farther south.
The station consists of a single side platform along the east side of a single track. Along the platform is a lane of a bus loop, with an island and a second bus loop lane before reaching parallel Pacific Highway. The platform has a single relatively large canopy structure between it and the adjacent bus stops. The middle passenger island in the bus loop has two structures with two more before reaching Pacific Highway. The station's 600 space parking garage has four levels and is modern looking, clad in glass and silver sheeting, white lettering announces it as Lakewood Station. From the third level is a pedestrian bridge (all access is through the garage, including its elevators) across the train track that leads to a staircase and elevator down to the loop at the dead-end of Kendrick Street, providing access to its residential area. There is a blue beam structure at the entrance says Welcome to Lakewood in white on the exit side and Lakewood Station on the entrance side. In a small plaza between the bus loops and the parking garage is a black abstract sculpture is Flame 2008 a tall 19 foot high black sculpture that looks like a flame.
All Photos taken on 11 April, 2014
South Tacoma