Paid Permit Parking coming to local Sound Transit parking garages
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Story and Photos by John Boril
Paid permit parking starts May first at the Shoreline North, Shoreline South, and Northgate Sound Transit parking garages.
For single occupant vehicles, the cost will be $60 per month, or $6 per day.
Transit riders who are eligible for reduced fares can get the permit for $20.
Sound Transit will be setting aside permit zones in the garages, and only permit holders will be allowed to park in those areas from 4 to 10am on weekdays.
Carpoolers will be able to apply for free HOV permits, but all riders will have to register.
And any day when there are not at least two members of your pool in the car, it will have to be parked in general parking.
Reserved HOV parking will also be available at the Lynnwood City Center and Mountlake Terrace garages, but no paid single occupant permits are being offered at those locations.
For now, no more than 25 percent of each garage will be reserved for permit holders.
Sound Transit’s website says the agency, “will adjust the permit area, pricing, and availability depending on permit demand and usage.”
This link has more information, as well as links to apply for permits.
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18 comments:
Are people ticketed for leaving their cars in the garage indefinitely? There are quite a few cars there even at 3am, when no buses or trains are running to the station.
Maybe they work night shift. It says you can park 24 hours
Why is it at those three stations and not Lynnwood?
Soon, we'll all have to pay.
where will the reserved parking be?
More money More money! When will it stop! This is a bad idea! Leave it first come first serve bases! In Shoreline in the morning, it’s full already and you can only park on the 5th floor and above! This enables the rich get to park and the poor get to park in the neighborhood! The neighborhood is not going to be happy! Take it back!
First they made it unpleasant to take the train to work by not enforcing decency standards among the ridership. Then they failed to keep the trains in a good enough state of repair to make fast service reliable. Now they're making getting there more expensive. The balance continues to shift back toward simply driving to work and parking there because of the escalating annoyances from Sound Transit.
You do realize people also work overnight…
Cars at 3 am are likely some of the Seattle employees who pull the night shifts at hospitals, building security, manufacturing, office cleaning and the like.
How about enforcing the train fares?
That’s not necessarily a good metric on its own. Nothing wrong with people working the night shift using a park and ride and transit over night. You just need to ticket people parked over 24 hours. Or anybody you watch walk to an apartment.
Sound Transit paid (a lot of) money to use eminent domain to buy a number of homes just east of the Mountlake Terrace parking garage as overflow parking and some bus stops while the Link was being built. After Link was built, they closed that parking, which could have been used as badly needed parking for that P&R. Instead, the lot remains closed. Parking in the garage most weekday mornings is full. The planning for Link in terms of parking was criminal. No foresight. Not everyone has a bus they can take to the P&R. Turn that lot into a multi-floor parking garage, and don't charge people to park in either garage.
We've already paid through the nose!
Kinda defeats the purpose of light rail.
This may come as a shocker to you but there is something called night shift. Many people don't work a traditional 9-5.
We all predicated this would happen.
1. Paying to park at the Light Rail.
We imagine the following will happen next:
2. The City will install more “no parking” street signage. ( We’ve noticed some signs in the neighborhoods have already been installed)
Hmmm… I wonder where our grandparents will parking when visiting us?
Or friends stopping by for a summer BBQ? Or family visiting for the holidays?
3. Next the citizens of our community will have to purchase “parking permits” in order to park in front of their homes. I wonder how much that will cost?
Darn we’ll miss our residential neighborhoods.
I think they meant people who park there for more than 24 hours, beyond just being there for a night shift or even an extended shift. This is happening! Offer up an alternate explanation without assuming the person doesn't know about night shifts, and without being snarky.
It might get used as an alternative to airport parking if there's no enforcement.
They should reopen that lot. It could help with overcrowding in Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline, and Lynnwood.
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