Now that trains are rolling across Lake Washington, what about life jackets?

Now that light rail trains are rolling across Lake Washington, it’s time to address a question that listeners keep asking me. Are there life jackets on board?

I asked Sound Transit’s Rachelle Cunningham about life jackets the week light rail service began. Her answer was simple.

“There are not any life jackets, and it’s because they aren’t required,” she said.

It’s something that Sound Transit investigated, but it didn’t find anything suggesting that life jackets were necessary, even with trains going across the water.

“There is no regulatory requirement,” Cunningham said. “We did a risk analysis, and that didn’t determine that they were necessary either.”

A first-of-its-kind crossing on Lake Washington, but no life jackets needed

I understand why people might be concerned. A rail line has never been installed on a floating bridge before, but Cunningham turned the question around. Do you carry a life jacket while driving across the bridge?

“So it’s like a one-minute, one and a half-minute to two-minute trip across the bridge,” she said. “You don’t have them on buses. You don’t have them on other trains that go over rivers and extended places.”

The trains do not have emergency rafts. The seats are not removable to use as flotation devices. It’s just not necessary.

“The train is very safe,” Cunningham said. “We have evacuation plans in place for if the train were stopped there [on the floating bridge]. They don’t involve getting into the water. We have a way for people to get off the bridge, should the train stop. I don’t think people should be concerned that there are no life jackets on board.”

While I understand some safety concerns about this, the biggest concern should be the wind. Windy conditions have the potential to shut down light rail service across the lake.

Sound Transit will reduce service to one train at a time on the floating bridge with sustained 35-mile-per-hour winds. If the winds get up to 40 miles an hour, service would be suspended.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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