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11/21/2019
Sound Transit last week announced it will create a new naming system for its Link light-rail service.
The new naming convention stems from rider objections to the agency using the phrase “red line” to broadly represent the light-rail service.
Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff told Sound Transit staff at a System Expansion Committee meeting that he's heard from riders that the phrase carries associations with “redlining,” which describes the historical practices that banks used to withhold home-loan funds or insurance from neighborhoods deemed to be a poor economic risk, Sound Transit officials wrote on the agency blog.
“While numerous transit systems around our country have red lines based on the widespread practice of using primary colors to label transit services, at Sound Transit we want to build a system that welcomes everyone. The term 'red line' clearly works against this goal,” wrote Jackie Martinez-Vasquez, Sound Transit’s chief equity and inclusion officer
A naming system will be developed in the coming months and will be finalized in March 2020.