In anticipation of a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday evening, Sound Transit temporarily closed the U District light rail station and replaced train service with shuttle buses.
Earlier in the week, a flyer shared on Instagram advertised a protest at the station as part of “Shut it down for Palestine,” an international day of action. According to the post, the demonstration was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, ANSWER and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
In addition to demands for a cease-fire and ending all U.S. aid to Israel, the protest called on Sound Transit to sever ties with German energy technology company Siemens, which, according to the flyer, is a contractor for a project to connect the electricity grids between Europe and Israel.
The protest was scheduled for between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday. Sound Transit announced the closure a little after 5 p.m. and reopened the station around 9:30 p.m.
Sound Transit spokesperson John Gallagher said the agency looked at several options and decided in light of announcements that said in part, “Shut It Down,” the safest course was to close the station and not take any chance that people would enter the trackway.
Shuttle buses replaced the 1 line between the Roosevelt, U District and University of Washington stations, according to an alert from Sound Transit.
Demonstrators gathered outside the station holding signs reading “Sound Transit: Cut ties with Siemens! No money for occupation!” And “Let Gaza Live.”
“[Sound Transit] shut down the station an hour before we arrived,” Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, shouted to a crowd of about 200 people. “They made their action even more disruptive than we planned.”
Taylor Young, an organizer with ANSWER, said protesters never intended to go on the tracks and block trains. Their plan was to ride the escalators and point out to passengers the connection between Seattle’s transit and Siemens.
Ruqaiyah Damrah, with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said organizers wanted to “draw attention to the fact that something so mundane, like taking the bus, taking the train in Seattle, is so deeply intertwined with the oppression that Palestinians face.”
Siemens has already delivered most of a $741 million order for 152 rail cars for Sound Transit, to be completed in 2026. Many of those are already running between Northgate and Angle Lake. The transit board last fall endorsed an additional order for 10 rail cars worth $96 million, for delivery later in 2027.
Sound Transit’s governing board has held no discussions about rethinking its Siemens contract based on Middle East conflicts. Transit staff has not received citizen requests and has not undertaken any related studies, Gallagher confirmed.
“We apologize for the additional inconvenience this causes our riders during our current service disruption,” Sound Transit said on the social media platform X.
Sound Transit has already closed five other central Seattle stations for scheduled track replacement all weekend: Westlake, University Street, Pioneer Square, International District/Chinatown and Stadium. Shuttle buses are also serving those stations.
On Friday, Seattle police offered no information about how they might respond. Nor did Sound Transit, which employs King County Sheriff’s Office deputies as transit police.
Gallagher said Friday that Sound Transit was aware of the potential disruption and was monitoring the situation.
“While we respect the rights of protesters, the safety and security of passengers and staff, and continued operation of the system, are our priorities,” he said.
Protesters have taken to the streets nearly every weekend since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. The demonstrations have escalated over time, with protesters obstructing the entrance to the Space Needle, blocking traffic on the University Bridge and shutting down Interstate 5.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 250 others were taken hostage, according to The Associated Press. Since then, Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed over 24,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Demonstrations have rarely disrupted light rail service. On a few occasions, Sound Transit has pulled down steel entrance gates at some entrances of the Capitol Hill or Westlake stations, when officials thought a protest crowd or confrontations might spill into a transit lobby.
Other than that, demonstrations haven’t obstructed light rail service since it began in 2009, except for Jan. 28, 2017, when six trains full of passengers skipped the SeaTac/Airport Station at the request of Port of Seattle police. That night, an estimated 3,000 pro-immigrant demonstrators filled the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport terminal to protest an executive order by then-President Donald Trump that banned non-U.S. citizens arriving from seven majority-Muslim countries from passing through U.S. Customs.