Sea-Tac to Downtown Seattle: The 3 Dollar Train and the Walk Nobody Warns You About
Link costs 3 dollars flat and takes 38 minutes. Uber averages 72. The station is a seven to nine minute walk across the garage. Verified 2026 fares and pickup points.
Sammie O
The Link light rail from Sea-Tac to downtown Seattle costs 3 dollars flat and takes 38 minutes. Uber publishes an average of 72 dollars for the same trip. The catch nobody warns you about is that the station is a seven to nine minute walk from baggage claim, across the fourth floor of a parking garage. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against Sound Transit, King County Metro and the Port of Seattle in September 2026.
What each option costs
| Option | Price to downtown | Time | Where you catch it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Link 1 Line | 3.00 dollars | 38 minutes | 4th floor of the garage |
| Taxi | About 38 to 41 dollars on the meter | Traffic dependent | 3rd floor of the garage |
| Uber or Lyft | Uber average 72 dollars | 27 minutes average | 3rd floor, stalls 1 to 34 |
| Shared shuttle | 30 dollars a person | 25 to 45 minutes | 3rd floor plaza, Island 2A |
Nothing picks up at the arrivals kerb. Taxis, rideshare, shared vans and hotel shuttles are all on floor 3 of the parking garage, and the train is on floor 4.
The flat fare, and the page that still gets it wrong
Sound Transit charges a single flat fare on Link regardless of distance. Adults aged 19 to 64 pay 3 dollars. Riders 18 and under travel free on all Sound Transit services. Seniors 65 and over, riders with a disability and ORCA LIFT holders pay 1 dollar.
The Port of Seattle’s own Link explainer still quotes a one way fare of 2.25 to 3.25 dollars. That is the old distance based range. Use 3 dollars.
Because the fare is flat, you tap on only. Sound Transit says it in as many words. There is no need to tap off on Link or on the bus, and tapping a reader on the way out can charge you again.
The walk
This is the single most common underestimate at Sea-Tac.
The Port puts the distance at 950 feet and the time at seven to nine minutes from the Alaska Airlines baggage claim. An independent description of the same walkway gives 1,200 feet. Either way it is a long covered stretch with luggage.
The route is up one floor from baggage claim to the skybridge level, across Skybridge Six, then left through the garage to the station on the fourth floor. The pedestrian bridge is open 24 hours.
Most arrivals do not know there is a free ride. Complimentary electric shuttle carts run the walkway from 5am to midnight with a five to ten minute wait between them. Mobility assistance is available on 206 787 4069 and 206 787 5906.
Paying
Since 23 February 2026 you can tap a contactless bank card or a phone wallet straight at the reader. Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express are accepted, along with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Contactless taps are charged the adult fare and get the standard two hour transfer.
Three limits. Contactless cannot claim a reduced fare, cannot hold a pass, and cannot pay for more than one rider on one card. It is also not accepted on the Seattle Monorail or Washington State Ferries.
An ORCA card costs 3 dollars, needs a 5 dollar minimum load and is sold from the machines in the station mezzanine. For a visitor making a handful of trips, tapping a bank card costs the same 3 dollars a ride and saves the card fee. ORCA only wins if you qualify for a reduced fare or want a pass.
Getting to Bellevue
The 2 Line does not serve the airport. Sea-Tac is on the 1 Line only.
For Bellevue and Redmond you ride the 1 Line north to International District and Chinatown, then change to the 2 Line. The flat fare and the two hour transfer cover the whole trip on one 3 dollar tap.
Cross lake service opened on 28 March 2026, adding Mercer Island and Judkins Park. The 2 Line runs about every eight minutes at peak and every 10 to 15 minutes the rest of the day. Between Lynnwood and International District the two lines combine to give a train every four to five minutes.
Sound Transit publishes 38 minutes for the airport to downtown and 40 minutes for downtown to Redmond, but no total for the airport to Bellevue. We are not going to add the two and present it as official.
Taxis
Meter rates come from the joint City of Seattle and King County rule effective 6 August 2025.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Drop, first ninth of a mile | 2.60 dollars |
| Per mile above 11 mph | 2.70 dollars |
| Waiting, or below 11 mph | 50 cents a minute |
| Extra passenger beyond two | 50 cents each |
| Minimum fare from the airport | 20.00 dollars, before fees, surcharges and tolls |
A temporary fuel surcharge of 1.00 to 3.50 dollars applies only when fuel goes above 4 dollars a gallon.
There is no published regulated flat rate to downtown. The Port runs a flat rate taxi programme but publishes only its administration terms and a 6 dollar per trip fee paid to the Port, with no zone prices. Operators advertising their own flat rates are quoting themselves, not a regulated fare.
Applying the rule to the 13 to 14 road miles into downtown gives roughly 38 to 41 dollars on the meter before waiting time, the Port trip fee, tax and a tip. That is arithmetic from the tariff, not an observed fare.
Uber and Lyft
Pickup is stalls 1 to 34 in the middle of the third floor of the parking garage. The Port states it, and Uber’s own driver page for the airport says the same.
Uber publishes an average of 72 dollars over 27 minutes and 16 miles between Seattle and the airport. That is notably above the taxi meter arithmetic, and we are flagging the gap rather than trying to reconcile it.
The airport fee is the one figure we could not pin down. The last confirmed amount is 6 dollars a trip, but that dates from 2017. The current airport tariff document blocks automated access, so we will not print a 2026 number.
Shared shuttle
Premier Airport Shuttle runs a scheduled shared van between major downtown hotels and the airport, every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, by reservation. It charges 30 dollars a passenger booked more than a week ahead, and quotes 25 to 45 minutes door to door with no more than three other hotel stops.
Check in is at the counter in the middle of the Ground Transportation Plaza on floor 3, loading from Island 2A. From baggage claim, take the lift near carousel 12 up to the garage level and cross the skybridge, following the signs for Ground Transportation and door to door vans.
Shuttle Express markets a Seattle Downtown Airporter but publishes no fare, no schedule and no confirmation that it is a shared ride rather than a private van. We will not quote a price for it.
Hotel and off site parking courtesy shuttles use Islands 1 and 3 on the same floor.
The buses
The station is served by the 1 Line and by the A Line, 156, 161, 560, 574 and 597. Sound Transit Express and King County Metro both charge 3 dollars adult, with youth free and reduced fares at 1 dollar. A regional day pass is 6 dollars.
Route 560 runs between Bellevue and West Seattle via the airport and stops at the terminal itself, Bay 2, rather than the International Boulevard stop. It runs about every 30 minutes, with the earliest departure from Bellevue Transit Center at 5am and the latest at 10:37pm. Sound Transit proposed shortening the route in July 2026 and removing the direct West Seattle to airport link. We could not confirm whether that took effect in the August service change.
The A Line is a local corridor route on International Boulevard between Federal Way and Tukwila International Boulevard Station. It does not go to downtown Seattle. People board it expecting otherwise.
After the trains stop
Link runs roughly 5am to 1am on weekdays and Saturdays and 6am to midnight on Sundays. Sound Transit does not state first and last trains in plain text on any page we could read, so treat those as approximate.
After that the transit link is Night Bus 597, which runs from SeaTac through downtown Seattle to Federal Way, Tacoma and Lakewood about every 30 minutes. Towards downtown, Monday to Saturday, the first is 11:30pm and the last is 3:30am. The fare is the same 3 dollars. It replaced the route 570 night pilot on 30 August 2026, and it leaves from a bus stop rather than the train platform.
Rental cars
There are no rental counters in the terminal. Every company operates from one off airport facility at 3150 South 160th Street, served by dedicated shuttle buses running 24 hours a day. Two pickup areas sit outside baggage claim at the north and south ends of the main terminal.
The Port does not publish the distance or the ride time. An independent visitor guide gives 2 miles, about 8 minutes, with shuttles every 5 minutes. Treat that as unofficial.
What we could not confirm
The current rideshare airport fee. The airport’s tariff document blocks automated access.
Rental car facility charges and concession fees, for the same reason.
First and last Link trains from an operator source in plain text.
Journey time from the airport to Bellevue, and to Capitol Hill. Sound Transit publishes neither.
Rush hour road times. Neither the Port, the state transport department nor Sound Transit publishes one. The defensible point is structural. Link’s 38 minutes is fixed. Road time is not.
Whether route 560 was shortened in the August 2026 service change, and the current span and frequency of the A Line.
Sources
- Sound Transit, fares
- Sound Transit, Sea-Tac Airport
- Sound Transit, Tap to Pay launch
- Port of Seattle, Link light rail explainer
- Port of Seattle, ride share pickup
- Port of Seattle, rental car facility
- Seattle and King County, taxi rate rule
- King County Metro, prices
Sammie O publishes Germ Trips, a travel guide covering hotels, restaurants, airport transfers and chauffeur services. The guides aim for practical detail and a clear recommendation rather than an undifferentiated list. Where a town has no good option, the guides say so and point to the nearest one that does. Guides are AI drafted. A small number have been checked against official listings, and those say so on the page.
View All Articles