A deer trotted along roughly a mile and a half of Sound Transit's 2 Line tracks through downtown Bellevue this week, ducking into a train tunnel, backtracking through a station, and eventually bolting across an elevated guideway over Interstate 405 before vanishing into the city unharmed. No trains hit the animal, and light rail service never stopped.
A Multi-Day Trek Across Two Stations
According to The Seattle Times, Sound Transit says the deer's journey played out this week, with security cameras catching it at both the Downtown Bellevue and Wilburton stations. Train operators were alerted to watch for the animal, and crews used horns and flashing lights to try to coax it off the trackway. The Seattle Times reported that on Wednesday the deer ran west into the downtown Bellevue train tunnel, emerged on the other side, and left the tracks — only to backtrack into the Downtown Bellevue station six minutes later before continuing above I-405 and into Wilburton Station, where it finally disappeared into the city.
That tunnel is no small stretch of concrete. It runs about one-half mile, or 2,640 feet, directly beneath 110th Avenue Northeast between Main Street and Northeast Sixth Street, sitting 30 to 60 feet underground, according to the City of Bellevue, which notes the segment was completed in 2020. Wilburton Station, where the deer ultimately exited the trackway, was reached after the animal crossed I-405 on an elevated guideway that carries trains over the freeway before descending toward ground level.
How Close Was the Call?
Sound Transit spokesperson Henry Bendon told the Seattle Times that a deer can hit roughly 35 mph at a sprint — about the same ceiling trains are held to through that stretch of track. Trains can appear as often as eight minutes apart, Bendon said, adding: “especially in the downtown Bellevue tunnel, it could beat us.” Sound Transit's track intrusion detection system alerts if a rider steps onto the tracks, and an audio message tells the rider to move off, per Sound Transit.
The incident arrived just months after Sound Transit finished the full 2 Line. The Crosslake Connection opened in March, linking downtown Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond with continuous service across Lake Washington, after preliminary Eastside service had launched between South Bellevue and Redmond back in April 2024.
Deer and Sound Transit's rail network have a history, in fact: the agency originally used a deer icon as the station pictogram for Othello Station in South Seattle, a nod to deer that once roamed that area, before replacing pictograms with station numbers this decade.
