This season, a Mariners game ticket is also light rail fare

As anyone who has tried to navigate around the stadiums on a game day can tell you, it can be a mess around there. When Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail line rolled in, a stadium stop added an extra option for fans that didn’t want to get snarled in car or bus traffic on the way to Safeco Field. This season through June 3, that train ride will be free with a game ticket.

A new partnership between the Mariners and Sound Transit, starting for Thursday’s opening day game against Cleveland, makes a digital or paper Mariners game ticket acceptable as fare on the train starting three hours before the first pitch and running through the end of the service day—hopefully mostly useful in the case of post-game revelry and not an unprecedentedly long game time.

For those that need to drive for one reason or another, there’s parking at the end of the line around the Angle Lake station, although those that must drive might want to plan ahead to get one of the 1,160 parking spaces, especially on weekdays.

The free rides are sponsored by the Mariners.

In addition to the light rail partnership, Sound Transit is still, like last year, running special Sounder service on certain game days for people who live even further out of town. That starts on the Sunday, April 1 game, also at Cleveland.

For weekday evening games, Sounder commuters are still out of luck—the last evening train leaves at 6:30 or 7, depending on which direction it’s headed—but Water Taxi commuters to West Seattle get a few extra trips at night, including on opening night, to make a transit commute easier.

• Mariners and Sound Transit partner to use game tickets to ride link light rail to/from Safeco Field [MLB]

This article has been updated to reflect the end date of the promotion.