EVERETT, Wash. — The sign outside Everett Station lists Amtrak right at the top, according to the Everett Daily Herald.
But the new ticket counter inside is empty. And passenger trains barrel right by the station without stopping.
Everett’s Amtrak station was supposed to move from its current spot in a little old building near the waterfront to the big new transportation center near I-5 at the beginning of this year.
Then it was put off until summer. Then a paper sign went up at the new ticket counter saying service would start in September.
Now the most optimistic estimate is October.
And asking why will only get you spun around in a circle of pointing fingers and wrapped up in reams of red tape whirling around the five entities, both governmental and private, involved in the project.
It didn’t take much for Greyhound, Everett Transit, Community Transit and Sound Transit to move their buses over to the city’s new transportation hub at the beginning of the year.
And since the $44 million center was built right next to the railroad, you’d think it wouldn’t take much to get trains to stop there.
Rail passengers ask about the new station all the time, especially those who have come from the north and gotten a glimpse of the impressive new building as their train goes by, eventually stopping to let them off at the old one, said Everett ticket agent Les Stumm. Some have missed their train because they’ve gone to the wrong place.
Stumm can’t wait to move to his new ticket counter in the “nice shiny building” and to have more social interaction as well with the workers and riders from the various bus agencies already happily ensconced in their new digs. In between spurts of hectic activity as more than a hundred passengers a day get in and out at Amtrak’s Everett stop, Stumm said ,”It gets pretty lonely here.”
His boss in Seattle shares his eagerness to move.
“It’s a beautiful building,” said Kurt Laird, Amtrak’s general manager for the Pacific Northwest. “We’d love to get started.”
The plan is to build a platform for Amtrak right next to the railroad’s main line, which is about 40 feet east of the station. Passenger trains would stop to let riders disembark.
But problems began about a year ago when Burlington Northern Sante Fe, which owns the track and the land around it, denied right of entry to Sound Transit, which is planning to use the station for commuter rail service between Everett and Seattle.
A contractor had already started work on Sound Transit’s platform on the eastern side of the Everett Station building. The plans call for construction of a Sound Transit spur and a separate Amtrak platform between the building and the main railroad tracks. Amtrak riders would have to use a walkway across the Sound Transit tracks to get into the building.
Rather than hold up the center until negotiations were finalized between Sound Transit and Burlington Northern, Everett decided to postpone work on the rail portion, said Paul Kaftanski, who has been managing the project for the city of Everett for nine years.
Burlington Northern officials wouldn’t disclose this week why the company refused to let Sound Transit build its track and platform, saying only that discussions are ongoing. The multicounty transit agency has had financial difficulties and permit delays, which have postponed the start of its commuter rail service north of Seattle.
Amtrak, which has worked with Burlington Northern for years, did have the company’s permission to build. But it didn’t want to build its platform only to make passengers walk through a construction zone once Sound Transit’s permission to build was granted.
While negotiations dragged on, Amtrak’s funding became a concern. The company’s overall financial problems weren’t what slowed the project down this year, Laird said, but they could hold it up in the future.
Amtrak’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30, so if the set-aside money for the platform isn’t spent by then, Laird said, he risks losing it in next year’s budget as accountants scour for unspent funds. Amtrak has already given Everett $600,000 for the new station and is supposed to give it another $400,000 on moving day.
So Amtrak decided to step in and see how it could move things along. The company was able to get Burlington Northern’s permission for the right of way, which it signed over to Everett. Now the city is working out the final details to start building the Amtrak platform, the section of the Sound Transit spur that would be directly in front of the center and the rest of the Sound Transit platform.
“Amtrak is actually doing much more than it ever thought it would with this project,” Kaftanski said.
That way, Sound Transit and Burlington Northern can take as long as they need to finalize the commuter rail service plans and can build the remaining track needed in the future without interrupting Amtrak passengers.
All the various parties, agreements, financial issues, plans and approvals have made it “a little complex as to who’s responsible for doing what,” Laird said.
If there’s no agreement within the next week or so, Laird said, Amtrak will have to go ahead and start building its platform without Sound Transit, rather than risk losing its funding. But everyone’s trying hard to get all the work done at the same time to hold costs down and avoid any adverse impact on Amtrak passengers.
The platform construction can start as soon as surface improvements are made to the railroad. Burlington Northern engineers are planning to elevate the track in that area by 8 inches so it matches the height of the track through the
tunnel to the west and over the river to the east, Kaftanski said.
Once that work starts, which could be as early as next week, it will be two to three months before Amtrak can move into the new station, officials said.