(The Seattle Times posted the following article on its website on January 13.)
SEATTLE — Sound Transit officials are hoping to offer Sounder commuter train service from Seattle to Everett for this afternoon’s commute, but plans could change if there is another landslide along the route.
A federally mandated 48-hour moratorium on passenger train service between Seattle and Everett could be lifted at 2:30 p.m. today — 48 hours after a Wednesday landslide covered one set of rail tracks with mud and debris just north of Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park, said Sound Transit spokesman Lee Somerstein.
“It’s constantly under review … it’s a very fluid situation,” he said, noting that with all the rain on Thursday and more expected today, there’s a chance a saturated hillside could give way somewhere along Sounder’s route.
For Saturday’s Seahawks game, Sound Transit plans to provide service “one way or another,” Somerstein said. “The only question is whether it’ll be buses or trains.”
If the moratorium is lifted today, Amtrak service between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., also will be restored.