(The following article by Natalie Singer was posted on the Seattle Times website on June 11.)
SEATTLE — A regional planning committee recommended yesterday that $660,000 in federal funding be spent on exploring public acquisition of a 40-mile Eastside rail corridor.
The move is likely to lead to a study on the cost and possible new uses for the lightly used Burlington Northern Santa Fe corridor, which now carries the Spirit of Washington dinner train from Renton to Woodinville.
One scenario is that the corridor would be obtained through a process called “railbanking,” which allows railroads to sell, lease or donate the rights of way on routes they no longer operate to private organizations or local governments for use as trails. The tool guarantees that the trail can later be reactivated as a transportation corridor.
Besides the dinner train, the line is currently used just twice a day, five days a week by a single freight train carrying primarily forest products. It runs mostly parallel to Interstate 405, winding through the heart of Renton, up the eastern shore of Lake Washington, through Bellevue and Kirkland, past the wineries of Woodinville, along Highway 522 into rural Snohomish County and on to the city of Snohomish.
Burlington Northern approached the state Department of Transportation last fall to gauge its interest in buying the corridor, and the state asked the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), which oversees growth and transportation planning, to serve as a forum for the discussion.
A PSRC committee spent six months taking the pulse of cities along the line, and yesterday representatives told regional planners there was a clear interest in preserving the corridor by bringing it into public ownership. The railroad has indicated that if there’s no public interest, the right of way — which stretches at least 100 feet wide along the line — could be sold piecemeal to private buyers.
“It’s virtually unanimous along the corridor,” said King Cushman, PSRC’s regional strategy adviser, of the desire to preserve the route. The process of applying for the $660,000 in federal funds has already begun, and the PSRC’s executive board will have to give its approval at a June 24 meeting in order for the study to move forward. The money would amount to less than half of 1 percent of a pot of federal money earmarked for regional transportation projects and disbursed by PSRC.
While most representatives at the PSRC’s transportation and growth boards agreed yesterday to look into acquiring the corridor, members from Snohomish and Pierce counties — whose districts would be sharing the cost of the study but contain little or none of the length of the route — vociferously disagreed.
“We have a big plate of stuff we have to work on right now,” said Snohomish County Councilman Jeff Sax. “These dollars could be applied somewhere else.”
The naysayers were chided by peers who said it would be a tragedy to lose a 40-mile swath of up-for-grabs property so close to job and residential centers.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Kent City Councilman Tim Clark. “I’m sorry, but … when you get an opportunity like this, you don’t let it go.”
There is no consensus on what should be done with the property if it’s purchased. While many of the jurisdictions along the line have expressed interest in a bicycle and pedestrian trail, the options for future transportation use are more controversial.
Representatives of some cities, including Renton, expressed concern with the possibility of high-capacity transit running on the route in the future. Others, including Kirkland, said they could envision a shared use with both rail service and trails.