From the PI on April 9, 2008
‘Rails to Trail’ deal done by fall?
Port hopes to buy area by SeptemberBy KRISTEN MILLARES YOUNG
P-I REPORTERThe Port of Seattle’s $107 million purchase of 42 miles of rail tracks along the Eastside could be complete by September, Port Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani said Tuesday at a commission meeting.
Under the deal still being worked out by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and the port, BNSF would retain the right to run freight on the corridor between Woodinville and Snohomish but would sell that right to a third-party "short line" operator of its choice, with port approval.
The port commission’s main goal has been to preserve the corridor in one piece while allowing its northern segment to continue freight service.
Southern parts of the corridor — namely, from Renton to Woodinville, and down the seven-mile spur from there to Redmond — could still be used for future public transit because it would be rail-banked as a nonmotorized corridor, according to the 1983 "Rails to Trails" act.
By keeping easements in place while the corridor is in use as a recreational trail, rail-banking protects the corridor from being divvied up by underlying property owners.
Under the deal’s latest iteration, the port would grant King County the right to buy the southern, rail-banked sections before the acquisition closes. King County would contribute $2 million to the purchase price, retain right of first refusal and sponsor the trail, which would be "developed in phases after a regional determination regarding the dual use of the Corridor for transportation/trail," according to a canceled port presentation.
Yoshitani said he believed a $300,000 Sound Transit and Puget Sound Regional Council study of the rail corridor’s feasibility as a commuter line would include a cost/benefit analysis.
"How that study sorts out is of great importance and relevance to us," said Yoshitani, who added that the port scheduled the public input process to begin next winter.
The deal depends on the federal Surface Transportation Board, which in the fall is expected to approve rail-banking and short-line rail use along the corridor, as well as to suspend BNSF’s abandonment of part of the corridor. If approved, the purchase would be funded by the port’s property tax levy.
A debate last year focused on whether it made sense to keep the aging railroad tracks intact in order to run some commuter rail cars over them, rather than ripping them out to convert the corridor into a trail.
Trail advocates, including King County Executive Ron Sims, said leaving the tracks intact would make it too expensive to convert; rail advocates howled about the loss of the tracks and pointed out that a paved biking-walking trail already runs between Renton and Bellevue.
Many of the deal’s original parts are gone: the port won’t trade the corridor for King County’s Boeing Field — nor is the county required to consult with the port before any major moves at the airfield, which nearly poached some of Sea-Tac Airport’s airlines in 2005.
Stakeholders have also backpedaled from expanding BNSF’s tunnel at Stampede Pass enough to allow freight trains stacked two containers high to pass through it. Retired Port of Seattle Chief Executive Mic Dinsmore has said the estimated $70 million to $120 million project was a "major element" of the original deal he and Sims proposed in 2006. Gov. Chris Gregoire put $25 million in the 2007 budget for it.
However, port officials at last week’s joint commission meeting said that BNSF has mothballed the project. The company could not be reached for comment late Tuesday night.
P-I reporter Kristen Millares Young can be reached at 206-448-8142 or kristenyoung@seattlepi.com.