Former Eastside (Seattle) BNSF rail corridor sold again

[CHamilton]

Port of Seattle Commissioner John Creighton posts on Facebook:

The Port Commission voted yesterday to sell the southern portion of the BNSF Eastside Corridor to King County for a $6 million loss/25% below what we paid for it, after much foot dragging and renegogiating of agreed terms by the County Executive's office.

As someone who grew up and lives on the Eastside, I have been a champion since taking office in 2006 of bringing the Corridor into public ownership, which the Port did in 2009. But tolerating the County renegotiating terms ex post facto, not being able to rely on a sister government's word, does nothing to further much needed regional collaboration.

The rail line in question, most recently home to the Washington Dinner Train, was cut in half a couple of years ago when an underpass through which it traveled was removed during highway reconstruction. At the time, a complex agreement was laid out that would transfer the line to public ownership, for future use as a bike trail and, potentially, as a commuter line. Since the line parallels the very congested I-405, many of us hoped that the line could be used to improve rail connections.

Ownership of the northern section of the line is also in flux -- see a December 2011 post from Seattle Transit Blog. So it's unclear at this point what will happen to the line, and whether there is any chance it will return to rail use. Since it travels through some very expensive real estate on the shores of Lake Washington, NIMBYism is likely to be strong.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Is there any map of the line? It's confusing to dig info out of nowhere, especially since I'm not familiar with the line.

 

[CHamilton]

Is there any map of the line? It's confusing to dig info out of nowhere, especially since I'm not familiar with the line.

There's a PDF link on this page.

 

[CHamilton]

Port OKs sale of Eastside rail corridor

Commissioners ...agreed to grant King County a permanent easement over a portion of the corridor that still has freight service; the easement will allow King County to develop a recreational trail. The transaction now goes to the King County Council for final approval.

No mention of passenger or commuter rail.

 

[CHamilton]

Here's a long, but useful, article describing the current state of this line.

Eastside rail: The Humpty Dumpty of Northwest transportation

The Eastside's only rail line is in the midst of a five-way tug-of-war: Kirkland, Redmond, the Port of Seattle, Sound Transit, King County. Can so many owners ever amount to a whole, functioning transit line?

Those who recall the Spirit of Washington dinner train, which plied the so-called Eastside rail line from 1993 to 2007, may well wonder what happened to their fond memory and the tracks it ran on. It’s a long story.

What will happen with the Eastside Snohomish-Renton line, a bone of much contention since its transfer to public ownership three years ago, remains anyone's guess. The freight rail operation along the Snohomish-Woodinville segment of the so-called Eastside line may soon have a new owner, resolving an acrimonious Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Still, a thicket of legalisms, politics and finance must be negotiated before any comprehensive transportation corridor can be reestablished.

 

[CHamilton]

King Co. Council to take public comment on Eastside Rail Corridor

The Metropolitan King County Council will take public testimony Monday on the proposed purchase of a portion of the Eastside Rail Corridor, the potential backbone of a regional corridor that could support trails, Eastside commuter rail, and an array of utility services....

The proposed legislation is the final step in the effort to maintain the 42-mile corridor that extends from Renton to Snohomish and prevent the corridor from being broken up and sold for private development.

Public comment

Monday, December 3

1:30 p.m.

Council Chambers, 10th floor

King County Courthouse, 516 Third Ave., Seattle

 

[CHamilton]

Rail advocates hope for last-minute save in Kirkland

As Kirkland prepares to put in a trail, a group of rail supporters argue that trains would do a great job of hauling away debris from an expected Bellevue building boom.

The Eastside rail line (in red) has a host of owners.

The Eastside's only rail line is in the midst of a five-way tug-of-war: Kirkland, Redmond, the Port of Seattle, Sound Transit, King County. Can so many owners ever amount to a whole, functioning transit line?


Those who want to save an Eastside rail corridor are running short of time.

While Kirkland may start tearing out the tracks in its portion of the corridor in a matter of weeks, a group calling itself the Eastside Trailway Alliance is fighting on. More than 30 people - including some supporting Kirkland - attended the alliance's second call-to-arms meeting at a posh Woodinville winery recently. Pinot gris, merlot and an assortment of cheeses provided a mellow counterpoint to the tenor of the hardening debate.

The cities of Woodinville and Snohomish and several other parties have signed onto the ad hoc coalition's manifesto, which calls for “joint rail and trail development” and a moratorium on track removal. Kirkland intends to put in an interim bike-pedestrian trail on its existing 5.75 miles of railbed, and then begin planning a permanent trail and possible reinstatement of rails on the right-of-way.

Kirkland officials met in November and December with Doug Engle, managing director of Eastside Community Rail, which runs a freight operation at the north end of the 42-mile corridor and is looking to expand its traffic through Kirkland to Bellevue, where pending development projects promise plenty of construction debris in need of removal. Those meetings resulted in an impasse, shifting the standoff into a more public sphere.

 

[CHamilton]

Was public railroaded in trail deal?

Six years ago, King County and Port of Seattle officials gathered in front of the Wilburton railroad trestle in Bellevue to announce what they said was a historic purchase.

They were buying a rail corridor along the Eastside from BNSF Railway to convert it to “the granddaddy of all trails,” as then King County Executive Ron Sims called it. They also hoped to run commuter trains on the tracks someday.

Officials for the two local governments fist-bumped on that May 2008 day as the sale papers were signed. The deal cost taxpayers $81 million.

Except there was a huge red flag in those papers — a sizable legal caveat that was glossed over in pitching the deal to the public...The railroad didn’t own a lot of the land. For parts of the line, it was selling only the right to run a railroad...

As a result, last month the federal government agreed to pay out a huge settlement, $140 million to 253 property owners along the Eastside rail line from Renton to Woodinville. The money is compensation for using their land for the planned hiking and biking trail. A whopping $35 million of that goes as a fee to the lawyer, Stewart.

The payout sets a U.S. record for the “rails-to-trails” program, but not the kind it was shooting for.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Any of those guys going to go to jail Charlie?

 

[neroden]

Yeeargh. This should be the main north-south freight rail line in the region, avoiding the unstable tracks on the beach, and instead it's been one stupid thing after another.

What's maddening is how recent these mistakes were. The really dumb abandonments out here in the east were mostly done in the 1970s and 1980s, with a few in the 1990s. I can't think of any post-2000 abandonments worth noting.