From today’s Seattle Times:
After years of talk, Port of Seattle and King County executives signed a final agreement Monday to put a 42-mile Eastside rail corridor into public ownership.
The deal paves the way for a possible combination of freight rail, commuter trains, and biking and hiking trails, but many details remain to be worked out.
And that’s the way it should be. The important thing here was having this rare remaining corridor acquired for public use, rather than being sold off a parcel at a time and lost forever. Deciding what we’re going to do with the corridor—rail or trail or both—was always less urgent than closing a deal with BNSF.
And by the way, while Ron Sims caught a lot of shit from Eastside rail enthusiasts for his intention to tear up the tracks and replace them with a hiking and biking trail, and from nearly everyone for his complicated proposal to swap Boeing Field with the Port in exchange for the rail corridor, it should be remembered that it was his initiative and vision that set this whole thing into motion in the first place. Without Sims’ leadership on this issue there may have never been a serious public effort to acquire this land.
We have this strange political pathology in Washington state in which we constantly complain about the lack of leadership coming from our elected officials, and yet instantly attack them as arrogant the minute they attempt to display any. Sims’ initial proposal may have been shot down, and with good reasons, but he still deserves much of the credit for preserving this corridor for public use.
As for the rail vs trail debate, I’d love to see an Eastside commuter line, but from what I know about the geography and demographics of this corridor, as well as the condition of the existing tracks, I wouldn’t expect it to happen anytime soon. But I’d love to be proven wrong.
Goldy, why would you like to see a rail line instead of a pedestrian and bike-only path?
Troll @1,
I think if you read my comment in context, what I’m saying is that I would love to see an Eastside commuter rail line… if it makes sense. I’m not sure if this existing corridor can support two tracks at high enough speeds to make this work, or whether the demographics of this area would support such service.
So (I believe it was the P-I who) had an overview of the latest developments on this corridor, and the current tracks would eventually be removed for light rail tracks to replace them, but they will stay put for the meantime to keep the ballast/understructure solidly in place. The rails are different for the two types of trains, but not the ballast or rocky foundation below them.
I have no doubt this will be a light rail line someday, probably with a pedestrian/bike trail next to it…but I don’t see freight being able to exist simultaneously, unless the land is a lot wider than I remember it!
Seems to me that by “we” you mean Republicans.
@3: the right-of-way is something like 100 feet.
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OK, kudos to Sims for saving this land for public use.
Now will someone please explain why putting Rapid Transit down this right-of-way is so hard to comprehend? 405 runs along most of the same route and people want to add lanes to it. No it doesn’t go to everybody’s door front, but that’s not how transit works. What it does give you is a 42 mile north-south corrider through the high-tech Eastside, with plenty of old commercial sites that can and will be redeveloped, so why not add high density housing to them?
Self propelled commuter railcars can be used right now alongside any freight, and at higher speeds (if they fix the track) than light rail.
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BTW – Great comment edit feature Goldy!
I’d like to see the rails taken out and not replaced, ever, like Sims first proposed. I’d like to see it become a pedestrian/bike-only trail and greenbelt. Perhaps, for commuting purposes, there could be some dedicated, parallel path that would be reserved for battery or electric-powered mopeds, segues, and high speed golf carts.
A lot of the right-of-way is simply not wide enough. The only sort of trail that could be put in would be something like the present commuter-bike trail along 520–not very wide, and with a high fence to keep the idiots from playing on the tracks and getting killed. It wouldn’t be the kind of pleasant, commune-with-nature, multi-use environment that the Burke-Gilman and Sammammish River trails are.
Sims has already made a big noise about how much more it’ll cost to build a trail alongside the tracks than to just rip them up and start over. Smart money says the county will come up with an excuse to remove the rails within a year.
Clearly the corridor’s most valuable useage would be a chariot pathway for Reichert to ride triumphantly into Bellevue, pulled by two white horses, sword and shield at his side. Hail, Caeser. (Galea forgone, as would cause helmut hair)
Yep, perfect!
The Port buy’s the rail line with property tax collected, then you lease the property to the County which means they will try to raise taxes again. Ron Sims, , Julia Patterson and Tay Yoshitani and other officials are jumping with joy.
The Port has no business buying the rail property when they are collecting property taxes. What does this purchase have to do with the Port/Airport anyway. Next they want to buy the Space Needle for their offices.
Maybe the State Legislator will act on removing the property tax levied against the property owners next session from the Port for unrelated Port expenses.
Double dipping of taxes
@6: Troll fool:
Yeah right and I would like to see a buck-fifty gas – ain’t gonna happen. The chickenshit populace voted against light rail – the politicians just follow the populace. The idiot Sierra club opposed the rail and roads – let those dipwads sit in traffic forever.
sorry – rail and bike paths – not just bikes. Rail is what we need and there is an existing line – we would have to be stupid not to use it (ooops, I did not mean to explicitly insult republicans).
Of course, in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to high-level office in decades, it has to be Republicans at fault. Why what need in WA state is 100% Democrat voter registration. Anything else is immoral and unholy.
First priority on that corridor should be rail…….and that’s coming from a cyclist (me) that loves rail trails.
HA HA
Y’all fighting over bike paths vs transit.
You can get a transit service up and running for PENNIES vs. Sound Transit.
But a bike path FEELS good.
What to do? What to do? Time to form a committee and spent a few million.
Clowns
Put a bullit train on that sumbitch from downtown Seattle to Chicago, Detroit and New York. They’re all on the same street. I’ll wager it’ll be a lot cheaper than financing democracy for Iraq.
In the overall scheme of things, it hardly makes any difference. Before long all the wingers’ precious dickless trucks are going to be used for compost bins and feed troughs. Then all those lovely ribbons of concrete will provide plenty of room for buses, trains, bikes and pedestrians.
To quote “The Judge” from Roger Rabbit (the movie, that is), “God, it’ll be beautiful!”