STANWOOD – A new train stop in east Stanwood is scheduled to be ready by summer 2007.
The state Department of Transportation unveiled plans last week for the $5 million project, which features a sheltered platform just north of the rail crossing at 271st Street NW.
The new platform will allow Stanwood residents to use Amtrak’s morning and evening trains.
| What happened? The state Department of Transportation unveiled plans for a new $5 million train platform in east Stanwood.
What’s next? The money needs to be spent before June 30, 2007, or the money could be used for projects elsewhere. That should not be a problem if the construction finishes by that deadline. For more details: Go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/ projects/rail and click on “Stanwood station.” |
Proponents also see it as a toe in the door for eventually expanding other public transit services, including special rail cars to connect with Sound Transit in Everett or extending Sound Transit service to Stanwood.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Pearl Schaar, president of Design Stanwood, a downtown revitalization group that started pushing the project several years ago.
“I think it’s important … for a public transportation system to be in place as the population grows,” said Tom Bird of Design Stanwood. “And traffic from here south is a nightmare.”
Re-establishing a train stop in Stanwood has been one of the group’s primary focuses, Schaar said.
“At the time, we said … it’s going to take at least 10 years, so to have it happen within four is beyond expectations,” Schaar said.
Stanwood’s first passenger train service dates to 1898, said Kirk Frederickson of the Transportation Department.
By the 1930s, eight trains a day were stopping in Stanwood. By the early 1970s, passenger service had died out, he said.
The new platform will be built close to where the historic depot used to be on the west side of the tracks. It will be 750 feet long and 18 feet wide, with staircases and a ramp for the disabled, Frederickson said.
An existing parking lot will be resurfaced and will have parking for 106 vehicles, plus seven spaces for vehicles from the nearby police station, Frederickson said.
The Transportation Department would also like to make it a park-and-ride lot, with connections for bus service to Island and Snohomish counties. But officials are studying whether Stanwood streets could handle the extra traffic, he said.
If all goes as planned, the platform will be ready by June 2007, he said. At that point, residents would be able to board the northbound Amtrak at 9 a.m. and the southbound at 9:30 a.m.
Return trips would stop at the new Stanwood platform at 8 p.m. northbound and 8:30 p.m. southbound.
One-way fares from Stanwood to Seattle would be $13 or $20, depending on the season, while a trip to Vancouver, B.C., would be $15 or $23, Frederickson said.
Only one daily Amtrak train currently goes all the way to Vancouver. But with the Winter Olympics coming in 2010, negotiations are under way to get a second daily train before then, Frederickson said.
The $5 million budgeted must be spent by June 30, 2007, or the Legislature could reclaim the money. The project should be able to meet that deadline, he said.
The bigger hurdle will be expanding commuter rail service to Stanwood, Frederickson said.
Doing so would require hundreds of millions of dollars for new siding tracks so the new trains would be able to pass each other, he said. Current freight and Amtrak traffic would not allow commuter trains without new siding, he said.
“It’s going to be very, very, very expensive,” Frederickson said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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