SEATTLE – Taking a commuter train from the city of Snohomish to King County’s Eastside could become a reality if a new Puget Sound Regional Council study gives the idea a thumbs up.
The council voted Thursday to spend about $600,000 studying whether a little used 40-mile rail corridor from Snohomish to Renton should be purchased from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The council is made up of elected officials from throughout the Puget Sound region.
The PSRC has already applied to get the funding from a federal grant, which if approved, means the money for the study will come in January.
The railroad says it wants to sell the tracks – known mostly for the Spirit of Washington dinner train that runs from Renton to Woodinville – because they are only rarely used and unprofitable.
There aren’t enough people in the Snohomish area to warrant running a commuter train into Snohomish County right now, and there won’t likely be enough people anytime soon, so the best the county could do with the rail corridor is turn it into a trail, said Peter Hahn, the county’s public works director.
While not opposed to using the route as a trail, “I can’t imagine that there would be a transit corridor in this rural part of the county,” Hahn said. “That’s absurd.”
City of Snohomish officials view the rail corridor differently, saying that the growth to support a commuter train is already happening in Snohomish, Monroe, Bothell and the surrounding unincorporated communities.
“I don’t know if these folks have been to east Snohomish County lately, but we do have serious congestion problems out here,” said Snohomish Mayor Liz Loomis. “We’ve identified (securing the rail corridor) as a major priority for the city.”
The PSRC board vote to fund the rail corridor study was unanimous – minus one abstention – because acquiring an intact transportation corridor is too rare to not at least take a look, said Bob Overstreet, an Everett city councilman who sits on the PSRC board.
“This is a unique opportunity with a corridor that reaches through the heart of our future growth area,” Overstreet said. “I’ve been in this business for 25 years, and I’ve never seen an opportunity like this.”
In initial discussions over whether to fund the study, Snohomish County councilmen John Koster and Jeff Sax said the county has other transportation priorities to focus on. Neither sits on the PSRC board.
Loomis said she wouldn’t oppose turning the section of tracks in Snohomish County into a trail, but said she personally supports using it as a commuter corridor now, especially because the tracks are already in place.
Estimates of how much it would cost to buy the tracks range from $10 million to $300 million, which really means the PSRC won’t have any idea how much it would cost to buy the tracks until the study is finished in two years.
“I would say it’s truly impossible to come up with a cost appraisal right now,” said King Cushman, PSRC’s regional strategy adviser.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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