The Spirit of Washington Dinner Train could be rolling to Snohomish as soon as next July, bringing with it the spending clout of 100,000 additional visitors each year.
Unless it finds a new route, the popular dinner train will grind to a halt for good in July because the Renton-to-Woodinville track it now uses is being shut down by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
Dinner train owner Eric Temple wants to move the train to Woodinville, where he envisions it running to Snohomish and back every afternoon.
“I think it’s a great option,” Temple said. “I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ll have millions of dollars of economic impact in downtown Snohomish if we can come there.”
The key players are lining up in support of the notion.
Temple is actively negotiating with the railroad, King County and the Port of Seattle, all of which are involved in a complicated proposal to have the port buy the 47-mile Snohomish-to-Renton rail corridor and trade it to King County.
Under the proposal, the Port of Seattle would buy the rail corridor for $100 million to $200 million and then trade it to King County in exchange for Boeing Field, the commercial airport that King County operates south of downtown Seattle.
King County wants to convert the rail corridor into a trail, which means pulling out the tracks in most King County sections.
While space is tight in urban east King County, there’s plenty of room along the 14-mile corridor from Snohomish to Woodinville for a trail and an active rail line.
That makes moving the dinner train north a viable option, said Kurt Triplett, King County Executive Ron Sims’ chief of staff.
“We like the dinner train, and we’d love to see (it keep) running,” Triplett said. “We, as King County, would be open to have it from Woodinville to Snohomish.”
Snohomish County Councilman Dave Somers isn’t keen on King County owning the Snohomish County portion of the rail corridor, but he said he supports keeping it as a working rail line.
“I think it would be great” to bring the dinner train to Snohomish County, Somers said.
Temple has contacted the city of Snohomish about bringing the train to town, Snohomish Mayor Randy Hamlin said.
“It will be a great asset for us,” he said.
The train would bring in tourists, helping downtown businesses, Hamlin said.
City officials and Temple are discussing whether the train should cross the Snohomish River and stop in the city or stop just south of the river, City Manager Larry Bauman said.
“There are far more unknowns than there are knowns,” Bauman said.
Temple said he would prefer to have the train cross the river and shuttle passengers the last few blocks to the downtown district.
After boarding in Woodinville, riders would eat dinner during the hour-and-15-minute trip to Snohomish, Temple said. There they would step off, spend an hour shopping in the city’s historic downtown and then have coffee and dessert on the return trip.
“The tie in with Snohomish is nostalgia,” Temple said.
Snohomish’s downtown district is “a very quaint, attractive” place to bring riders taking romantic outings, celebrating birthdays or entertaining out-of-town guests, he said.
The dinner train currently turns around in Woodinville at the Columbia Winery, where riders can taste wine and shop a little.
“Our hope is we could depart from the Columbia Winery,” he said, allowing people to visit the winery and its tasting room before they take the afternoon ride north. Old prohibition laws restrict him from serving alcohol on the train.
Herald writer Yoshiaki Nohara contributed to this report.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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