Zave the Railroad!

Puget Sound is a growing region. Tons of people are moving in, or at least trying. At the same time, land is at a premium, and geographical "obstacles" are literally putting up road blocks to create a decent transportation system. Lakes, rivers, hills, mountains, and the ever present risk for Earthquakes, makes transportation a tough business to be in.

One of the most congested freeways in WA state is I-405, on the east side of Lake Washington, and it is currently undergoing lane additions. Not sure it will help, but it won't hurt (the traffic) either. Along I-405 is also found a fully functioning railroad, BurlingtonNorthernSantaFe (BNSF). BUT, apart from a few weekly freight cars, and an excursion train that takes people for a dinner ride up to the wineries in Woodinville, it is grossly underutilized. Hence, most of the time this little stretch of railroad lies idle while people sit in a neverending backup on the adjacent freeway.

The most obvious solution? Tear up the tracks and make a bike trail! At least that is what our King County Executive wants to do. Tear up the tracks, when it is historically proven that once those tracks are gone, the chance of them EVER being put back is extremely slim, to non-existant.

I love biking, but I think this asset can be of better public use than recreational biking (we already have a pretty good bike path in the same corridor, only along the lake).
This is a prime mass transit corridor, going through the downtown areas of Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, and Snomhomish. All cities that are undergoing a mad growth at the moment. What better use could this rail corridor see than rail service?

Sound Transit are going to ask for some $16B-$20B (that is with 9 zeroes my friends, or $16,000,000,000 - $20,000,000,000) on the November Ballot for "transportation measures". A very ambitious package, but with any "real" results far out in the future (10-15 years at best). And this package totally bypasses this highly valuable and strategically placed rail corridor, a corridor where service could be started within the next few years for some ~$300M, a drop in the bucket compared to the "bigger" package.

Much can be written about this, but a very dedicated activist, Paul H, has started a group EastSide Rail Now and I have gotten engaged as well and tried to provide my 2 cents. Not that I agree with all objectives, but Paul's web site is very informative, his efforts should be applauded, and I urge you to take a look at the site.