Goin' Off the Rails on the Dinner Train
The Spirit of Washington Dinner Train that goes from Renton to, well, Renton by way of the Columbia Winery in Woodinville is perilously close to having the track yanked from under it. Seattlest doesn't think that The Spirit of Washington Dinner Bus has quite the same ring, but if Ron Sims' plan of purchasing the 47 miles of track from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway comes through the train might be out of business.
King County wants the tracks for bike and hiking trails, and if you've ever been on the dinner train you know that there's a pretty nice view throughout. We're not sure how advisable it would be to walk over the Wilburton Trestle, but with a reasonable amount of confidence that a rogue ex-engineer from the Spirit of Washington isn't going to come barrelling through it might not be bad at all.
That Burlington Northern Santa Fe wants to sell the old route is no secret. The railway offered it to the state Department of Transportation two years ago, but the state rejected that offer. There was talk at the time of using it for light rail, or maybe monorail, but no one stepped forward.If a rails-to-trails sale to King County is negotiated and a trail is built, Sims said, it would create a north-south route all the way north to Skagit County and contribute to the improving system of local hiking and biking trails that now surround lakes Washington and Sammamish and are being developed in Snohomish County.
Any deal between the county and Burlington Northern Santa Fe would fall under the federal Rails to Trails Act, passed by Congress as a way to preserve rail corridors for possible future use.
Seattle's Burke-Gilman Trail and, more recently, the East Lake Sammamish Trail are examples.
