Happy Trails, Sad Little Rails
For some reason no big deal is being made of the rails-to-trails thing going on right now on the Eastside. Preventing the addition of capacity to I-405 is a big deal to Seattle environmentalists, but the impending doom of a potential passenger rail corridor that runs north-south from Renton to Snohomish is of no interest. We don't get it...
One guy who does get it is Chuck Mott who seems like an interesting guy. He's trying to buy the abandoned Tukwila-Snohomish rail line from BNSF, which, yeah, seems kind of crazy. His goal is to put together a group to buy the line in order to prevent the Port of Seattle from buying it and trading it to King County who would then turn it into a recreational trail; a plan that is actually crazier than Mott's, although it's probably what will happen. It's a Ron Sims plan, and Sims seems to have it in for rail transit in the region lately, recently turning on the Roads and Transit plan he helped construct that would, if approved by voters, expand light rail in the region. His objections to the package stem from it's highway provisions like the additions it would mandate to 405. Why tear out an existing north-south rail line, Ron?
The poor Tukwila-Snohomish line's kind of hurting for a champion, no offense to Chuck Mott. Hopefully Seattle pro-transit types eventually realize that the more dense Seattle becomes the more dense (and more sprawled) its outskirts will become, and transit on the Eastside is just as important, if not more, than light rail between Capitol Hill and Belltown. In the meantime, Mott's a rail-preservation type who'd like to see the Tukwila-Snohomosh line preserved as-is for use as a low-speed commuter train, something Al Runte has said could be accomplished for $30 million in 60 days. King County wants to make it into a jogging trail, potentially reserving the right-of-way for future transit uses, but, come on. Imagine someone proposing light rail along the Burke-Gilman....
