Background

East of Seattle, across Lake Washington from Seattle, there is an old single-track railroad line running between the cities of Renton and Snohomish, passing through Bellevue, Kirkland, and Woodinville, with a branch to Redmond.

The line is owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF), which no longer has sufficient use for it and is planning to sell it. This railroad right-of-way is known as the Eastside Rail Corridor.

King County wants to acquire the corridor and convert it into a paved trail that would be a combined bicycle route and jogging/walking path. The trail would connect to other trails in the existing regional trail system. A plan has been worked out whereby the Port of Seattle will purchase the corridor from BNSF and then would lease a portion of it to King County. King County Executive Ron Sims says that initially the County would build the trail, but that in the future it could be used as a commuter rail corridor.

There are opponents of the plan that want to see more immediate use of the corridor light rail, although there are others that push for use of the current line for slower-speed diesel-powered rail passenger cars, which would be cheaper and can be put to use sooner than if a double-track light rail line is built.

News

BNSF TO CUT RAIL LINE (February 28, 2008) — Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad has announced that during the next week it will remove one mile of track in the Eastside Corridor. The track will be removed in the area of the Wilburton Tunnel south of downtown Bellevue. This rail removal is associated with a plan by the Washington State Department of Transportation to demolish the Wilburton Railroad Trestle in order to widen Interstate Highway 405.

My Opinions

I am very strongly in favor of building the trail. I also think it would be a valuable commuter transit route. I believe that a monorail would be more logical than light rail or other railroad commuter use.

The general advantages of monorail would apply. In addition, much of this corridor passes through residental areas, where the sound of railroad trains would be much more of a problem for residents than the quieter monorail trains. Also, since the monorail is elevated with only four- or five-foot wide columns, there would be no problem with conflict between the monorail and the use of the corridor for a trail. A two-track railroad would take up about a twenty-foor width of the corridor, leaving less room for a trail, the trail would be alongside high-speed trains, and access to the trail would be difficult if it is necessary to cross the tracks. The monorail would leave the ground beside the trail open on both sides.