Report: $37 million option for Eastside train

BNSF Railway's aging Eastside tracks could easily be modernized to accommodate 40-mph passenger-train service, according to a report from a think tank that opposes using the prized Snohomish-to-Renton right of way only as a recreational trail.

Rather than rip out the tracks, an investment of about $37 million could make the 42-mile corridor ready for commuter trains to serve Eastside communities, said Read Fay, a retired BNSF regional manager who wrote the report for the Cascadia Center at Discovery Institute.

The institute wants to keep the track that King County Executive Ron Sims would tear out as scrap. Sims proposes building a hiking and biking trail along the right of way, and at some future date adding high-capacity, light-rail transit.

"At this point, we're just trying to save the rails from being torn up, and save the corridor for transportation," Fay said after a forum the Cascadia Center hosted in Woodinville on Tuesday. "... Tearing up rails, history shows us, they don't come back."

Fay's report, combined with the defeat of Proposition 1, has energized a campaign by rail advocates to put diesel trains on the 42-mile corridor that the Port of Seattle plans to buy from BNSF next month.

Voters earlier this month rejected the proposal to build $11 billion of light-rail lines and $7 billion of freeway lanes. Bruce Agnew, director of the Cascadia Center, says the Eastside rail line offers "a golden opportunity" to offer passenger-rail service for a fraction of that price.

Cascadia and other save-the-rail activists want Sound Transit to pay for a pilot project that would test the feasibility of small diesel trains between Bellevue and Snohomish. They propose putting a trail next to the existing track.

Sims' chief of staff, Kurt Triplett, dismissed the Cascadia proposal as nothing new.

The Seattle Port Commission has agreed in concept to buy the rail corridor from BNSF for $103 million and negotiate a deal for King County to lease all or part of it for a dual-use, light-rail-and-trail route.

Fay's estimated it would cost $37 million to replace substandard track and upgrade bridges to handle passenger trains with higher speeds than freight trains that now use the track. North of Woodinville, he found the steel track, wooden ties and rock ballast are "woefully inadequate," but said they can be quickly and easily replaced with automated machinery.

Fay's estimate didn't include the purchase of train equipment or development of stations. Describing himself as "an operations guy" and not an engineer, Fay said he hadn't looked at the cost of replacing the rail bridge that's being removed in the widening of Interstate 405 at the Wilburton Tunnel in Bellevue.

Agnew estimated the total startup cost of Renton-to-Snohomish rail service at $125 million, based on the $92 million cost of building a shorter, 32-mile line in Austin, Texas.

Triplett said Agnew's estimate seems unrealistically low, based on an earlier Puget Sound Regional Council study that pegged the price at $300 million. If Sound Transit decided to pay for diesel service, Triplett said, "we would be delighted with that. We would have them do that tomorrow. It's not that King County is not trying to have a transportation system on the corridor. We want one. It's that no one is coming with money on the table."

Port Commission President John Creighton said he is skeptical about the feasibility of passenger rail service but wants more information before tearing out the tracks. "Whether or not rail can work on the corridor now, versus 30 years from now, still is an open question," he said. "I would not be in favor of tearing up the tracks until we as a region have time to study it."

Agnew last week wrote to officials of Sound Transit, King County, the Port and BNSF, asking them to support a pilot project using self-propelled, "diesel multiple units," or DMUs, between Snohomish and Bellevue. If successful, the service could be extended to downtown Renton or Tukwila, he said.

Agnew said those trains, using small diesel engines, are lighter, more fuel-efficient and less expensive than conventional diesel trains. Fay said trains could stop at stations every half-hour, using sidings to pass oncoming trains along the route, which has only one track in most spots.

The Cascadia Center and a grass-roots group, Eastside Rail Now! have suggested that Sound Transit money previously earmarked for a portion of a Seattle-to-Redmond light-rail line be switched to the BNSF corridor.

Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said that would require the Sound Transit board putting the proposal to a public vote. Patrick said he expected the board to begin discussions soon on what to do in the wake of Proposition 1's failure at the polls.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com