Eastside passenger railway would cost $1billion

An old Eastside freight rail line could be converted into a commuter-passenger railway linking six cities, but the proposal would not come cheap — an estimated $1 billion to $1.2 billion, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday.

The Port of Seattle is buying the 42-mile corridor from BNSF Railway for $107 million. The Port and other agencies are studying whether the corridor linking Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, Redmond and Snohomish should become a passenger-rail corridor, biking and walking trail or both.

Wednesday's report answered some question but won't end the debate over the rail line. Port commissioners last year resisted King County Executive Ron Sims' proposal to pull up the tracks south of Woodinville in order to build a biking and hiking trail.

Upgrading the line for commuter rail would cost about $21 million to $27 million per mile, nearly double the price of Sound Transit's Sounder train service which links Seattle with Tacoma and Everett.

But it would be far cheaper than the higher-capacity light-rail system now under construction between Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which residents of three counties voted Nov. 4 to expand by 36 miles for $11.8 billion.

Sound Transit, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) and consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff presented the draft feasibility study ordered by the Legislature to an ad hoc regional committee.

The new cost estimate for commuter-rail service was higher than some commuter-rail advocates claim, but one of those advocates, Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute representative Tom Jones, said the billion-dollar price tag would still be "quite literally a bargain."

"This corridor can be developed for about one-third to one-half of the estimated $1.23 billion," Jones said. "Cascadia continues to believe that the corridor can be built for millions and (in) years, rather than billions and decades."

Elected officials on the committee on Wednesday peppered the consultants with questions about their cost assumptions and conclusions, but didn't offer any opinions on whether the projected ridership would justify the cost.

Metropolitan King County Council Chair Julia Patterson said officials are "in the infant stages" of deciding how to develop the Renton-to-Snohomish rail line with a spur from Woodinville to Redmond.

"The vision is at some point in the future you would be able to get on a train in Tacoma and when you get to the south part of Lake Washington you would have a choice to go to the left to Seattle or to the right all the way up from Bellevue and Kirkland to Snohomish County," Patterson said.

PSRC staff estimated 5,015 passengers would ride a commuter train daily between Renton's Gene Coulon Park and Snohomish. In order for the train to connect with the Tacoma-to-Seattle Sounder train, the new route would have to be extended to Tukwila on BNSF rails. The study didn't estimate the cost of that extension.

The draft report said building a biking and hiking trail beside the tracks north of Interstate 90 would be costly. Parsons pegged that cost at $245 million to $359 million.

Trail costs south of I-90 weren't estimated because parts of the corridor are very narrow and it isn't known if some neighbors have easements to use parts of it, Parsons project manager Allison Dobbins said.

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