County asked to buy Eastside railway for $26.5 million

King County Executive Kurt Triplett asked the County Council on Friday to authorize spending $26.5 million to buy most of the southern part of BNSF Railway's 42-mile Eastside rail corridor.

If approved by the Metropolitan King County Council, the purchase would help preserve for future rail and trail use the old rail line that connects Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, Redmond and Snohomish.

"We must seize this extraordinary opportunity to address the region's growing transportation and ongoing freight needs, while at the same time allowing for an expanded regional trail system," Triplett wrote in a letter to the council.

Under deals that are still being negotiated, the Port of Seattle would buy the entire rail line from BNSF by Dec. 15 for $107 million or less, then would sell much of the southern part to King County and other partners.

The county would own most of the 25 miles of the southern portion, but Sound Transit and Redmond are negotiating to buy smaller stretches from the Port of Seattle.

Sound Transit could acquire a portion of the corridor in Bellevue for its planned Seattle-to-Bellevue-to-Redmond light-rail line. Redmond could buy part of the Woodinville-to-Redmond spur, and Puget Sound Energy and the Cascade Water Alliance are expected to buy utility rights of way.

On the southern part of the corridor, where BNSF has abandoned its old rail line, King County officials envision a biking and hiking trail beside a passenger rail line.

King County would finance its part of the deal by selling bonds to be repaid with future revenues from the conservation futures property tax. The tax can only be used for acquisition of trails and open space — and legally can't be used to rescue the county's troubled general fund — Triplett said.

Terry Lavender, chair of the conservation futures advisory committee, endorsed the funding plan, saying, "Bonding against this fund should be for extraordinary circumstances and I believe this project rises to that level."

The Port will buy and hold the rail line between Woodinville and Snohomish, where GNP Railway Chief Financial Officer Doug Engle said GNP and Ballard Terminal are poised to take over freight hauling from BNSF "the day after the deal is closed."

GNP also plans to start running an excursion train from the Woodinville winery district to Snohomish next summer, Engle said.

Triplett announced his funding request at his final news conference as executive, where he was joined by County Council members Dow Constantine, Jane Hague, Julia Patterson and Larry Phillips, and Lavender and Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Chuck Ayres.

Constantine, who will be sworn in as executive Tuesday, said, "This will enable all our jurisdictions to fulfill the promise to our region that this corridor will be available to future generations, it will be available for recreation and transportation, that this irreplaceable corridor will not be lost to piecemeal development."

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