Eastside needs rail, not trail

As an executive for a growing Eastside software company, with more than 250 employees, I am seriously concerned about our predicament — the complete lack of a north/south rail solution for the Interstate 405 corridor.

Truly, the oversight threatens to cripple my company. Today, traffic congestion creates up to a 3-½-hour commute for our employees from points such as Mill Creek, Renton and Snohomish to our offices in downtown Bellevue. Nor do our Seattle workers find it any easier to cross Interstate 90 and the Highway 520 floating bridge.

Worse, in less than 12 months, there will be an influx of between 8,000 and 10,000 new commuters. Microsoft alone will add 5,000 jobs.

I-405 cannot possibly handle the influx, no matter what the Washington State Department of Transportation is claiming. The Eastside is literally booming; a forest of cranes surrounds our building now. Widening I-405 only delays the inevitable: We need commuter rail today!

And, the point is that we could have it; a working railroad is already in place. All the way from Renton to Snohomish, there is a track that we could use.

Recently, it has been the most newsworthy railroad in Washington state. I personally have testified for its preservation. Then, what is the proverbial holdup? Just this: WSDOT will cut the line later this year to allow the widening of I-405. No track. No possibility of commuter trains.

My business colleagues and I cannot believe the region is so blind. The government's argument? Any "pressing" need for a full-fledged north/south commuter operation is at least 20 years — perhaps 40 — away.

In the interim, Ron Sims, as King County executive, proposes to tear up the railroad and build a trail. Eventually, there can be dual use, he now admits, which would put the railroad back.

The point is that if the cost of keeping the tracks is prohibitive now, how would replacing them ever get cheaper? It won't. Just this past year, the prices of steel and concrete in world markets have shot up by as much as 30 percent.

Is Sims' reasoning deliberately flawed by politics? Certainly, the railroad's owner, BNSF, seems to have eliminated new competitors by eliminating the only railroad they possibly could have used.

Now, the tracks are promised to King County — for a trail. No competitive railroad can possibly emerge. Thus, a sweetheart deal for a huge monopoly winds up costing everyone in Puget Sound.

Face it. Whether in Bellevue or Seattle, patchwork lane additions and HOV/bus lanes cannot possibly do the job. Ask every progressive country in Europe and Asia. Without rail, their cities would grind to a halt.

In my travels, I visit those countries often, just recently Spain and Japan. I don't need a car for my business appointments. A train arrives in the station every minute or two, and every train is packed.

If businesses like ours stay in the region, commuter rail will be the selling point — not whether our employees can ride their bicycles. Meanwhile, our consultants have done the math. For $300 million, including purchase and restoration, the Eastside rail line could be moving commuters in as few as two years.

The "Roads & Transit" package — on the ballot this fall — is just another postponement. The first $37 billion — that's right, $37 billion — projects building only a single east/west rail line between Bellevue and Seattle. For Bellevue, nothing will go north and south. For the million people already living on the Eastside — and the additional million projected by 2015 — it is as if those directions did not exist.

Worse, the measure will not deliver rail for years — and up to a cost of $500 million per mile. For that price, all 42 miles of the Eastside rail line could receive a premium upgrade, including double track and electrification.

Responsible government makes use of what exists. Constantly rebuilding our infrastructure from scratch, this region will go broke.

And many businesses will be leaving town. For where? For Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Portland, Denver and Sacramento, places that believe in commuter rail, and already have it.

Again, what explains our pigheadedness? King County just lost the Spirit of Washington dinner train. The next round of losses will be far more serious. No major corporation can stand the uncertainty of a transportation system that fails.

Every complaint about the Eastside rail line pales against the significance of what it offers. It is there! If we dare not admit that before we lose it, please, will the last bicyclist leaving Bellevue kindly turn out the lights.

Jim O'Farrell is senior vice president for global marketing of the Talisma Corporation, with headquarters in downtown Bellevue.