Potential traffic problems spoil view of 2010 Olympics

By Peyton Whitely
Times Snohomish County bureau

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EVERETT — To paraphrase Mark Twain, many people complain about traffic, but few do anything about it.

The Farmhouse Gang is trying to change that.

The group, which got its name from a Skagit County restaurant where it used to meet, has been quietly working since 1996 to find better ways to get around the northern part of the Puget Sound area.

The formal name of the Farmhouse Gang is the North Sound Connecting Communities Project. Last week, it brought more than 50 regional leaders into a conference room at Everett Station to talk about trains.

The Farmhouse Gang The gang, also known as the North Sound Connecting Communities Project, expects to hold its next meeting in July in Mount Vernon. Information about the organization is available on the Internet at cascadiaproject.org or by writing or visiting the Discovery Institute Cascadia Project, 1511 Third Ave., Suite 808, Seattle, WA 98101, or by calling 206-292-0401.

A key part of the discussion was the impending transportation headaches that are ahead because of the inadequacies of Interstate 5, a situation that is expected to worsen in 2010, when the Winter Olympics will be in British Columbia, if nothing is done.

Driving into Everett from Olympia is "like hitting a brick wall," said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, relating her commutes from the Legislature.

If the main thing visitors remember about the Olympics "is the hell they went through in Western Washington," there will be dire consequences, Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson said. "The repercussions of that will echo for decades."

Trains could offer some options to avoid such disasters, one speaker after another suggested.

To show how that might be accomplished, a range of possibilities — extending from Colorado-built rail cars to California train operations, Sound Transit's Sounder commuter service and Washington state's Amtrak Cascades trains — was discussed in detail.

Tom Janaky, a former resident of Mercer Island who now handles marketing for Colorado Railcar of Fort Lupton, Colo., told how the company had developed what is essentially a self-powered train car.

The result is a rail vehicle that uses a sixth of the fuel of a regular locomotive, can run up to 90 mph, unlike a light-rail unit, and needs no track improvements, he said. If park-and-ride lots could be built along existing rail routes, along with stations, dozens of the cars could be running within a few years, he suggested.

But the speakers also touched on deep problems in developing the services, including political and cost obstacles, and difficulties with track crossings in rural areas. Haugen noted there are 28 grade-level crossings between Stanwood and Mount Vernon alone, sometimes leading to fatal accidents.

Other difficulties abound, with speakers noting that much of the route between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., consists of a single track.

The sheer volume of traffic also is daunting, the speakers said.

In a 2002 study of a Cascade Gateway train route sponsored by the Whatcom Council of Governments and looking at a connection between Seattle and Vancouver, it was estimated expanded rail service would carry about 362,000 riders a year in 2012, up from 137,000 in 2002 — with the higher number figuring out to about 1,000 riders a day. That's a small fraction of the traffic on roads; parts of I-5 between Seattle and Everett carry more than 200,000 vehicles a day.

Still, compared with the $12.8 billion cost being suggested for transportation improvements needed in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties that voters might be asked to approve through a Regional Transportation Investment District in the fall, the cost of improving north-corridor rail service is not overwhelming, said Bruce Agnew, the director of the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Project, which sponsored the Everett Station gathering.

An Amtrak Cascades budget summary described how $16 million is expected for track improvements to allow trains to run faster between Seattle and Bellingham and make such changes as providing longer sidings in places such as Stanwood and Mount Vernon, overcoming some of the problems posed by the single-track route.

"At the end of the day, it's not that expensive," Agnew said.

The Farmhouse Gang expects to prepare a set of recommendations based on last week's meeting. Possible steps might include finding approaches to expand Amtrak Cascades service north of Seattle through work with federal, state and local agencies, and perhaps through a partnership with Canada in conjunction with the Olympics.

Other steps could include running demonstration trains to such events as the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival; using technical advances, such as Colorado Railcar's, to expand service; and simply trying to find people in leadership roles willing to work on the problems.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-3359 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com

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