I’d think there would be a deal worked out to take the trains down to the wineries. From reading the notices to the STB it sounds like everything south of Woodinville was abandon but I’ll have to check the mile posts. I’m assuming Snohomish is interested to boost the antique business and teaming with the winery tour at the other end seems like a natural. Plus they already have the load/unload zone.

I don’t really know why Ballard Terminal is named other than it might have something to do with them already being an active rail road in Washington. That’s speculation. They may want to be involved in operations, shared maintenance and rolling stock. I’ll try to find out.

I believe the idea of transferring Boeing Field to the Port was that the Port (in theory) should be better at running an airport and having SeaTac and Boeing Field under the same management would be more efficient. It did seem like the county was coming out on the short end of the deal but I don’t know anything about the finances of Boeing Field. Is the County operating it at a loss? More than anything I think it had to do with Ron Sims wanting a legacy bike trail.

I don’t think homeowners can buy the land. Since it’s rail banked there is always the option of it being reclaimed for rail use. I don’t think they can divide it up. Certainly not without the OK of the STB which wouldn’t happen unless it was being transferred to another railroad or public entity which would maintain the corridor. The problem with ever putting rail back is the public/political fallout which becomes almost insurmountable over time. Houghton residence are fighting it already and Kirkland has a major Park/Green Space (something forrest) along the tracks just north of town. The folks along the 405 ROW south of Wilburton and North of I-90 fought against Link using the ROW.

The good news is that when GNP starts operations on the Northern section they plan to put in a maintenance road along the whole route. It won’t be the official bike trail with the cute signs and the aggravating bollards at every crossing but it should be a nice trail. I believe they were talking about paving but I could be wrong on that. There’s advantages (for biking) if it’s left gravel. The southern section will likely wither away. The section from Wilburton to Woodinville would have made for a really great connection to the 520 bike trail and on to the SRT in Woodinville. If you’re staying along Lake Washington the bike route isn’t too bad but getting from Factoria over to East Lake Sammamish isn’t great (it’s OK) and trying to get through central Bellevue and Totem Lake is pretty awful.

The laws around purchase of rail ROW are very strange. I assume the County did pay for the East Lake Sammamish ROW. Anybody remember how much? Another interesting question is how much if any does it get taxed? I’m assuming that one of the reasons for abandonment by BNSF is to make it tax exempt? I suppose the southern portion could be bought by the Port or the County (or Sound Transit) separate from the northern portion. That might be a financial way to get beyond the current impasse.

any thoughts appreciated

And as the article says, with the credit/bond market what it is today, there isn’t much chance of anyone other than the homeowners buying this land. So key is keeping the ROW in the public domain. Otherwise we’ll be paying a premium when we condem it and have to buy it back from those same homeowners.

It’s hard to find routes around Bellevue that have a nice gentle grade.

For the excursion train are there any plans to keep the necessary portions of the ROW so the train can serve the wineries on 145th?

The title of this post is worthy of the Seattle SomeTimes. “Port Suspends Eastside Rail Purchase Indefinitely”, how about the headline “Economic Crises to Continue Indefinitely”. As the press release from the the Port says and buried in the content of the post the Port remains committed to public ownership for the corridor. With the operational ROW granted for ten years (with an option for another ten) on the northern section and the southern section rail banked who other than a public entity is going to buy it?

While possible if Rail America would have never took over Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad, RA is not friendly (yes, worse than Union Pacific Railroad) in allowing passenger operations. As far as I know, you could still go from Centralia, WA to just West of Aberdeen, WA before the rail stops. Even for passenger ops to resume, Amtrak would most certainly never look at the route.

It would be a nice item to have for a tourist railroad in coop with RA/PSAP. There was talks at one time while PSAP was still the main owner to rebuilding the line out to Ocean Shores but never panned out and the state didn’t see the reason for reducing the driving miles out there.

Its a beautiful route, increase the rail speed out there *mostly 40mph, bump it to 60mph* and give or take 15-30 minutes, it would keep up with auto traffic easily. It would most definitely be a major player in the Spring and Summer months out there but not a viable all season train.