The Eastside BNSF Rail deal is finally done. The Port of Seattle has purchased the track from Renton to Woodinville for $109 million, and King County has purchased the right to build a bike trail there for $2 million from the Port. The Seattle Times is pleased, though I still feel that the ridership will simply not be worth the expense of refurbishing the rails, placing stations and buying DMUs (heavy diesel trains, like Sounder). Anyone seen the price of diesel lately?
I did see this article about Google on the Eastside, and it looks like at least part of the line could eventually be useful, and I noticed the Eastside BNSF line right next to where that campus would eventually be. It got me wondering, would DMUs be the right choice? What about light rail for portions of the track? DMUs work better for longer-haul trains with fewer stops, while Light rail works better in configurations that have stops every a couple of miles.
There are parts of the right-of-way that wouldn’t get much in the way of riders for either system, but the portions Bellevue and north could make sense for an eventual north-south eastside light rail line.
Huh. No bike trail is planned for the portion north of Woodinville. Most of that stretch has no existing alternative bike trails, while large portions of the rest of the BNSF line are near existing bike trails.
I also remain unconvinced that this line will attract ridership–it almost perfectly avoids the high-density areas. It might make sense as an Eastside commuter rail line with stops in Snohomish, Woodinville, Kirkland, Bellevue, and Renton, routing into the existing ST commuter line at Tukwila.
The best use for it might be to retain the rails and bank them until such time as rising gas prices make local freight service competitive in the corridor again, probably about a generation from now.
Does everything have to be either a road or rail? How about a bike trail? Better yet, a covered bike trail, for those of us who don’t like biking in the rain.
Or here’s an outside-the-box idea … how about a big paved trail that has lanes for battery-powered smaller vehicles like golf carts, as well as mopeds, bikes, etc, and Google and other employers could encourage commuting via those smaller vehicles by subsidizing their purchase.
Just trying to think outside the box here. Now go ahead and shoot it down and call it crazy.
I think it works great as a bike trail, it connects with the burke gilman north, and with both the 520 and the I-90 trails in bellevue.
The proposed diesel-powered transit is not heavy locomotive-powered trains like Sounder, but rather smaller DMUs (Diesel Motor Units) that are more like light rail cars, but instead of electric motors, they have diesel engines at each end. No time to find links just now, but wanted to make the correction
I still think you are discounting the amount of people who would gladly exchange a bumper to bumper stoplight ridden hour plus commute down Highway 9 every morning from points north of Snohomish to Woodinville/Kirkland/Downtown Bellevue,etc. Also with the ever present rising price of gas, I think the demand for this line actually becomes greater over time.
The rail line avoids the high-density areas because it served as a ‘service entrance’ (you might just as well say the high-density avoided the rail line, not because of social status, but because of what land was on the market). I kinda doubt that LCL rail freight will be coming back, but apparently the guy who wants to do a passenger service has already made on fortune with shortlines, so who can tell?
In any case, people with large parcels of land by the rail line must be drooling at the thought of passenger service. Not because of what happens tomorrow, but because of what happens ten years from now, and you don’t need a crystal ball to see where all of this is going.
Installing light rail here looks a lot more complicated than DMU operation, considering the need to install overhead, and also to protect the jogging public from high-voltage electricity.
This corridor should have rail throughout.
Time will show that it is critical to have a bypass route to the main rail corridor thru downtown Seattle. In the case of a bridge/tunnel failure anywhere along the primary corridor, freight traffic along the entire west coast will come to a standstill (Amtrak included). We need a workable bypass.
Also, add a passenger station in Snohomish and you have a great feeder into the Eastside for westbound Amtrak pax.
Let’s get ahead of the curve for once, and build the infrastructure NOW. At some point, this game of catch-up has to end.
Why are all rail lines in the US diesel? Travelling through Europe and Asia, most rail is electric. It seems like this corridor would be perfect for electric power (short, many stops, passenger speed, though populated areas where clean air is especially desirable, access to cheap electricity).
[serial] “also to protect the jogging public from high-voltage electricity”
How do we protect the public from electric bus trolley lines or streetcar lines? Doesn’t overhead power itself solve this problem, since it’s high overhead?
Can someone explain how much effort is needed to convert these tracks to light rail (ie, electiric) is it just an overhead line system? Where are the big expense over DMU?
“…but the portions Bellevue and north could make sense for an eventual north-south eastside light rail line.”
The south end looks like it could actually be more useful. 405 is the only through road on that end.
Also the rail line sits on unused industrial/commercial land, and the Renton end (the old Boeing plant) is already being coverted to housing/office.
The big expense for converting to electric is the cost of the infrastructure: overhead wire, power supply, replacing engines. Caltrain has estimated the cost of electrification of the 52 miles between SF and San Jose will be $471 million!
Electric traction is only appropriate on a line that has high traffic — i.e. many trips/day; far more than the peak-hour-only service being contemplated on the Woodinville subdivision.
Additional costs of electification must also include track insulation and/or utility relocation. Because the rails serve as part of the electrical circuit, the rail currents tends to corrode pipes located in the ground near the rails.
Federal Railway Administration safety regulations would prohibit light rail vehicles from running on track that is connected to the national rail network, unless you limit freight service to times when the passenger service is not running, like TRAX does in Salt Lake City.
The trail would be great to those commuting between Totem Lake, Kirkland, Bellevue, Factoria, and Renton. An exclusive bike trail will attract people who would not otherwise bike to work because they are afraid to ride on the streets. It runs parallel to the Sammamish River trail for a bit but that’s only the section north of Totem Lake. The Sammamish trail is actually worse for commuting than the BNSF line since it runs through agricultural and parkland for most of its length.
The section south of Factoria already has a trail to Renton right between the freeway and railroad. They can save costs by just using existing trails and avoid potential conflicts if the corridor is used for trains.
A local example of an electrified railroad would be The Milwaukee Road, which ran the US’s largest electric railroad between Tacoma over Snoqualmie Pass to central Montana. They de-electrified right before the 1970s oil crisis and paid the price with bankruptcy. The former right-of-way is now a bike trail over the Cascades to eastern Washington.
oran viri, freight service has already ended on this track.
Ben, I was referring to Brad’s suggestion that the rails be retained as backup bypass if the mainline becomes impassable in an emergency. In those extraordinary circumstances, I guess they could bend the rules a bit.
This morning, I went down 405 to I-90 and noticed that the rails are long gone. There’s still freight service on the tracks north of Woodinville though, I can still hear the horns from my house.
Don’t forget this corridor intersects with the proposed ST East Link line from downtown Seattle to Redmond at Bel-Red, which is being upzoned for high density office and residential uses. Riders on the former BNSF line could eventually have the opportunity to transfer to a light rail train coming by every 9 minutes to complete their trip to Overlake, downtown Bellevue, downtown Seattle.
If the BNSF corridor also had service all the way to the Tukwila Sounder station, there could be some very good synergy with the rest of the ST system.
I need to step in and make some corrections…
BNSF still runs a 3 day a week local freight between Snohomish (originating from Everett) and Bellevue. BNSF also delivers 737’s from (originating from Kansas via Seattle) to Renton Boeing.
The only section that is not being used by freight is Skopa (near the park) to NE 8th in Bellevue.
DMU’s also for a clarification are NOT the same as Sounder or traditional rail equipment. A typical Sounder (Bombardier) Coach holds 144 people and the cab car around 135 passengers.
Your typical DMU holds about the same as a LRV but more flexible and capable of higher speeds. DMU’s can venture out onto a main line railroad and do the passenger speed limit whilst a LRV is typically restricted to 55mph.
Most DMU’s have a top speed of 90-100mph, the Colorado Railcar DMU is capable of 90mph in the double deck or single level “aero” design.
The other DMU’s available world wide such as the Bombardier Talent, Siemens Desiro if imported into the United States would have to meet crash safety requirements set by the FRA to allow higher speeds and joint operation with freight.
The Siemens Desiro Classic which is being used in the United States for the first time between Oceanside and Escondido, California for Sprinter, is restricted to 55mph. On Sprinter’s website, you’ll see it is dubbed “light-rail” instead of commuter rail.
The cost of an LRV and DMU is pretty much the same, both around $3.2 to $4 million. However the ability to add cars to a DMU is what can push it’s expandability. The Colorado Railcar can have up to 6 car long trains, these extra cars are $1.5 million a piece.
I’m all for electric railways though but the Eastside is going to want it as less “distracting” as possible, killing the thought of putting wire and poles up.
As a good example however, the Sprinter line minics what we have here…highway right next to the railroad, not in a lot of close areas, connects to Amtrak, Coaster, and Metrolink, a lot of doubt on ridership..however as of May 2nd, 2008, it’s ridership has grown from 3,200 a day to close to 9,000 a day
They could put the electricity on the ground like some other places have done, it normally works fine and is safe since it only lights up when the train is above….
Yes, we do already protect the public from the current in the overhead wires- and it’s not cheap to do so.
Basically, the wire and signalling are more expensive than the track. Some work is being done with GPS so that in theory a DMU could run with signals managed by a wireless GPS system. For electrics, though, the signals need to be interfaced with the power supplies.
One thing seems certain- Electrical Engineering is still a great field to get a degree in.
Oran Viri
Just a point of clarification, The Rails at the Wilburton Tunel have been gone for about 1 month, I dont think that counts as “Long Gone”. The total length of the removed rail segment was just over 4,000 feet (less than 1 mile). WSDOT has plans (but no budget yet) to build a new rail bridge over 405 where the rail’s were removed, reconnecting this corridor, their plans for building the new bridge, and reconnecting the Rail is $20M.
Lor Scara.