Thanks to tipper Jason Hill regarding the selection for freight service on the Eastside Rail Corridor:

The Port of Seattle announced today that it will begin negotiations with GNP/Ballard for freight service operation on the northern portion of the Eastside rail corridor. GNP/Ballard, a partnership between Byron Cole, who operates the Ballard Terminal and Meeker Southern Railroad, and Tom Payne, owner of GNP Railway, will pay the Port for use of the land, which runs from Snohomish and Woodinville.

The Port of Seattle is acquiring the corridor from BNSF, who selected the short line operator. Any contract between the Port and GNP/Ballard will not be finalized until the transfer of the corridor is complete.

The Port is acquiring the corridor from BNSF for $107 million. King County will contribute $2 million toward the purchase price in return for an easement for trail development on the southern segment of the corridor. The Surface Transportation Board is expected to grant approval in the fall of this year. The Port will then begin a public process to gain input on how King County citizens would like to see the rail corridor used.

Find more information about the Port’s purchase of the corridor or the public process that will follow on the Eastside Rail Corridor Web site.

7 Replies to “BNSF selects GNP/Ballard to serve Snohomish County shippers”

  2. It may or may not. Most thought that Sounder would fail and it’s getting over 10,000 riders a day. Let’s see what they are capable of before passing judgment.

    Though in my personal opinion to really make this work, trains need to depart Snohomish AND Everett to make this successful.

    But I am surprised that there isn’t an ST/CT bus that already cover a Everett – Bellevue route.

    1. But I am surprised that there isn’t an ST/CT bus that already cover a Everett – Bellevue route.

      What are you talking about? The 532 runs Everett/Bellevue. I used to take it all the time.

  4. This was the only bid that the Port of Seattle received.

    The Port of Seattle’s RFP was so bad, that nobody else bid on it.

    Bill

  5. WESTERN RAIL NEWS NETWORK

    Special Edition

    September 2008

    BNSF/PORT OF SEATTLE ONLY RECEIVE ONE BID TO OPERATE THE EASTSIDE CORRIDER RAIL LINE – STAKEHOLDERS HIGHLY CRITICAL OF PROCESS

    Bellevue, WA – The Port of Seattle announced today that it will begin negotiations with GNP/Ballard to provide freight and excursion rail service on the northern portion of the Eastside rail corridor. GNP/Ballard, a partnership between Byron Cole, who operates the Ballard Terminal and Meeker Southern Railroad, and Tom Payne, owner of GNP Railway, will pay the Port for use of the land, which runs from Snohomish and Woodinville.

    Today’s public announcement by the Port of Seattle follows an email that was sent out yesterday by the Port (to key stakeholders) which indicated that the GNP/Ballard bid was the only one that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway and the Port of Seattle received in response to the Request for Proposals.

    The selection of GNP/Ballard by the Port of Seattle to do freight and excursion rail service caught many by surprise as GNP Railway has been promoting a controversial proposal to run 6 to 12 private commuter rail trains a day on the line from Snohomish to Bellevue. The Port of Seattle has resisted GNP’s proposal and had maintained that it only wants to have the line be used for freight and excursion train purposes. However, the selection of GNP/Ballard now leaves many wondering whether the Port of Seattle will reconsider its position and allow private commuter rail service on the line.

    In addition to the controversy over the possible allowance of private commuter rail service on the line, several groups are calling for an investigation of the Port of Seattle for its mismanagement of the RFP process. At a hastily put together Eastside Corridor stakeholder strategy meeting in Bellevue this morning (see attached photo), a number of key stakeholders expressed outrage about the Port of Seattle for its lack of openness regarding the RFP process, and many were asking why the Port only received one response to such an important RFP.

    “If the RFP process was so good, why did the Port of Seattle only get one response?”
    said Ron Parsons of Rail Specialists, Inc., a well-known rail industry consultant who has been openly critical that the Port of Seattle had given BNSF to much power in this RFP process and the Port didn’t take any control or ownership of it.

    Bill Whitaker of Allied Transportation Group, who represents some of the shippers in the Bellevue-Snohomish area, indicated that he was highly concerned with lack of openness by the Port of Seattle and BNSF, and was shocked that there was only one bidder. “Anytime you only have one bidder, it calls into question the quality and integrity of the process….people like to have choices.”

    Pat Williams of the Bellevue Citizens for Government Accountability said that his members were extremely disappointed that the Port of Seattle unilaterally chose to not allow the RFP to cover the Bellevue-Woodinville portion of the line. “What that says to us is that Port of Seattle doesn’t care about rail between Woodinville and Bellevue…..no wonder they had only one bidder!”

    “This Port has shown blatant incompetence during this whole process and the taxpayers should be angry,” stated Bill Jones of the Puget Sound Taxpayers Union. “The Port of Seattle has mislead King County taxpayers from the start about its plans for this rail corridor. The fact that only one bidder came forward clearly shows there were major problems with the RFP process.”

    At the end of the meeting in Bellevue this morning, the various stakeholder groups vowed to push on and shine a bright light on the Port of Seattle concerning its mishandling of this process and to immediately get policymakers to intervene to repair the damage.

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