Bn Will Restore Stampede Pass Route
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. plans to spend about $125 million between now and 1999 to restore the Stampede Pass rail route across Washington’s Cascade mountains, the railroad said Friday.
BNSF said it expects to run at least one train a day in each direction across the pass as early as the end of this year.
The 78-mile route runs between Auburn, south of Seattle, and Cle Elum on the east side of the Cascades. There, it connects with the Washington Central Railroad route that runs through the Yakima Valley to connect with the BNSF mainline at Pasco.
The railroad closed the route in 1983 because of sparse traffic, but wants to reopen it now because of growing trade through Puget Sound ports.