Spokane-Cda Needs Light-Rail Line
A quarter-century ago when I began my Spokane journalism career, bulldozers were knocking down faded railroad stations where pioneer farmers and their wives once stepped down in suits and long dresses for shopping excursions in the booming city by the falls.
But even in the ‘70s, the people of Spokane still had railroading in their blood. When a steam engine rolled into town during the World’s Fair celebration, office workers rushed to the windows and flung them open, listening to the music of a whistle that hadn’t echoed off the city’s hills in years. The sound was transfixing, soaring above the rumble of Spokane’s new elevated freeway. That glistening concrete ribbon, epitome of 1970s-era progress, whisked traffic through town and out into the Valley. There, new roofs sprouted row on row, replacing fruit orchards and vegetable farms that used to feed the city.
Now, like the rail lines, the farms are gone. Now, the question is how much longer it will be before suburbs and cities sprawl all the way from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene.
Before that time comes, before all of the land is taken up with roofs and ever-widening roads, we need to ask how we’ll get around.
Roads will be a big part of the answer.
But they could be supplemented by an echo from our region’s past:
Light rail.
This is not mere romantic speculation. The public agency responsible for long-range transportation plans has laid groundwork for the construction of a light rail system that would stretch from downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake. Later phases could reach Coeur d’Alene, and might extend north along the North-South freeway, which won state construction funds last week and will include right-of-way for passenger rail lines.
A detailed feasibility study, documenting light rail’s viability, has been under way for six years. Now it’s done. Within a few weeks, the Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC) will unveil an Environmental Assessment of high-capacity transit options for the 16-mile Spokane Valley corridor. Light rail leads the list of options.
After a 30-day public comment period, this inch-thick report will go to the federal government for approval. Then, SRTC can invite bids for a two-year, multimillion dollar contract. The likely assignment: Produce designs and engineering for a light-rail system. Five national engineering firms are poised to submit bids, and funding is available.
Once design is done, one hurdle would remain: securing $300 million to build the system.
Two-thirds of the cost would come from state and federal grants. The local share could come from a sales tax increase of one-tenth or two-tenths of a cent. Local voters would have to agree before the tax and project could proceed. Spokane Transit Authority probably would operate the new rail system, using its familiar buses to deliver riders to the rail stations.
All aboard. It’s time for a public discussion. As debate begins, we could use some foresight - foresight like that of the pioneers who built and connected our region’s towns, with a now-forgotten electric railroad line.
Never heard of it? One of the reasons light rail is viable here today is that some old railroad beds from our past are still in place, ready for use, owned by the county.
Launched in 1904, the Spokane & Inland Railway used cars powered by nonpolluting electric engines. Its lines ran from Spokane to Hayden Lake, and south into the Palouse, all the way to Colfax and Moscow. Developers partnered with the railroad, building towns around the stations.
John Fahey’s wonderful book, “Shaping Spokane,” reports that the railroad’s elegant cars “sped country customers to the city in gay spirits on shopping tours, where they thronged stores, restaurants and theaters. … The Spokane & Inland Empire promoted excursions to the lakes with hourly runs to Lake Coeur d’Alene and eleven trains a day to Liberty. The farmer’s wife shopped in Spokane and reached home in time to ready supper, bubbling with her urban adventures.”
When automobiles arrived, the Spokane & Inland Railway began a slow decline. In July 1940, after one last passenger run to Coeur d’Alene, it rolled into the mists of history and disappeared.
Today, forgetful of our past, it’s easy for us to question passenger rail. It’s expensive. But, so are freeways. So is our multiple-car lifestyle: think about three-car garages, loan payments, license taxes, insurance, repairs.
Light rail’s critics usually say that at some times of the day, seats are relatively empty. True. At some times of the day, roads are relatively empty, too.
Some may worry that mass transit isn’t safe. As a bus rider who enjoys the chance to meet my neighbors, I disagree. Does road rage ring a bell? How safe do you feel in your car in heavy traffic?
Light rail has an advantage over buses: They get stuck in traffic. Trains don’t. Freeways need continual widening. If light rail needs more capacity, the system simply adds cars, not tracks.
For light rail to work, we would need a cultural change. It’s possible. A number of cities, including Portland and Washington, D.C., have shown that light rail improves a community. No, it doesn’t end the need to update roads, but it eases pressure to do so. It adds a desirable option for some of our trips. And, it stimulates investment in the tax base. Portland recently added a line into a declining area west of the city, aiming to attract redevelopment and neighborhood renewal. It worked, and ridership is booming. Portland commuters use rail to get to work, shop and go to concerts and sporting events. We could, too.
The proposed Spokane Valley line would include stops downtown, at the fairgrounds, Liberty Lake, possibly the Valley Mall and at University City, where planners hope developers might renovate the faded old commercial district and build a “downtown” for the Valley.
This is no pipe dream. It happened here, once. It has happened elsewhere, recently. Let’s talk. What do we have to lose, other than the isolation and costs of our auto-dependent culture?