King County seeks to turn rail to trail

SEATTLE – King County is trying to buy a 47-mile rail corridor stretching from suburban Renton north to Snohomish County and turn it into a trail.

If the county acquires the right of way from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the new trail would cut through some of Seattle’s eastern suburbs and potentially tie into an existing urban-trail network.

“This is the pinnacle, the granddaddy of trails,” said King County Executive Ron Sims, who is leading the effort to acquire the route. “This would become the spine of our system, and we think the public should own it.”

Discussions about acquiring the rail line, which now carries the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train, began quietly about six months ago, Sims told the Seattle Times.

Serious negotiations with the railroad have just begun, so the county would not publicly estimate how much it might pay for the route. But Sims said it wouldn’t take new taxes to buy the corridor.

If the route became a trail, all rail traffic, including the dinner train, would cease on that line.

The corridor would connect with the Sammamish River Trail, which links to the Burke-Gilman Trail. It would also tie into the Centennial Trail, which now runs from Snohomish to Arlington. When the trails are complete, an uninterrupted route could be possible from Renton to Skagit County.

County planners say it’s too early to say what the trail would look like or when it would open.

If a deal is struck, King County would acquire the corridor through “railbanking,” in which railroads sell, lease or donate rights of way on routes they no longer operate to private organizations or local governments for use as trails. The corridors are often sold at reduced rates in exchange for a tax deduction for the railroad.

Routes are converted to trails but can be returned to mass-transit use in the future.

Without railbanking, it would be nearly impossible for the public to buy this kind of right of way, because the county would have to negotiate costly purchases one lot at a time, said Rod Brandon, King County’s director of environmental sustainability.

Instead, the rail route would instantly provide the county with an unbroken stretch of open land just minutes from often-congested Interstate 405.

“In the past, this route has been recommended for bus rapid transit, light rail, single-engine uses,” Sims said.

“But I’m buying it to have as a trail. If future leaders want to add a use … it will be added to the trail; it would not be instead of that.”