Port of Seattle to host Eastside Rail Corridor Informational Open House

The Port of Seattle will make a brief presentation followed by a question and answer period at their Eastside Rail Corridor Informational Open House in the Peter Kirk room at Kirkland City Hall at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, July 9th. This event is open to the public and Kirkland citizens are encouraged to attend. The issue at hand is the future of the BNSF railway corridor that runs through the middle of Kirkland.

Regardless of your view on this issue, please make sure your voice is heard. We here in Kirkland will be affected by the decisions made at the County level so we need to give them out input.

A group called Eastside Trail Advocates (ETA) www.eastsidetrailadvocates.org is dedicated to having the BNSF corridor become a pedestrian and biking trail. Their mission statement reads:

Eastside Trail Advocates’ mission is to create the region’s premier pedestrian and biking trails along the Eastside BNSF corridor.

From the ETA website:

“We are a group of eastside residents promoting the best appropriate use of the BNSF corridor that runs north / south on the east side of Lake Washington, for the benefit of the entire metro area. We support immediate expansion of commuter bus service through deployment of additional direct bus routes and increased bus frequencies that serve all commuters. We also support well-planned expansion of commuter light-rail that connects seamlessly with the light-rail currently under construction but that is not blight to established residential neighborhoods.”  

The corridor is laid with heavy rail tracks, used primarily for freight trains. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway sold the corridor in a deal involving the Port of Seattle and King County. Possible future outcomes for the coveted North-South railway corridor include a pedestrian/bicycle trail system, heavy rail transit, light rail transit and a metro bus lane.

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