Snohomish leaders spent a day in San Francisco

A delegation of Snohomish leaders spent a day in the area north of San Francisco last week reviewing the plans and ongoing work to develop new passenger rail transit services that are scheduled to begin in 2014.

The Cascadia Center for Regional Development sponsored the tour to provide Puget Sound leaders an opportunity to meet with Northern California counterparts involved in the development of the Sonoma Marin Rail Transit (SMART) system that voters in that area approved for tax-supported funding in 2008.

The 70-mile SMART system has strong parallels to the 40-mile Eastside Rail Corridor between Snohomish and Renton. One of the proposed uses of the Eastside Corridor is the development of daily passenger services in addition to the continued freight services and anticipated new tourist excursion trains that are expected to begin running in 2010. Representing the City of Snohomish were Councilmember Lynn Schilaty, Planning Commissioner Tom Hamilton and City Manager Larry Bauman. Ann Averill, a former Mayor and member of the Citys Rails and Trails Advisory Committee, and County Councilmember Dave Somers also participated in the tour. We found a high degree of similarity between the SMART system and the potential passenger rail services on the Eastside Rail Corridor, said Councilmember Schilaty.

The SMART system is redeveloping the unused tracks paralleling Californias Highway 101 much like our Eastside Rail tracks that run near both Highway 9 and the 405 freeway. The tour was an excellent opportunity to learn from the experiences of the SMART systems developers as we move ahead to create similar services for residents and businesses in our region, she said.

The SMART tour included presentations from the systems early proponents and designers as well as meetings with city and business officials who are working to take advantage of the economic development and transit-oriented development opportunities that the new services are expected to support.

The Snohomish City Council established annual goals for both 2009 and 2010 to support development of passenger services on the Eastside Rail Corridor. Both Councilmembers and City staff have continued to work with other leaders and agencies in the region to advocate for the creation of passenger rail services between Snohomish and Bellevue. The future uses of the Eastside Rail Corridor currently hinge on the Port of Seattles anticipated purchase of the tracks from the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, and this purchase is scheduled to be completed in December of this year.

Once the purchase is completed, tourist excursion services are planned to begin within six months. Passenger transit services are not yet funded or scheduled for the corridor. However, local governments in both Snohomish and King Counties are working together to develop plans for these commuter rail services.

No City or public funds were used for Snohomish officials on the tour. City representatives received a grant through the Cascadia Center for all travel expenses.