Burlington Northern/Dinner Train discussion on Wednesday Morning

The Burlington Northern Right-of-Way finally comes before our city council Transportation Committee this Wednesday morning, Oct 18, at 9:00, at City Hall (7th floor, council conference room).

The public is invited to watch the discussion, and I will be there with two of my council collegues to review the city’s options. We may also be able to accept a small amount of public comment, but we would not be able to take very much testimony because of the meeting format and time alotment. Mostly, this will be our last-best opportunity to determine whether the city can and should take any actions to block the abandomnent process that will end the run of the dinner train.

This meeting is being held as a result of a motion I sponsored two weeks ago (see my email below)

—–Original Message—–racorman
From: Corman, Randy
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 4:06 PM
To: Julia Medzegian; Citizens to Council Via Clerk
Cc: Jay Covington; Kathy Keolker
Subject: Severing the Burlington Northern Line at Wilburton

Tonight I plan to move that we place the subject of the severing of the
Burlington Northern Railroad track at Wilburton into the Transportation
Committee for review. It appears that the federal abandonment process
will probably be initiated within the next month, and all parties
(including Renton) will have 45 days to respond. Given that we have
hundreds of industrial acres on this track that will be severed from the
rest of the Eastside by lack of a single bridge over I-405, and given
that the track is currently in active use, I feel that council should
take a pro-active involvement in this topic. I believe that the
abandonment process gives us more rights and leverage than we have
discussed, and we owe it to future generations to deliberate this issue
carefully.

I have coordinated with the Transportation Committee chair about this,
and she is supportive of bringing this into her committee.

Thanks,

Randy