Mountain Rail For Sale?
The dream of the Train to the Mountain has long been languishing – we certainly haven’t thought much about it recently – and today’s TNT article from Peter Callaghan suggests that it may soon be laid to rest for good.
Over the weekend, the TNT ‘s Lewis Kamb reported that Tacoma Rail is in talks to sell or lease portions of its money-losing Mountain Rail Division – the portion of Tacoma Rail that would have enabled the long-discussed, but never realized scenic route from Tacoma to Mount Rainier.
The most promising deal Kamb mentions is a possible sale to Sound Transit of 1.3 miles of track in the Dome District. No dollar amount is listed, just a suggestion that the price would be enough to cover Mountain Rail’s existing $6.25 million in debt. Two other potential deals, according to Kamb, could see the lease of seven miles of line from Centralia to Chehalis to a switching company, and of the Eatonville to Morton spur to the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.
Although Tacoma Rail as a whole has been doing decent business, the Mountain Rail has long been a money-losing proposition, which auditors recently warned might never pay back the several million in debt that it has accrued. On the other hand, business this year has been better; according to Tacoma Rail, the division has done better than expected, meaning a forecasted $200,000 annual loss won’t be materializing this year.
Under federal law Tacoma is required to continue operating the Mountain Rail Division, so it can’t completely walk away, even if it continues to lose money. The Train to the Mountain, however, can be walked away from, despite the money already invested in it.
So, given all that, should Tacoma Rail sell? Would you be glad to hear the last of plans for the Train to the Mountain?
Oh, and On this week’s City Council agenda is a resolution requesting an extra $6.2 million for Tacoma Rail to cover costs resulting from heavier than expected demand for its services.
Read more on negotiations for the possible sale of portions of Mountain Rail from the TNT. Read more on the end of the Train to the mountain from the TNT here.
Filed under: City Government, Budget
3 comments
D David Anderson October 23, 2012
Get the Feds to pay for it. Why can’t this track, which is a drain on Tacoma’s budget, serve as a ‘two-rail solution’ with one benefit being the realization of Tacoma’s vision for “The Train to the Mountain” and the other a ‘pain reliever’ for Lakewood’s headache and angst (and possible law suit) over Amtrak’s “only option” the so-called Pt. Defiance By-Pass which, backed by federal dollars, could pay the $24M track improvements for the Mt. track instead of the $89M for it’s route through the life-congested neighborhoods of Lakewood, Tillicum and DuPont. Upon reaching Chehalis, Amtrak could just keep on going.
D Dan Hansen October 23, 2012
I don’t think the sale of 1.3 miles of track near Freighthouse Square has any bearing on a potential train to Ashford. Tacoma will still own the entire track from the junction in in the dome district to the Fredrickson Industrial Park to the boundary of the national park. This deal is great for now. Sound Transit will have full ownership of the rail from the point where it diverges from the BNSF main line in Nisqually to the point where it rejions BNSF across the Puyallup river. This should help Sound Transit if they need to replace the trestle, or upgrade the Freighthouse for Amtrak; and Tacoma gets to offload some debt. Its a win win for all, but not the deth of the dream. I’d love to see a train to the mountian someday, but it isn’t imperative right now. We can wait.
N Nathanael November 2, 2012
Sound Transit is the primary user of the tracks in the Dome District — for Lakewood and Tacoma service — and will soon be joined by Amtrak Cascades. It makes perfect sense to sell that section to Sound Transit, if Sound Transit can get the money. Sound Transit would be perfectly happy to run a “train to the mountain” over that track if someone asked.
Chehalis to Centralia is mainly useful for Puget Sound & Pacific and for local traffic, though it might also be useful for Amtrak Cascades some day in the future. I don’t see a problem with selling that, either.
As for the suggestion of running Amtrak all the way from Fredrickton to Morton over the Mountain Division, it would bypass Lacey, which would be a big step backwards — a very bad idea. Amtrak should run through Lakewood (and will improve the situation in Lakewood).
The Mt. Rainer Scenic is the logical owner of the tracks which are primarily used by it, so if it can raise the money (a big question), I’m all for that sale too. Perhaps the Mt. Rainer Scenic should buy the tracks all the way from Sound Transit’s boundary to Morton, in fact.