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CASCADIA CENTER TO DISCUSS EASTSIDE TRAILWAY CONCEPTS

Original Article

-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
10:00 a.m. PDT

Contact: Mike Wussow
Director of Public Affairs
+1 (206) 292-0401 x158 direct

CASCADIA CENTER TO DISCUSS EASTSIDE TRAILWAY CONCEPTS
Regional Transportation Center to Address Snohomish City Council

Seattle, Wash. (April 15, 2008)-This evening, the Cascadia Center for Regional Development will present its Eastside TRailway “rails and trails” concept to the Snohomish City Council. Cascadia policy director Bruce Agnew, retired former BNSF Operations Director Read Fay, and Cascadia transportation affiliate consultants, Loren Herrigstad and Tom Jones, will present to the council at 6 p.m. PDT at Snohomish’s Aim High School. The presentation, which precedes the council meeting, will take place in the school’s George Gilbertson boardroom. The school is located at 1601 Avenue D in Snohomish. The session is open to the public and media.

Cascadia Center, long a regional thought leader in working with public and private sector groups to help find practical solutions to the Cascadia region’s transportation challenges, is at the forefront of the effort to assure that 42 miles of abandoned rail tracks that run from Snohomish to Renton are preserved as a “rails” and “trails” corridor.

“This extensive corridor,” said Agnew, “connects Snohomish and north King County with employment hubs like Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue, and it runs all the way south to Renton. This is an extremely valuable resource. It’d be painfully short-sighted not to preserve and use it to its maximum capability – rails and trails.”

Cascadia and others have suggested that there should be a pilot project using self-propelled Diesel Multiple Unit trains on a Snohomish-Bellevue run, and that a trail should be developed along the entire corridor. Eventually, rail service is envisioned all the way to Renton, and on the Woodinville-Redmond spur. Beyond those cities, Cascadia said extensions could be made to Everett, Bellingham and to SeaTac Airport. Money will need to be raised through a combination of public and private sources for track rehabilitation, station development and rail car purchase and operations

“There is a growing coalition supporting the idea of rails and trails along the corridor,” said Agnew. “We’re pleased that the issue has gained life and that citizens and community leaders are getting involved. Our vision remains the same: to bring disparate options together to preserve the corridor for both rails and trails.”

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Founded in 1993, Cascadia Center at Discovery Institute is known for its involvement in transportation and development issues in the Cascadia Corridor, Puget Sound and in the U.S.-Canadian cross-border realm. The Center also focuses on promoting U.S. efforts to reduce reliance on foreign oil, including the earliest possible development and integration of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid-electric vehicles. Cascadia Center, funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is proud of its reputation as an independent voice for creative solutions to metropolitan, state, regional, and national challenges-a voice shared through constructive policy analyses, testimony to government bodies, and by convening forums and conferences to facilitate solutions to complex policy matters. More at: www.cascadiaproject.org

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