Eastside Rail Now!


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Eastside Rail Now! is a grassroots environmental organization that is fighting King County Executive Ron Sims' plan to scrap the strategic Eastside railroad and replace it with a bicycle trail. This completely senseless action would waste more than $160 million of taxpayers' money. Worse yet, after removal it would be vastly more costly and extremely difficult politically to put the tracks back in, thereby setting back transportation and environmental progress on the Eastside by decades!

The Eastside railroad is particularly well suited for use as the core of a low cost and environment-friendly regional commuter rail service. This is because it parallels I-405, which is the most congested freeway in the entire Northwest, and passes through or near most major destinations on the rapidly growing Eastside. Because the tracks are in fair to good condition, an initial, pilot commuter service using state of the art DMUs could be launched on the railroad in just a few months. And a full-scale commuter service, with trains running over existing tracks all the way to Everett and beyond in the north and to Tacoma and beyond in the south, could be in operation in two years or less.

New! Newcastle's Official Request to Preserve the Railroad
Update! Eastside Railroad Media Watch
New! Woodinville's Official Request to Sound Transit for Funding for Pilot Project
New! Eastside Railroad Myths -- and Realities
More! More new and updated pages . . .

To learn more about Eastside Rail Now! and about what you can do to help, please visit the pages About, The Railroad, The Great I-405 Boondoggle, Global Warming, The PSRC Study, FAQ and How to Help. Also be sure to see the Media page for links to recent newspaper articles and the Scenes page for a brief graphic tour of the railroad. A complete listing of contents is available on the Site Index page.