City of Kirkland should delay removal of tracks | Letter
Published 5:35 pm Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Google’s recent announcement that it is doubling the size of its Kirkland campus and hiring 1,000 additional employees by 2015 is a great announcement for Kirkland’s economy.
The growth of Google in Kirkland will encourage more growth in businesses and traffic. Now is the time to create a public-private partnership between Kirkland and Google to preserve the rails in the Cross Kirkland Corridor for future commuter use.
Increased traffic on 6th Street South where Google is located will create congestion on Northeast 68th Street and 108th Avenue Northeast and in the surrounding neighborhood. These traffic impacts can be mitigated by use of rail and trail with a station planned at the Google campus since the rail corridor currently passes through it. Commuter rail with a trail beside it can provide seamless connections with existing bus transit.
I would like to add my voice to those in Kirkland and on the Eastside who do not want to see the important rail link between the north and south end of Kirkland removed at this time. I support a multi-modal corridor on the Eastside, which should include commuter rail. The Kirkland rail section is vital for future commuter rail connectivity along the Eastside.
Rails and trails have been shown to coexist in other places and Kirkland residents will use the rail for commuting and the trail for bicycling and walking. A good example of this shared use is the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART Transit) now being built in San Francisco’s North Bay. Information about this commuter rail and multi-use trail project can be found at: www.main.sonomamarintrain.org.
I hope that Kirkland will wait for completion of the King County Eastside Rail Corridor Regional Advisory Council’s report to move forward before severing this corridor. I urge Kirkland to support the vision of Snohomish and Woodinville to keep the Eastside Rail Corridor intact and to delay removal of Kirkland’s tracks within the corridor.
I believe in the quote in Cross Kirkland Corridor’s vision statement of 2011: “Planning or implementing one mode must not foreclose future corridor use by another mode.” I hope that Kirkland will not foreclose commuter rail in the future from Woodinville through Kirkland, south to Bellevue, and along the entire Eastside in both Snohomish and King counties.
Stephanie Weber, Kirkland
