A broad-based coalition of Edmonds organizations are hosting a “Don’t Block Our Beach” rally at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 11, at Brackett’s Landing to draw attention to plans to more than double rail traffic along the Edmonds waterfront by 2030.
Today, approximately 40 trains pass through Edmonds daily along the waterfront via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad tracks. But BNSF would like to increase that number to nearly 100 trips daily by 2030 — including a large number of trains filled with coal eventually headed to China via Bellingham — threatening to further cut off public safety, recreational and commercial access to the Edmonds waterfront.
According to information sent Monday by the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, each train causes a five- to seven-minute delay in the ability of pedestrians, motor vehicles and emergency vehicles to get to the waterfront. Don’t Block Our Beach is a volunteer coalition of concerned citizens and community and business leaders “who are rallying local, state and federal leaders to protect critical access to Edmonds Beach and ferry and demand a better solution to mitigating an overwhelming amount of expected rail traffic,” the announcement said.
Coalition members include the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, the Port of Edmonds, Sustainable Edmonds, City of Edmonds, Edmonds Police Department, Edmonds Senior Center and Snohomish County Fire District 1.
Why not just build a bridge? You could make a bridge for foot traffic as well as for vehicles. The public and services would ba able to access the waterfront while BNSF could run more trains. As for the cost, why not just split the cost between Edmonds and BNSF. Im sure that the percentage of whom covers what can be worked out.