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Dave, I could whole-heartedly embrace all of what you've proposed. To me, the Stevens Pass line is the problem, not the solution. What you've proposed is what BN should have done in the 1980s. Routing traffic north to Everett, Wash., then over Cascade Tunnel, where a bottleneck exists, makes little sense when the MILW had the better route (and provisions for doubletracking Snoqualmie Tunnel). As for the state's involvement, they'd be much more amenable to it now compared with 15 years ago, especially as there is talk of resuming Amtrak service over the Cascades through the growing Yakima Valley (which makes more sense than sending the Empire Builder through sparsely populated North Central Washington). The major viaducts on the west side of Snoqualmie Pass -- Hansen, Mine, Hull, Change, and Boeztke -- are still intact. Replacing the bridge at Lake Easton that the MILW used to cross the former NP main wouldn't be an extravagant expenditure, and realigning track at Bagley and Easton junctions would be fairly straightforward. The one hitch to all this is BNSF -- they seem entrenched in their thinking. Having spent $150-plus million to rehab Stampede Pass -- an amount I doubt they've recouped half of through revenue over it since December 1996, much less profit -- they've shown no signs of increasing traffic over Stampede.
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