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Rabanco and Republic Services trash containers are double-stacked on flat cars parked next to Renton’s Gene Coulon Park. Trash cars have been stored like this for the past year.
Last November I posted a blog entry about the derelict Park Avenue Buildings, and the comments drifted into discussion of the trash train parked next to Gene Coulon Park. The train is composed of stored trash cars, which Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) has simply parked at the end of the rail line. The end of the line happens to be next to our city’s flagship park ever since BNSF made a deal with the State DOT to close the Eastside Rail Line– the same deal that ended Renton’s Dinner Train.
This once-pristine section of trail is interrupted by views of the parked trash rail cars
For decades Gene Coulon Park has been known for its mile and a half of beautiful public lakefront, which conjures images of sensitive, well-protected shorelines like this.
But since last year, park visitors will be greeted by a trash train a couple hundred feet from Coulon’s shoreline.
First view many Coulon Park visitors get is the trash train stretching along much of the east edge of the park
This trail in Coulon Park is now dominated by the trash cars stored on the nearby railroad track; nearby residents are concerned that the trash cars are bringing rodents and flies
In addition to being unsightly, trash cars bring rodents and flies unless they are steam-cleaned between uses– which they almost certainly are not. I’ve heard from Kennydale residents that report more rodents than they’ve seen in past years, and it is likely that these trash cars are contributing.
Below are my comments and reader comments on this topic from my blog post last fall, which still seem relevant today:
Do we know why Rebanco and Republic are allowed to store their garbage containers on the BNSF track along lake Washington boulevard? They’ve been there for a month and they stink. Thank goodness the weather isn’t too hot right now
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Randy Corman
So frustrating, isn’t it? Just what our premier Renton Park needs… a garbage train stored next to it. Our Mayor and Council need to push back on this. BNSF is storing these garbage cars here using the argument that they are allowed to store cars anywhere they have a dead-end track, as if Renton planned a freight yard next to Coulon Park. But this is only a dead-end track because BNSF sold-out the Eastside Rail Line for a cash-grab of taxpayer money given to them by the State Department of Transportation over Renton objections. The State DOT and BNSF killed our Dinner Train in the process. The garbage train just adds insult to injury.
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Ben Johnson
Checking the federal presumption situation, as a city we have almost no way of moving these cars directly. We do however have the ability to specify that biologically dangerous situations need to be fixed. If that means the rail cars will be moved, then this is just a happy side effect.
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Marcie Palmer
Those stinky garbage containers have been there a lot longer than a month! It’s been all summer. Yes, the mayor and council should push back BNSF, do you think they’ve even contacted anyone in all these months? Our city electeds will cry they’re the victims and nothing can be done because of big bad BNSF. At least TRY, let the community know what is going to be done. Or is this our new normal in Renton? sigh… (What do you want to bet they are gone by the time the FIFA soccer fans arrive??? THAT is the priority of our mayor.)
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Maggie
I guess the best we can hope for is that the World Cup doesn’t get rerouted. That might be the catalyst that gets the city to clean up the blight (and the garbage train)! Maybe we can convince the mayor that the FIFA will be here in January!
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Golden hour in Coulon Park as the stored trash train glows in the sunset
Wildlife teems in Coulon Park a couple hundred feet from the parked trash train
Nice of people to assume the council or His Honor gives a crap about anything other than keeping their jobs.
Closest thing to Light Rail Renton will ever get.
So sad. So true.
Comment of the year.
Oof, that hits hard
Issaquah, Tukwila, and West Seattle leaders are fighting for ST expansion. Renton leaders…. crickets.
Oh goody. Renton politicians are taking a victory lap because Sound Transit is finally going to build us a parking garage.
Back in 1996, Sound Move (ST1) took our tax dollars and promised real transit. Renton got nothing built. The $68 million set aside for us just sat there for twenty years. When Mayor Law finally tried to use it for a new transit center and garage, Sound Transit quietly told us at the last minute that they had moved that money to another Eastside project. We would only get help if ST3 passed.
So we kept paying. Almost 2 billions dollars over two decades, helping fund light rail to Redmond, Issaquah, and every other city on the main line, while Renton got left off the rail map completely. We are a city of nearly 100,000 people. Even Tacoma got a streetcar. We got promises.
Now, in 2026, they break ground and expect applause. For what? A bus station and a parking garage, when we already have a parking garage. That is the whole prize. A new version of what we already had, plus Stride buses that will not even show up until 2028.
Instead of a train we get a $5 million study for a possible Link connection someday, if there is ever an ST4.
For Bellevue and Mercer Island it’s rail. For Renton it’s a parking lot and garbage trains.
Bad bot
I’d vote for this bot. Better than the meat popcicles we have now.
Well, it is time to identify the City Councilmembers from 1996 who permitted the diversion of $68 million from Renton’s funds to finance projects in Bellevue and Redmond. Regrettably, our city has experienced subpar representation and leadership for decades. Now, at least, $100 million is committed to Renton and will remain dedicated to the city. In the future, it is possible that these funds, originally intended for a parking garage, may be repurposed to initiate funding for a future light rail system.
The money was actually earmarked for Renton until 2016. Then it was redirected to other projects over the strong objections of Mayor Law and the Renton Council. Here’s a letter Mayor Denis Law sent to Sound Transit at the time. Yesterday’s action essentially undoes this taking of Renton’s earmarked Sound Transit 1 and 2 funds, plus interest. We are obviously still way underserved by Sound Transit 3. Here is a blog entry with more detail on that.
Yep. $100 million. For now.
Out of 2 billion we’ve given in taxes.
2 billion. That sure would house & feed a bunch of hungry kids.
What exactly is the end-game of our esteemed electeds?
The kids don’t need more food. They need other things, but please no more food.
“The kids don’t need more food. They need other things, but please no more food.” – said no hungry kid, ever.
Look at American kids. 21% are obese.
I’m just going to shake my head at that 21% comment.
Have the starving ones eat the fat ones. Two problems solved.
Any runoff from these garbage containers flow into the already-contaminated Johns Creek basin, which empties right next to our Coulon Park swim area. The swimming area is closed right now due to high bacteria, and it has had an increasing number of closures, largely from Johns Creek contamination. A trash train parked next to it can’t help, and I doubt the trash train is supportive of the Department of Ecology Johns Creek clean-up plan. I would like to see the City Council and Mayor push these environmental concerns up the chain– they could start by passing a resolution (with all the necessary “where-as” statements) stating that Renton has determined that this is the wrong spot to store a trash train.
A wise man once told me something very interesting about some of our elected officials – “Their greatest punishment is that no matter where they are in the world, they can’t escape themselves.”
I agree, 100%
Imagine traveling halfway around the world, then looking in the mirror and seeing a trust-fund kid.
I learned in a village called Phakding that rich people blisters are just as bad as poor people blisters. They just have better socks to throw away.
🙂
Hey everyone, it looks like community pressure may have worked! A few hours ago I found this report in my Nextdoor feed, announcing that the trash train appears to have finally left Coulon Park. Let’s hope it remains that way!
We used to have a dinner train, now we have a rat train.
What good news! Hopefully it stays that way, would love to hear updates from anyone that visits the park soon