In June, Sightline wrote about the ways that coal trains would impair traffic in Seattle. We identified specific streets—several of them critically important to freight mobility—that coal trains would shut off periodically. So we were very pleased yesterday to see the City publish a sophisticated new analysis by traffic management firm Parametrix that confirmed our findings: coal trains would shut down eight major streets by 1 to 3 hours a day, 365 days a year.
There’s already been widespread news coverage, and rightly so, including a good AP story, a terrific Northwest Public Radio piece, a nicely detailed write-up at The Stranger, solid coverage in business periodicals, and good television coverage, like this piece at King 5 News.
Information like this—spelling out the local impacts of moving millions of tons of coal to Asia—spells trouble for the coal export industry. There’s simply no way to ship that much dirty fuel without causing a heap of problems along the way.
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