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Sound Transit Takes New Track In Tacoma Talks By Brooks Barnes Sound Transit might have found a way around a roadblock in Tacoma. After months of fighting over a 1.2-mile segment of railroad track that Tacoma owns and the regional transit agency wants for the Sounder commuter line, the two have reached a tentative settlement, according to Kevin Phelps, the Sound Transit board member and Tacoma city councilman leading the negotiations. The proposed solution: that Sound Transit lay 1.2 miles of new track next to the existing rails. Tacoma, for its part, will agree to add at least one new street crossing to accommodate the tracks. Tacoma engineers figure a parallel set could be laid on city-owned land for about $17 million -- only $5 million more than Sound Transit planned to spend readying the existing tracks for Sounder trains, which are set to start running from Seattle in September. Mr. Phelps says he thinks an extra $5 million can be scrounged up through anticipated savings to the southern part of the light-rail system. He plans to bring the idea before the Sound Transit board at its meeting this month. The two sides have been arguing since the spring over how to have the 1.2 miles of track accommodate both Sounder and Tacoma Rail, a city-owned short-line railroad that uses the tracks to transport goods to the Port of Tacoma from area manufacturers. Negotiations broke down in June when Sound Transit accused Tacoma of holding the project hostage by demanding the agency pay as much as $700,000 a year to run Sounder on the 1.2-mile segment. According to spokesman Clarence Moriwaki, the agency offered to pay the city about $17,500 -- about the same per-mile fee it pays Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Corp. for use of tracks, but Tacoma said that wasn't enough. City officials say extra compensation was needed to make up for the growth-stunting effect Sounder traffic would have on its short-line business. If there is no settlement, Sounder service will stop at an Amtrak station north of the city. Copyright � 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. WSJNW Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA