The coming extension of passenger rail to Lakewood has some locals scared that trains will kill people wandering the tracks, which pass through low-income neighborhoods near schools, parks and fast-food restaurants.

By 2012, officials say, the state’s Point Defiance Bypass project will reroute almost a dozen passenger trains a day through South Tacoma, Lakewood and the Nisqually area.

The bypass will be the most drastic introduction of passenger rail into highly populated, urban areas since the state Department of Transportation took over the state railway system in the mid-1990s, a DOT official says.

A set of tracks runs through South Tacoma and Lakewood, but it’s now used only about twice a week by freight trains traveling 10 to 15 mph.

Amtrak passenger trains will blast through the area several times a day at speeds up to 79 mph, and frequent Sounder trains will travel about 35 mph.

Jennifer Justice lives in Tillicum, a lower-income neighborhood cut off from the rest of Lakewood by Interstate 5 and by the rusted tracks that run along the freeway.

Justice worries when she sees kids walk the tracks almost daily to reach the Woodbrook neighborhood on the other side of I-5. She also worries for the safety of adults who can’t afford to drive.

“There has got to be some extra measures to keep people from getting access to the tracks so easily,” said Justice, 47, who has four grown children. “They need to isolate the area around the tracks, or make it difficult to get to.”

Her concerns about pedestrians dying on or near train tracks in the South Sound aren’t unfounded.

A News Tribune analysis of records from the state and the newspaper’s archives found that at least 54 pedestrians were killed on railroad tracks in Pierce and South King counties over the last 10 years.

The number of people who died in car-train collisions over the same period? Four. And yet many governments are spending most of their rail safety money at vehicle crossings.

In 21 cases since 1998, the cause of death was determined to be suicide. In every case, the person was trespassing on private property.

Private rail operators such as BNSF Railway Co. own the tracks. It’s illegal for anyone to walk along or across them except at a designated area.

This raises a question officials must address as the Point Defiance Bypass is developed: How far should railroads and governments go – and how much should they spend – to keep scofflaws off private property?

Sound Transit is spending some $350 million to build and improve the route, including building an elevated crossing in the Dome District. The state is chipping in $60 million, including building a second track that will allow Amtrak trains to bypass Sounder trains stopped at Lakewood Station.

The money from both agencies also covers improvements to 20 vehicle-train crossings, ranging from wayside horns to flashing lights and gates, to medians to prevent people from driving around gates.

Keith Stone, who lives in Tacoma and is president of the city’s Dome District Development Group, says trespassers are responsible for their actions.

Public money shouldn’t be spent on safety improvements, he said – especially when it hampers small businesses by making surrounding neighborhoods less attractive.

Stone said he grew up near the tracks in Tacoma and learned at a young age to stay away from them.

“We’re trying to protect everybody so much, but it destroys small businesses,” he said. “We are not going to stop people from walking on the railroad.

“Nobody wants anybody to die, but where does it end?”

A FIRST IN THE STATE

Segments of the railroad in Pierce and South King counties existed before the Washington Territory gained statehood in 1889.

They were also there before Tacoma, Puyallup and Auburn officially became cities. In those cases, communities built themselves around the railroad.

It’s the other way around with the Point Defiance Bypass: For the first time since at least the 1990s, the state is thrusting passenger rail into well-established communities.

The 19.2-mile bypass will free up track for freight trains that run near the Port of Tacoma, Ruston, University Place and Steilacoom.

In addition, the new passenger route will shave six minutes off Amtrak’s Seattle-Portland run.

Sound Transit is also scheduled to add commuter rail service between the Tacoma Dome Station and the newly built Lakewood Station in 2012 – a long-awaited extension for which residents voted to raise their taxes a decade ago.

From Tacoma, the route will snake its way out of the Dome District and through South Tacoma’s industrial area, eventually heading south into Lakewood.

From there, it will run past busy streets including Bridgeport Way Southwest and Steilacoom Boulevard Southwest. The Amtrak trains will continue past the newly built Lakewood Station and will cross streets near McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis – such as Thorne Lane Southwest and Berkeley Avenue Southwest – before making their way south to Nisqually.

Along the way, the trains will zoom past residential neighborhoods and at least two elementary schools: Southgate and Tyee Park in Lakewood. The tracks are also located a block away from Tacoma’s South End Recreation Area.

Gabriela Alejandro, a 14-year-old who lives in the Southgate neighborhood, says she crosses the tracks only at designated areas. Others are not so observant.

“Mostly little kids go through there,” Gabriela said. “They just cut through.”

A LESSON FROM FIFE

Kim Prentice, spokeswoman for Clover Park Schools, said the district hasn’t spoken with the state or Sound Transit about potential safety hazards. School administrators are waiting to see more details of the project.

Another local school district’s experience, however, shows that it’s not an easy sell when trains and students come together.

In 2000, the Fife School District decided to build Columbia Junior High on donated land 250 feet from the Union Pacific tracks. Among those concerned was Mike Rowswell, then the state’s rail safety manager.

Rowswell told The News Tribune at the time that railroad tracks near a school mean more people trespass, raising the risk of a fatal accident.

Barriers help, he said. Columbia was built with a fence that separates it from the tracks. In addition, 54th Avenue East was closed to routine public traffic where it crosses the tracks near the school.

“For safety reasons we wanted the road shut for pedestrian and car safety,” said Jeff Short, deputy Fife School District administrator. “We also run through a (rail) safety training program once a year with all the kids.”

Short acknowledges that some kids still climb the fence as a shortcut.

“We respond by sending letters home and contacting parents,” he said. “We have had no close calls.”

VEHICLE CROSSINGS THE FOCUS

The Federal Railroad Administration reports that while overall railroad accidents have dropped 73 percent since 1972, pedestrian trespass accidents have increased during that period.

Between 2001 and 2005, pedestrian rail deaths nationally increased 20 percent, according to the administration.

Even so, much of the money for train safety in the South Sound is targeted at designated vehicle crossings.

Beginning next year, Sound Transit and the state will begin upgrading crossings in Lakewood and South Tacoma, adding safeguards such as wayside horns and synchronized traffic signals.

The upgrades include work at 14 crossings in Lakewood and Tacoma, fencing at the Lakewood Station and the future South Tacoma Station and a possible pedestrian crossing at A Street in Tacoma.

In 2010, crews are scheduled to begin construction on a 1.2-mile, raised railway across Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, which will link the Tacoma Dome Station with freight tracks leading into Lakewood.

The raised railway is expected to cost more than $70 million.

David Bugher, Lakewood’s assistant city manager, said his city’s concerns also have centered on making vehicle crossings safer, especially at Thorne Lane and Berkeley Avenue.

Bugher said city officials are focusing on these areas because they’re on city-owned property. Lakewood has no jurisdiction over Sound Transit’s right of way.

“What we want is no cars stuck on the tracks when the train passes by, and we want to prevent backups,” he said.

“The primary concern we’ve heard about is vehicles in Tillicum,” he added. “I’m not sure how many people walk across Berkeley to Madigan” Army Medical Center.

THEY CAN’T FENCE IT ALL

Officials say there’s only so much they can do to keep pedestrians safe. Both Sound Transit and state officials say investing in miles of fence or building overpasses at every crossing doesn’t make financial sense.

Tacoma, Steilacoom and Auburn have installed fences on portions of the railroad running through their neighborhoods. The problem with fencing is determining who will maintain it, said Bob Boston, director of the state’s Operation Lifesaver train safety program.

Another official says the only solution to block railroad access would be to fence the entire 19-mile Point Defiance Bypass route.

Kevin Jeffers, capital projects manager with the state DOT, said the state hasn’t estimated how much total fencing would cost, but he said it’s prohibitive for a $60 million project that’s already running short. (The state and Sound Transit say they’re working with the federal government and looking for other sources to cover a $15 million shortfall.)

“There’s nothing beyond closing off the corridor completely to keep people off the track,” Jeffers said.

Sound Transit spokeswoman Linda Robson agreed: “It’s simply not feasible in terms of doing fencing all along the tracks.”

She added that fences can sometime worsen the problem; a pedestrian could enter the tracks -- at an open crossing, for instance -- and get boxed in when a train approaches.

Sound Transit trains have never had a fatality accident since Sounder commuter rail service started in 2000. Robson said the multicounty transit authority has one of the best safety records of any passenger rail system in the country.

Between Tacoma and Seattle, Sound Transit has installed fencing between tracks at all stations, set up cameras to help catch dangerous behavior on the tracks and distributed pamphlets about safety.

Robson said there are plans to take similar steps when Sounder is extended to Lakewood in four years.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

Track operators say they’ll work with local authorities to make sure trespassing laws are enforced.

Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar said he hasn’t spoken to them yet, “but I imagine that we would work closely with the rail lines to keep people off the tracks.”

Sound Transit and the state say they’re also planning an educational blitz in Lakewood and South Tacoma as they get closer to starting service. There will be visits to schools and conversations with youth.

The message will be clear: Stay off the tracks. It’s for your own good.

“We’ll do everything to get the word out that the trains are coming through,” Jeffers said at a Tillicum-Woodbrook Neighborhood Association meeting last month.

Tacoma City Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg, who represents the South End, said education is probably the best approach.

“It’s just like teaching kids about street safety. You stop. You look both ways before crossing,” she said. “If we’re reintroducing trains into our community, which is what we’re doing, then we need to educate the community.”

Karen Lebeter, a Tillicum resident, said she hopes education will be enough.

But the 57-year-old said she wonders if the message will reach residents who need to hear it most: people who don’t rely on cars.

Her husband, John, has a neuromuscular condition and uses a wheelchair. He’s crossed the tracks before, but after some friendly lecturing from his wife, he knows to stay away.

Some people might not be so cautious, she said.

“I’m concerned about people on bicycles, on foot or in wheelchairs who are getting caught on the tracks the way they are now,” Lebeter said.

Boston, the director of Operation Lifesaver, said residents must realize that passenger trains won’t be the slower, louder freight trains that rumble through the neighborhood now.

“When you get faster trains out there, it just changes everything,” he said. “It’s a different era. The trains operate much differently than before.”

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

Staff writer Mike Archbold contributed to this report.