Lakewood leaders pressed state Department of Transportation officials Monday night over plans to introduce high-speed rail through the city, arguing the state is underestimating the potential impact.

In front of a crowd of about 50 people, the City Council and a representative from the state DOT went back and forth over how the Point Defiance Bypass will affect Lakewood.

Councilman Pad Finnigan pointedly addressed the matter: “I don’t want your trains in our city. It’s not worth it.”

City Councilman Don Anderson said areas such as Tillicum have traffic problems without trains. He and Mayor Doug Richardson said the plan unfairly affects low-income neighborhoods along the tracks.

“We see backups that are bigger than the ones (on your computer models) right now,” Anderson said.

But the state officials reiterated that they studied the project and found its benefits – job creation, shortened travel times for train users, less congestion for freight rail — make the project worthwhile.

The bypass would shave six minutes off Amtrak’s Seattle-Portland run and free up space for freight trains to operate in the Port of Tacoma area.

But it would also introduce 79-mph passenger trains through developed Lakewood neighborhoods.

The bypass would redirect southbound trains through South Tacoma, Lakewood, Fort Lewis and DuPont before reconnecting the original route in the Nisqually area. Northbound trains would follow the same route, in reverse.

In Lakewood, the trains would run through seven street-level crossings with no stops to pick up passengers. The route also travels near apartment complexes, schools and businesses.

Two months ago, the state DOT completed an environmental assessment of the whole rail corridor from Vancouver, Wash., all the way north to the Canadian border at Blaine, Wash., including the section through Pierce County.

Currently Amtrak runs five round-trip trains a day on the route. The state is vying for $1.4 billion in federal stimulus money that could help add up to four round-trip trains daily between Portland and Vancouver, B.C., by 2012. In the South Sound, millions of dollars would be spent laying track and other infrastructure needed for high-speed passenger trains.

Without stimulus funds, the project would need another $90 million, which pushes back the projected opening to about 2019.

Although the timeline for the project is unclear, Kevin Jeffers, the state’s project manager, said the state will improve seven at-grade crossings along the route by, among other things: adding wayside horns, and flashing lights and gates and median separators; synchronizing traffic signals; and improving pedestrian crossings.

On Monday night, Jeffers showed computer-generated models of how traffic is predicted to continue to flow despite the presence of passenger trains.

Still, Finnigan said the presentation didn’t change his mind on the bypass.

“You’re hell bent on adding trains,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

The city doesn’t want residents to confuse its opposition to the bypass with its desire for Sound Transit commuter rail service. Those trains move about half the speed of Amtrak trains and will go only as far south as Lakewood Station in the Lakeview area.

The plan is to have Sounder running between Lakewood and Tacoma Dome stations by 2012. Voters in Sound Transit’s three-county area passed a bond in 1996 that included commuter rail service to Lakewood, and the city has been waiting for the agency to make good on the promise ever since.

Jim Taylor, a member of the Tillicum-Woodbrook Neighborhood Association, said the bypass project is the most serious issue in the neighborhood's history, and that the state made a hasty decision to allow passenger trains.

"Its frightening (that) they disregarded these concerns for a total of six minutes," he said.

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com