Gerald Grinstine then CEO of BN, was the man behind the reopening of Stampede. He worked an agreement with the State Of Washington for then BN to aquire the former MILW RofW from Ellensburg to Lind. The agreement had, if I recall correctly, a 5 year window. The planned project included clearance work on the Stampede Tunnel. When the BNSF merger took place, new CEO Rob Krebs, immediately put a stop to all line reopening projects including the Stampede project and the P&L project. Reason cited was the cost of the BNSF merger.
Due to another agreement with WSDOT, the Stampede project could not be killed completely and was reopened in the form it is now. (The planned clearance project is the reason the rebuilt snow sheds were built to double stack standards even though the tunnel wasn't, it saved money on the cost of redrawing the plans.) Krebs allowed the Ellensburg - Lind agreement to expire, even though much of the engineering work had been drawn. Since that time, Washington administrations have changed and the State of Washington will no longer consider such a project as recreational trails are now a higher priority.