WSDOT's current North Columbia Basin project is studying all of these issues right now (with the expection of Warden-Lind--that's BNSF's baby). The Wheeler-Adrian connection is NOT related to a Stampede upgrade at this time. It had so far been looked at as a way of routing manifest traffic to the ex-GN to by-pass the only current connection for the CBRW, that being the Connell Turn out of congested Pasco. It has been determined that there is not enough traffic currently being routed in the CBRW-Everett corridor to justify the north connection--and that's independant of any possible ex-MILW rebuild. The Moses Lake by-pass that Dan mentioned is in the planning stages. One WSDOT consideration (dropped) even had a new CBRW line running parallel to the BNSF from the Adrian area to Quincy to reach the WSDOT-funded Port of Quincy operation that is still waiting to generate traffic after being completed for a few years.

If a Stampede upgrade plus an ex-MILW rebuild ever happens, a Warden-Lind connection to the Lakeside Sub will find a BNSF line segment with a current capacity of 48 ATPD with 30 average currently running. A connection to Adrian will get it to the Columbia River Sub segment that despite not having Cascade Tunnel to deal with, is rated at 25 with 24 currently being run. for whatever reason, Wenatchee west has a capacity of 22 and Wenatchee east not much better with that 24. What the Adrian east segment does not have is the Trinidad area bottleneck and what is does have is 22 miles of underutilized double track from Lamona to Bluestem. For the life of me, I can't figure out why it's there unless it maybe dates back to GN Empire Builder days when it might have been the schedule that had them meeting out there somewhere. The main problem with the ex-GN side is that EVERY siding with the exception of Gibson (5 of them) has at least one public crossing in it somewhere making every meet a radio-planned event. The 7 sidings on the Lakeside Sub east of Lind are free of that problem. If I were a gambling type (and I'm not), I'd bet on Warden-Lind before Wheeler-Adrian.

As for the Ellensburg situation, a couple of by-pass options are currently under study (and very interesting--but not cheap).