I'm not the most "in the know" railfan in the area, but as I recall, most of the talk about the Lind connection took place during the Stampede Pass rebuild. Since that line was reactivated, however, traffic levels have never lived up to what was expected. I live in the Pasco/Kennewick area, and I just don't see that many trains running on the Yakima Valley line between here and Stampede Pass on any given day. Unless the traffic really picks up, I just can't see how BNSF would be able to justify the expense of totally rebuilding the old Milwaukee ROW from Lind to Ellensburg. Also, I'm not sure they would gain that great an advantage - sure, they would eliminate a few miles and avoid Providence Hill, but that's not much of a trade when they would still have to climb the Saddle Mountain grade from Beverly to Kittitas.

Unless someone out there has direct knowledge of a BNSF strategy involving the "Lind Cutoff" and they can shed additional light on this subject, I just don't see this happening anytime soon, if ever.

Tom