Amtrak’s annual ridership was up 5%, hitting an all-time record high of 34.5 million rides nationwide over the last year. Amtrak Cascades also hit a record high, reporting 1.4% growth and coming in just short of joining the one-million-ride club.
A part of a major Amtrak order in 2022, the sleek new Siemens trains will be rolling out in the Pacific Northwest ahead of other parts of the country. The new Airo trainsets come at an uncertain time for Amtrak funding.
One bill to make it out of the Washington State Legislature this session was House Bill 1837, which sets targets to boost Amtrak Cascades frequencies, reliability, and speed. Meanwhile, Amtrak’s soon-to-be upgraded SoDo rail yard will host new and improved Amtrak Airo trains to one day accommodate t
Amtrak has sourced temporary rail cars to restore curtailed Cascades train service, following last week’s removal of 26 Horizon rail cars needing repair for corrosion issues. An additional run to Vancouver, BC will start April 1.
Citing corrosion, Amtrak suddenly recalled 70 Horizon rail cars for maintenance on March 25, heavily impacting several routes, including Amtrak Cascades between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, BC. Down to one operable trainset, Amtrak Cascades will be forced to rely on replacement bus service.
If the Washington legislature is serious about setting tangible goals for Amtrak Cascades this year, now is the time to also restart the conversation on advancing east-west passenger rail service and connecting Spokane, the Tri-Cities, Yakima, Ellensburg, Auburn, and Seattle. All Aboard Washington i
The Washington House of Representatives has passed legislation setting goals that could more than double service and significantly shrink travel times on Amtrak Cascades. The Washington State Senate still needs to sign off on the legislation.
Sound Transit continues to restore Sounder rail cars to service with some improvements for riders, but maintenance work by contractor Amtrak could take a while longer. That means reduce Sounder service could linger.
State lawmakers are signaling intent to improve Amtrak Cascades service with legislation setting a goal of cutting the trip time from Seattle to Portland to 2.5 hours and boosting service to 14 daily trips with 88% on-time performance by 2035. If lawmakers pass the bill, the goal for trip time servi
High-speed rail as in investment in Cascadia remains a popular policy idea, but Reece Martin of RMTransit makes the case for prioritizing higher-speed rail upgrades to Amtrak Cascades.
Look back on our top 10 most read articles published in 2024, which run the gambit from rail to highrise to waterfront park news.
The Pacific Northwest is set to be the first home for one of Amtrak’s next-generation trains starting in 2026, Amtrak confirmed at the agency’s annual board meeting in Seattle last week.
Riding the rails from New York City to Toronto and then eventually onward to London, Ontario, Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes details his journey, highlighting the good and bad of Amtrak and Via Rail service and amenities. One big takeaway from Slaughter is just how slow the trains are.
Amtrak is updating its Seattle rail yard to handle an expanded modern fleet of trains via a newly announced $300 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
On Tuesday, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced the start of free youth fares on Amtrak Cascades services. Free youth fares will apply to both trains and buses operated under the Cascades brand, but only in Washington.
WSDOT is mulling boosting Amtrak Cascades service to 16 daily runs, but none of its options tackle the speed and reliability improvements to truly unlock the corridor’s potential. A survey open through April 18 is an opportunity to push in that direction.
Yakima, Boise, Missoula, and Pocatello could see Amtrak service again under a new federal plan that adds a daily route from Seattle to Denver and another running to Chicago on a modified alignment from Amtrak’s Empire Builder.
Washington State came up short in its bid for a larger $198 million grant to advance high-speed rail planning. On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) unveiled its selection of rail projects that will be getting a windfall via President Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This “Corridor
Two new daily roundtrips on Amtrak Cascades between Seattle and Portland will start on Monday, December 11. The extra trips will help fill out the schedule with a mix of morning and evening trips, allowing for some earlier and later travel options. That will give riders more choices and offer
A rapid mode shift from planes and lanes to trains is a healthy climate solution. Many thanks to Stephen Fesler for his reporting on the new Amtrak Cascades Plan. As he describes, it’s better than current service — but insufficient to meet 2030 climate imperatives. Washington law has multiple climate-mitigation
Indonesian Railways’ rapid improvement offers hope for turning around floundering Amtrak Cascades service. Back in April I attempted to take the train from Tacoma to Portland. The day it was to depart, I was informed we would be placed onto a coach bus in lieu of a train. When I
Preliminary concepts for Amtrak Cascades service growth have surfaced, offering an early look into the potential direction of frequencies and infrastructure enhancements to support them. As part of a renewed service development plan process responding to public feedback, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has developed five options to
Sound Transit is partnering with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for a grade-separation project in Pierce County. The project is being led by the state transportation department as part of freeway expansion efforts near Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) and will benefit a railway that Sound Transit owns. The
Participate in the online survey and influence decades of future Amtrak Cascades passenger rail service. Work has begun on the first phase of the Amtrak Cascades Service Development Plan (SDP), which will serve as a blueprint for Amtrak Cascades passenger rail service for the next two decades. The last Amtrak
On the whole, 2022 was not a bad year for intercity passenger rail service in the northwest. In March, the Washington State Legislature allocated a total of $154 million USD ($209 million CAD) “for additional analysis and development of an expanded framework for future work” as well as “matching funds
Amtrak Cascades will be the first Amtrak-branded service in the country to feature new “Airo” trainsets in 2026, which are part of a larger national Amtrak procurement. On Thursday, the Washington State Department of Department (WSDOT) and Amtrak unveiled of a suite of snazzy new trainset renderings and videos showing
Ridership on Sounder’s southern line has taken a huge hit since the pandemic started in 2020. Sound Transit moved to cut service down to the bone for a time on the S Line, which runs between Seattle and Lakewood. That likely depressed ridership even more than it otherwise would
On Wednesday, freight railroads had yet to come to terms with union workers, creating chaos across the United States as movement of goods and passengers began grinding to a halt. The companies had been refusing to fully meet the demands of well-meaning workers who could go on strike as soon
Cross-country train rides with and without kids, dining cars with and without meat, and making travel part of the vacation. To ride a train across America is the most sublime tension you will ever encounter. You are lazily rocking detached from cell signal, exactingly scheduled where minutes missed can turn
Amtrak will restore international Cascades train service to Vancouver, British Columbia on September 26th. Initially, Cascades service will only be one roundtrip daily between Seattle and Vancouver, but Amtrak will increase that to twice daily when available staffing and equipment levels allow. Bookings for the restored service are already available.
“It’s not planning for today. This is a vision that’s planning for where the region is going to be in twenty years. If we don’t start now we’re never going to get there.” This is what Washington State Senator Marko Liias said of the proposed 2022
This week’s Transpo Notes highlights include: repeal of King County’s bike helmet law, return of cross-border Amtrak Cascades train service, preliminary report of King County Water Taxi expansion, Colman Dock construction progress, and Tacoma Link project woes. King County bike helmet law repealed On Thursday, the King County
A few weeks ago, I decided I had to go to Portland to see an art show before it closed. The original plan included spending a night with a friend, but due to Omicron we felt that would not be a good idea. I didn’t want to stay in
RM Transit shows off Via Rail’s new Siemens Venture class equipment, which is also coming to Amtrak services like Cascades.
Amtrak Cascades train service north of Seattle remains suspended, but bus service will be offered in early December. This will allow Amtrak passengers to reach Vancouver, British Columbia after nearly two years of no Amtrak-affliated service. Officials have also said that train service is expected to be restored in 2022,
Amtrak services will return to the Point Defiance Bypass on Thursday, November 18th, the company announced late this afternoon. The bypass is expected to shave up to ten minutes off travel times (updated schedules currently show a scattershot of time savings) between Tacoma and Olympia versus the waterside route currently
The map visualizes more rail connections throughout the Northwest, including both cities and rural areas. With all of the transit developments happening in the Puget Sound region, it’s easy to lose track of developments in other parts of the state. Recently, All Aboard Washington (AAWA), a nonprofit passenger rail
When President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion jobs plan proposed $20 billion for a Reconnecting Communities fund that could be used for urban freeway removal and mitigation efforts in American cities, it felt too good to be true. Urbanists aren’t used to getting big wins like this from
Amtrak has cut a major $7.3 billion deal with Siemens Mobility, a Germany-based manufacturer, to produce 83 trainsets at its Sacramento, California plant. The contract will rejuvenate the aging national passenger railroad company with modern equipment, replacing nearly 40% of the fleet by the early 2030s. A portion of
Amidst the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, interest in passenger rail has increased markedly across the United States. With an enthusiastically pro-rail federal administration now in power, talk of our nation’s “second great railroading revolution” has begun among advocates and transit blogs from coast to coast. But is this
A ferry on rails could help electric cars get across the Cascade Mountains without burning up their battery or sitting in traffic. In my previous Local Cascades Service article about rebuilding Stampede Pass, I briefly mentioned the idea of a ferry service as one potential use for expanded service. In
The pandemic has meant a big curtailment in passenger rail service for Washington. Right now there’s only thrice weekly long-distance service to Los Angeles and Chicago and a once daily regional trip to Portland from Seattle. In May, Amtrak is poised to bring back service in a big way,
Last year, when Washington’s east-west passenger rail study came out, the results were mostly uninspiring for a full corridor initially, but one particular section on demand in the Kittitas and Yakima Valleys stood out to me: In short, local transit demand exists in communities along where rail lines run
Amtrak is celebrating the company’s 50 anniversary with a look back on past liveries and special commemorative ones that will be painted on trains this year. The company also talks about other new liveries.
Julian (JBtrainman) takes viewers on a short but comprehensive tour of the new Moynihan Train Hall expansion of New York City’s Penn Station, which formally opened on New Year’s Day. Kenneth Chin (ActionKid) offers a much longer and deeper tour of the new digs.
Passenger rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington (AAWA) has called upon the Washington State Legislature to provide funding to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to implement existing plans for an expanded statewide passenger rail network. Restoring the full Amtrak Cascades passenger train schedule, and expanding Cascades service to
Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris officially became President-elect and Vice President-elect on Saturday, which signals a shift from a car-centric, anti-city administration to a clean slate. Questions continue to swirl over whether a Biden-Harris administration will govern as progressives or rubber stamps for corporate interests and the centrist establishment.
While Joe Biden may have emphasized highway building during the virtual Democratic National Convention, his $2 trillion dollar “Build Back Better” climate plan is built on transit. When Biden rolled out the plan in July, he did a great job of stressing the urgency and tightly linking climate action to
Service on the Amtrak Cascades corridor is likely to remain reduced for quite some time. One daily roundtrip between Seattle and Eugene will continue until demand warrants an increase in service, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Ridership is down 90% from normal, but part of that
On Tuesday, the Washington State Joint Transportation Committee (WSJTC) and its consultants presented findings to state legislators on the east-west intercity passenger rail study. The study evaluates several corridor and service level options as well as ridership, costs, targeted corridor improvements, and operational models. Findings by consultants show that ridership
Washington’s long-awaited draft state rail plan update has been released. Due out in 2019, the draft finally surfaced last week from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) highlighting the status of the state’s railway infrastructure as well as projected demand and needs. The draft plan shows that
Amtrak is hoping to improve service from Vancouver, British Columbia for its Amtrak Cascades service. At a briefing Wednesday, Ron Pate of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) told the state Senate Transportation Committee that Amtrak requested preclearance for its services departing from Pacific Central Station in Vancouver last
Have you heard of Sound Transit’s Rail Plus program? If not, this video explains how ORCA passholders can use their cards on certain Amtrak Cascades train trips in lieu of Sounder commuter rail for the same cost. Find out more online for schedules. Also, let Amtrak Cascades know (Twitter,
On Sunday, the Washington State Legislature concluded the 2019 legislative session. Many progressive environmental, transportation, land use, and housing bills managed to win approval and will become law. In our first installment to cover the legislative session wrap up, we provided an overview of key transportation bills that passed and
On Monday, Sound Transit announced that positive train control (PTC) has been fully implemented and received certification along the Sounder commuter rail corridors. Sounder trains operating the corridors from Lakewood to Everett are now controlled by PTC equipment that automatically slows trains from overspeeds and prevents collisions with other trains,
This is the second post in a two part series about train travel in the US. If you would like learn more about riding Amtrak cross-country, please read the first post, “Going the Distance on Amtrak.” Recent headlines surrounding the US passenger rail industry verge into extremes, with dark contentions
Some lessons learned about US train travel from a recent 48 hour trip on Amtrak. This Christmas holiday I made an unconventional choice for my transportation plans. Instead of opting to fly home, I chose to buy a cross-country ticket on the Amtrak Empire Builder train line. The entire journey
Over the past several months, there has been some serious apprehension by the Trump administration to fund America’s most important infrastructure project: the Hudson Tunnel gateway project. Delay to build a new tunnel could result in massive economic consequences to the New York City area. Luckily, Amtrak has secured
On Monday, a new advocacy organization called Cascadia Rail announced itself to the world, piquing interest with their spiffy map by maestro cartographer Oran Viriyincy. Cascadia Rail’s vision is to connect every major city in Cascadia, which is a colloquial term for the states and provinces along the Cacade
Washington State legislators went back to work on Monday, kicking off a 60-day legislative session. The legislative session is shorter than last year’s since odd-numbered years are expected to have legislative work completed quicker. Democrats now hold both the upper and lower chambers of the Washington State Legislature after
On Friday, Amtrak released a new timetable for service on the Cascadia Corridor between Seattle and Portland cancelling two daily roundtrips. Service will revert to the old timetable of four daily roundtrips between the city pair on Amtrak Cascades plus one daily roundtrip on Coast Starlight. Passengers who were booked
The Amtrak Cascades tragedy provided an opening for a certain troll-in-chief to promote his infrastructure plan. If the Republican infrastructure plan–which at one point proposed eliminating Amtrak service to 220 cities–was worth the paper it was written on, this could have been excused. It’s not though, and
On Monday, the first Amtrak Cascades run on the new Point Defiance Bypass ended in tragedy. Sadly three passengers lost their lives–including two well-known rail aficionados Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre–and dozens were injured. Service on Amtrak Cascades continues, albeit with several changes. A rider alert released yesterday
This weekend I took a trip on the Empire Builder train to Leavenworth, Washington to see the Christmas lighting ceremony the Bavarian-themed town performs each day to adoring crowds from around the region. Riding Amtrak provided a fun alternative to braving the mountain pass in a car. The return trip