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Amtrak

Op-Ed: How Washington’s Trains Can Arrive On-Time

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

Concepts for Amtrak Cascades Service Growth Have Arrived

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

Amtrak Cascades to Chart Next 20 Years of Service

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

Summer On The Rails: Traveling on Amtrak’s Empire Builder

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 Service Returns to Point Defiance Bypass on November 18th

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

All Aboard Washington Releases New Passenger Rail Vision Map

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

Sunday Video: NYC’s Moynihan Train Hall Opens

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.

AAWA: Advocates Call for Amtrak Expansion to Facilitate Economic Recovery and Improve Environmental Stewardship

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

Amtrak Joe’s Win Elevates High-Speed Rail Hopes

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.

Amtrak Cascades Stuck in Low Gear, Gets New Rolling Stock

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

Study Finds Limited New East-West Washington Passenger Rail Line Could Generate Substantial Ridership

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

Midweek Video: Rail Plus

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,

Positive Train Control Fully Activated on Sounder Corridors

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,

What Is the State of US Rail Travel in 2019?

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

Going The Distance On Amtrak

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

Sunday Video: Ready To Build

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

Map of the Week: Cascadia Rail

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

An Infrastructure Plan for a Progressive Wave

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

High Speed Rail: The Right Kind of Infrastructure Investment

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