Cascadia is uniquely set up as a region that would support high-speed rail. Between the linear arrangement of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, and the just-over-100-mile distance between each one, the super region could be tied together by a fast rail line. It’s an idea being pushed by a number of actors, including the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, Microsoft, and anyone who REALLY needs to get back north for some Michelin starred roast duck.
In this episode, co-hosts Natalie and Ray discuss a recent report about planning for high speed rail from the Urban Infrastructure Lab at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. The report looks at a half dozen other high-speed rail projects around the world and draws lessons from their construction and operation. The biggest takeaway of all: plan to provide great high speed rail service. It’s a little different than the infrastructure plans Cascadia normally undertakes. Here’s a link to the report.
We would love to hear your plans for what to do in a neighboring city if it was only an hour train ride away. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.
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