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Attachments : Tilting train of future glides into Northwest
Amtrak's new generation of passenger trains will offer service from British Columbia to Eugene Tuesday, December 1 1998 By Gordon Oliver of The Oregonian staff
SEATTLE -- The Amtrak Cascades, America's newest passenger train, kicked off service from Seattle's King Street Station on Monday, bound for Eugene and the future.
The sleek trains feature coach and "custom class" seating, large windows, movies and plug-in music, outlets for laptop computers, information from satellites that shows current locations and estimated arrival times. They have plenty of room for carry-on luggage and a car for checked baggage service. Each 12-car train, with room for 247 passengers, offers a bistro car and a dining car. "It's very hard for people to get on this train and not be impressed," said Gil Mallery, president of Amtrak West, the rail passenger service's West Coast operations branch. The Cascades trains are the first in the nation fully accessible for people with disabilities, designed to let people in wheelchairs travel into the lounge and dining cars. "I've been waiting for this," said Pat Lange, 74, of Port Orchard, Wash., who spent the afternoon in the bistro on her way to Portland. "Now that it's here, it's fantastic." Washington State paid $10 million apiece for two trains. Amtrak has purchased a third train to replace older Talgos that went into service in 1994 and is hoping to invest in a fourth train that would allow for a second run between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, starting next summer. The inauguration of new trains marks a milestone in passenger rail's recovery in the Pacific Northwest. Trains in the Cascadia Corridor are drawing more riders every year as Amtrak and state governments invest in better equipment, faster travel times, and improved service. This year more than 550,000 people will ride trains or Amtrak buses in the corridor, including about 100,000 from Portland to Eugene. That is more than double the passenger count of five years ago, the last full year of Amtrak funding of rail service without state support The state of Washington has set an ambitious 20-year goal of reducing 3 ½ hour rail travel times between Portland and Seattle by an hour. The state's rail officials think they might cut time to three hours in the corridor within six years with improved signals, elimination of bottlenecks and faster speeds in the 200 curves between Portland and Seattle. The current speed limit for the trains is 79 mph but, with track and signal improvements, would increase to 110 mph. "The three-hour barrier from Seattle to Portland is like the four-minute mile," said Ken Uznanski, rail manager for Washington State's Department of Transportation. Once that barrier is cracked, he said, "we think the business travel market is going to really take off." Washington now operates three trains daily between Portland and Seattle, in addition to Amtrak's Seattle-to-Los Angeles Coast Starlight service, and one train daily from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, and has a goal of adding a new train every two years between Portland and Seattle, to a peak of 14 round-trips per day. Washington's transportation department is prepared to spend $30 million per year over six years for rail expansion and operations. The state's Transportation Commission will ask the Legislature for an additional $40 million over each of the next six years in light of voter approval of $2.3 billion in new transportation funds. In Oregon, state officials set a more modest goal of two-hour service and two trains per day from Portland to Eugene by 2002. Excluding the Coast Starlight, just one train and three Amtrak connecting buses now operate in the corridor. The running time for the train from Portland to Eugene is now two hours and 35 minutes. Oregon's Department of Transportation is asking the Legislature for $7 million per year over two years. That would continue the state's subsidy of operations, which is scheduled to expire in July, and pay for a self-propelled diesel train from Eugene to Portland that would be less expensive to purchase and operate than the Talgo trains. Oregon's funding proposal would also include money for bus service in Central and Eastern Oregon and on the Oregon Coast that would provide connections to the rail line. Amtrak's Mallery, a West Linn resident, says he still sees an uphill battle in winning funding from the Oregon Legislature. "There is so much energy and focus with the Legislature not on accomplishment but on attacking," Mallery said as he rode the newlyminted Talgo train south toward Portland. The expansion of rail service in the Cascadia Corridor puts the Northwest on the leading curve of a national resurgence of rail service. Amtrak is well-entrenched in the nation's Northeast Corridor and is investing in new trains that will operate at top speeds of 155 miles per hour there. California spends heavily on rail service in its urban areas, followed by Washington State. "We're sort of the poster child for Amtrak nationally," Sid Morrison, secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation, said on Monday's trip. Morrison said train travel has the luxuries of first-class air travel and provides a social atmosphere that is lacking in the automobile. "This is sort of like putting a home on the road. America will come back to inter-city passenger rail if we provide the service." Copyright
2000
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