Marking a Milestone 3/20/2009
Amtrak Cascades to celebrate 10 years of service
This year, Amtrak and the Washington state and Oregon departments of transportation are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Amtrak Cascades service.
The agencies will commemorate the milestone with a celebration to be held during the National Train Day event on May 9 at Seattle's King Street Station.
Operated by Amtrak in partnership with the Washington and Oregon DOTs, the Cascades service debuted in 1999, providing intercity passenger-rail service between Vancouver, B.C., and Eugene, Ore. Today, the Cascades features four daily round trips between Portland and Seattle, with connecting service between Portland and Eugene, and Bellingham and Seattle. The service also includes one daily round trip between Seattle and Vancouver.
The Cascades service has carried more than 6 million passengers during the past decade, and ridership has shot up 71 percent since 1999. In 2008, the service registered an all-time-high 750,000 riders.
Comments
Adron Hall wrote re: Amtrak Cascades to celebrate 10 years of service
on 3/20/2009 1:42:46 PM
Glad to see 10 years, looking forward to using it another 10 years. This segment is a prime example of how to expand rail service in a corridor for moderate costs. The lines literally break even, and with one more frequency the state DOTs involved & Amtrak will even report an operational profit.
Hopefully the FRA won't continue standing in the way of projects like this (as they did) and will assist instead in removing the red tape they often create.
