Train riders getting around the Pacific Northwest now have less than three weeks to wait for brand new trainsets complete with new ergonomic seats, upgraded WiFi, and a revamped cafe car. On Thursday, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) revealed that two "Airo" trainsets will start operating on Wednesday, September 30 on the Amtrak Cascades corridor.
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September 30 also happens to be when Sound Transit is inaugurating service on Pinehurst Station, an infill light rail stop between Northgate and South Shoreline.
The Airos, which are being manufactured by Siemens, were ordered in 2021 and will replace aging equipment on the Cascades corridor. While no additional roundtrips are planned with the new sets compared to the existing Amtrak Cascades schedule, each Airo will have much more seating capacity: 317 seats compared to as few as 160 seats that are available on the Amfleet I cars in most common use otherwise.
Amtrak Cascades, which is jointly sponsored by WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation, will be the first regional Amtrak route to see the new Airo trains before they get rolled out elsewhere in the U.S. The exact trips that will see Airos put in place has not yet been announced.
The announcement of a firm date came at a meeting of the Puget Sound Regional Council's transportation policy board, after months of sightings of the Airo trains around the region following the arrival of the first set on May 16 and the second on August 23. Amtrak took possession of the first two Airo trainsets in February, putting them through the paces through cross-country testing after a public unveiling at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The third trainset arrived in Seattle today, according to WSDOT Freight and Rail Planning Program Manager Jason Beloso.
The Airo trains will come with a bevy of new upgrades, including bathrooms with touchless controls for better sanitation, seating with large tray tables, water bottle holders, and cushioned headrests, and coaches with more reliable WiFi and enhanced lighting systems. The sleeker cafe cars will offer a Northwest-themed food and beverage menu.
Beloso said Thursday that the initial launch this month will include one new trainset on the Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. route, and another on the Seattle to Eugene route, with a third set kept on hand as a spare. The additional five trainsets are expected to arrive before the end of the year, part of a larger, nationwide order of 83 trainsets.
When fully in operation, the new fleet of Airos will significantly boost the capacity on the Amtrak Cascades network, especially the overprescribed Vancouver, B.C. route which regularly sells out weeks in advance.
Amtrak will be well-prepared for an influx of visitors heading from Canada, after rolling out a first-on-the-continent rail travel preclearance facility at Vancouver's Pacific Central Station earlier this year. That facility allows southbound trains to cross the border without stopping for any additional screening.
Ridership on Amtrak Cascades had been steadily increasing in recent years, but hit a wall when Amtrak was forced to swap out 26 railcars on the corridor for smaller vehicles in 2025, after discovering potential issues with its previously used Talgo trainsets. Replacing the Talgos with Amfleet I vehicles from elsewhere in the country reduced capacity on the entire Cascades system, leading to an 8% drop in ridership between 2024 and 2025.
That being said, the entire Amtrak system saw a boost in usage for the FIFA Men's World Cup, with the system carrying a record five million riders in the weeks surrounding the matches.
With the new Airo fleet, the upper limit on ridership potential for Amtrak Cascades will be substantially raised.
Amtrak is also making steady progress on its revamped Seattle trainyard, a $300 million project funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Unlike previous generations of Amtrak trainsets, the Airos aren't able to be decoupled, prompting the need for a much larger maintenance facility. The structure taking shape right now in SoDo certainly fits that bill, coming in at 100,000 square feet.
The City of Seattle is also working with Amtrak on another major headache for rail operations in the city: the at-grade crossing at S Holgate Street that is essentially the only public road running directly through a rail maintenance facility anywhere in the U.S. A new study is looking at ways to address the inherent conflicts at that location, including with a potential full closure and/or pedestrian and vehicle bridge. Improving that pinch point could allow the Seattle railyard to handle even more trains down the line.
Amtrak is also working on a $110 million retrofit of the rail bridge over Salmon Bay between Ballard and Magnolia, a key segment of the Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. route. That upgrade is expected to extend the life of the bridge by 50 years. Another $12 million in landslide mitigation efforts and $12.9 in trackside equipment improvements are also on deck.
The infrastructure improvements are nice, but the real star of the show will be the new trainsets. With the Airos finally going into service, the next generation of Amtrak service is definitely at Seattle's doorstep, a fact that is sure to bring some major benefits for regional travel throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Stephen Fesler
Doug Trumm
