Leaders from across the Pacific Northwest recently gathered at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in Seattle and reaffirmed their commitment to building high-speed rail linking Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C. But Trump has created headwinds for the project by slashing transit funds.
One bill to make it out of the Washington State Legislature this session was House Bill 1837, which sets targets to boost Amtrak Cascades frequencies, reliability, and speed. Meanwhile, Amtrak’s soon-to-be upgraded SoDo rail yard will host new and improved Amtrak Airo trains to one day accommodate t
A new $49.7 million grant will advance Cascadia high-speed rail project farther along the federal planning pipeline. A line vastly cutting the travel times between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver is a small step closer to reality.
Lucid Stew’s “Taking Back The Streets Cascadia Edition” analyzes the idea of repurposing I-5 lanes to create a high speed rail line between Eugene and Vancouver, BC, connecting Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and a handful of other cities along the way. A two-hour trip from Seattle to Portland or Vancouv
The dream of high-speed rail in Cascadia continues as state government studies how to achieve it, but what might a realistic high-speed rail line look like? What would the travel times be, where would it run, and how much would it cost?
Ray Delahanty of CityNerd has an updated analysis of potentially high-performing corridors for high-speed rail in North America. Delahanty scores dozens of corridors, but in his rankings Cascadia doesn’t make the cut as a high priority. That said, Delahanty is certainly onboard with a breakaway Republic of
Washington State came up short in its bid for a larger $198 million grant to advance high-speed rail planning. On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) unveiled its selection of rail projects that will be getting a windfall via President Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This
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
On the whole, 2022 was not a bad year for intercity passenger rail service in the northwest. In March, the Washington State Legislature allocated a total of $154 million USD ($209 million CAD) “for additional analysis and development of an expanded framework for future work” as well as “matching funds
The fight is starting over high-speed rail in Washington State. On Wednesday night, the 36th District Democrats considered a resolution to oppose the use of Climate Commitment Act funds in developing ultra fast ground transportation that would connect Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, British Columbia. A similar resolution has already
On Tuesday, the Washington State Legislature’s Democratic caucus unveiled a $16 billion proposal funding a suite of transportation projects intended to be completed over the next 16 years, through 2038. The proposal represents both a dramatic shift from the proposals of years past, with a significant increase in the
The winter holidays gifted Seattle thousands of cancelled flights, likely affecting over 100,000 travellers. Today, weeks later, people are feeling the impacts as airlines try to work through the backlog. I can relate. I’ve had my fair share of terrible flying experiences, including a trip just last November.
Not Just Bikes explores how high-speed rail in Italy killed off an entire airline and tries it out firsthand. Not Just Bikes also explains how Europe plans to increase more intercity passenger rail ridership over air travel.
I want to do an even handed and dutiful reporting job about the 2021 Cascadia Innovation Corridor conference. But I’m in an downtown Vancouver hotel with my second negative Covid test of the week and a television talking about catastrophic flooding that’s cut the city off from (checks
City Beautiful looks at where Texas Central’s high-speed rail stations might go and their potential once trains start arriving. Texas Central’s station location approach is generally marked different from cities abroad with high-speed rail.
As a regular reader who lives in Downtown Tacoma, I’m always excited to see articles that address the challenges and opportunities in our city. The recent article proposing a Central Tacoma Link Extension (CTLE) to improve transit service into Downtown Tacoma was no different. However, I’d like to
A recent poll completed by FM3 Research found that 67% of Washingtonians support connecting the major cities of the Cascadia region with high-speed rail, along with 60% of Oregonians. Only 27% of respondents across the two states expressed opposition to building high-speed rail, and residents of British Columbia
Amidst the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, interest in passenger rail has increased markedly across the United States. With an enthusiastically pro-rail federal administration now in power, talk of our nation’s “second great railroading revolution” has begun among advocates and transit blogs from coast to coast. But is
President Joe Biden released his much anticipated $2.25 trillion dollar jobs and infrastructure plan today. Republican congressional leaders were quick to brand it as an overly large grab bag of progressive priorities, saying that like it was a bad thing. The breath of investments is a strength, but it
On Tuesday, State Representative David Hackney (D-11th Legislative District) introduced an exciting bill that could provide Seattle a path to extend rail expansions beyond Sound Transit 3 (ST3) and help avert severe delays in ST3 timelines threatened due to cost escalations and dips in revenue due to the pandemic.
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.
Last week, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released a report (PDF) laying out a framework to advance Cascadia’s high-speed rail hopes. “Rather than relying on congested highways or increasing air traffic, UHSGT [ultra-high-speed ground transportation] offers sustainable alternative to traveling greater distances quickly and
Abolishing apartment bans is how we grow as a region, not sprouting entire new cities in pasture. The Cascadia Vision 2050 report made it onto KUOW with its claim that four cities of 300,000 to 400,000 residents need to be built from scratch in the I-5 corridor
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
Learn more about the ambitious proposal to build new high-speed transit connected hub-cities at the upcoming October 9th event. Skyrocketing housing costs that displace established residents. Ever increasing commute times. Development that sprawls into environmentally sensitive areas. Stubbornly high carbon emissions. A new consultant report, Cascadia Vision 2050,
While Joe Biden may have emphasized highway building during the virtual Democratic National Convention, his $2 trillion dollar “Build Back Better” climate plan is built on transit. When Biden rolled out the plan in July, he did a great job of stressing the urgency and tightly linking climate action to
There are many ways a high-speed rail system can benefit the urban hubs of a megaregion, but small towns along the alignment can also benefit and grow economically. According to Representative Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), who authored a white paper on American High-Speed Rail, “Economic development is not
A bill to fund the rollout of high-speed rail across America was recently introduced in the House of Representatives. The proposed policies would get the economy back on track by investing $205 billion over five years, creating jobs, competition in transportation, and giving Americans cleaner, faster, more reliable commutes.
As we live through the current moment, it is difficult to understate the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the world. While the current outlook on the progress of the virus in most countries is looking better than it was this time last month, there is still
As a result of the mandatory stay-at-home orders, fewer people are flying, fewer people are commuting to work, and fewer people are using their cars for recreational purposes. Seattle experienced a noticeable reduction in emissions, as stay-at-home orders led to 40% fewer car trips. The congestion
In the midst of the public health emergency, worldwide stay-at-home mandates have resulted in significantly fewer people traveling by car or airplane. Scientists have been tracking improved air quality and resurgence of wildlife in urban areas, perhaps providing hope for the current state of our global climate. Preliminary
Washington’s long-awaited draft state rail plan update has been released. Due out in 2019, the draft finally surfaced last week from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) highlighting the status of the state’s railway infrastructure as well as projected demand and needs. The draft plan shows
Earlier this year the city published a feasibility study to put a lid above I-5 to reconnect Downtown and First Hill, two neighborhoods divided by the freeway. It would add both housing and a park all above the freeway trench, but it should also incorporate high-speed rail. In
At some point in our recent history, we got complacent. Our society stopped its foresighted quest of reaching higher. This year marked the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the pinnacle of American ambition and ingenuity, a time when big ideas were met with unity driven towards monumental achievements. There were
Early this month, a group of more than 100 rail industry professionals and local politicians met on the Microsoft campus to discuss the future of high-speed rail in the Northwest. I attended the conference as an interested free agent. As a local organizer working on land use issues in
In September, Rail~Volution held their annual conference up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Paige Malott, Chair of Cascadia Rail, was there and provided a comprehensive presentation on high-speed rail in the Cascadia Region.
Yesterday, Challenge Seattle hosted a conference that demonstrated widespread support for high-speed rail among political and business leaders in Cascadia. And then there was Peter DeFazio, the Democrat who has represented Oregon’s 4th Congressional District since 1987. During the “Federal Partnership” session, Representative DeFazio came out as a
On May 21st, Governor Jay Inslee passed but partially vetoed ESHB 1160. The approved provisions of ESHB 1160 appropriates funds to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for the study of a new rail authority and high-speed rail governance structure. This potential rail authority would preside over development
On Monday, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released a Ultra-High Speed Ground Transportation Business Case Analysis that shows considerable upside for connecting Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, British Columbia with trains potentially reaching speeds of 250 miles per hour. Among the benefits is the potential to forestall future
Futurewise is pushing the advisory group to use an equity lens in high-speed rail planning. As The Urbanist recently reported, Washington state is moving forward with funding studies for an interstate high-speed rail line corridor between Vancouver, British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon. For the past year, Futurewise has
On Sunday, the Washington State Legislature concluded the 2019 legislative session. Many progressive environmental, transportation, land use, and housing bills managed to win approval and will become law. In our first installment to cover the legislative session wrap up, we provided an overview of key transportation bills that passed and
“Doing nothing is not an option,” the I-5 System Partnership said in its Call to Action draft report. The report advocates for updating the current I-5 with a 21st century multi-modal corridor. While Seattle holds its breath and watches as demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct removes
On Thursday, the Washington State Senate Transportation Committee passed its version (Senate Bill 5214) of a two-year statewide transportation funding appropriations bill. The bill includes several major line items for transportation studies and high-speed rail project development. The high-speed rail corridor currently being studied would be designed
In the latest transportation budget proposal, Washington House Democrats have kept some funding to lay the groundwork for an interstate high-speed rail corridor authority. Eventually corridor authority would be established to plan and implement high-speed rail between Vancouver, British Columbia and Portland via Seattle and several other intermediate
State legislators received a briefing this week on the Washington-led effort to study and plan high-speed rail in the Cascadia Megregion, stretching from Vancouver, British Columbia to Portland, Oregon. Early survey results suggest that there is public interest in a high-speed rail system. The Washington State Department
On Tuesday, Democrats in the Washington State Legislature introduced Governor Jay Inslee’s (D-Washington) legislation for new transportation funding that would support creation of an interstate high-speed rail authority. The legislation would provide up to $3.25 million in biennial appropriations through 2021 to establish the authority in
Submit your nominations for the Futurewise Livable Community Awards! Each year, Futurewise honors community leaders in five categories (Local Government Excellence, Equity and Environment, Protecting Natural Resource Areas, Smart Growth and Transportation, Community Champion). We want your nominations for 2019! Submit your ideas online. Pierce County Council Votes to Double
The Cascadia high-speed rail cost estimate in the preliminary study caused fiscal conservatives to clinch their cheeks together. Nonetheless, plenty of reasons exist to move forward with further study at the very least. The fiscal hawks tend to fail to mention the economic analysis appended to the same study:
On Friday, the British Columbian governments declared support for studying high-speed rail from Vancouver to Portland and building out key transit and transportation projects throughout Vancouver’s Lower Mainland. Governor Jay Inslee (D-Washington) traveled up to Vancouver to join his fellow West Coast governors at the annual Pacific
Last week, the Washington State House came through with $900,000 to partially fund a business case study of high-speed rail connecting Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. Meanwhile, the Washington State Senate dropped the ball, allocating no money for the $3.6 million investment grade study Governor Jay Inslee requested,
One way or another, high-speed rail looks poised to get a deeper study in Washington state. On Wednesday, transportation committees of the Washington State Legislature convened to consider competing supplemental transportation budgets. Both budget proposals contained provisos to continue studying the topic in the state in addition to segments
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
A feasibility report on ultra high-speed surface transportation in the Cascadia region was released two weeks ago. The $300,000 study was commissioned by the Washington State Legislature earlier this year. A delegation from the Governor’s Office, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), and CH2M (the consultant) presented
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
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
In December, the city of Changsha, China started trial runs on a recently completed 11.5-mile urban low-speed maglev train line (<75 mph). How is that beneficial? It can climb 30% grades while regular adhesion light rail can only deal with around 8%, produces less noise and