Amtrak Cascades’ Potential

Incremental upgrades to Amtrak Cascades would have a lot of benefits, including for Sounder, the Coast Starlight, and the Empire Builder. It could be done faster and cheaper than ultra high-speed rail, as Reece Martin (RMTransit) argues in a Pacific Northwest video:

Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia have been looking at a new ultra high-speed rail corridor. The Biden administration just provided funding to plan it in more detail as the Urbanist reported. But it will take far more funding and time to build it.

As reported earlier (The Future of Amtrak Cascades), WSDOT published last June the latest version of the Amtrak Cascades Service Development Plan (2024) providing a detailed analysis of service options, needed capital improvements, costs, and a phased implementation plan. The possibilities for expanding Amtrak service both in frequency and speed are exciting.

Amtrak Cascades MapSummary

There were 5 alternatives investigated, all with increased trips though mostly from Seattle to Portland. The two alternatives with increased speed (90 mph) also have the highest capital cost for infrastructure improvements. An earlier draft was released in 2023 with 13 initial service options, and now that has been narrowed down to 5.

Below will dive deeper into the details.

Timetables

Note: The timetables are conceptual, not an Amtrak Cascades service operations plan for implementation. They have not been approved by the host railroads. Further detailed analysis and discussions with service partners will be needed to develop an operations plan before any additional service can be implemented

• Use clockface departures (i.e., departures that are at the same time within each hour throughout the day, such as 10:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m., etc.) from the Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, BC stations.
• Provide continuous all-day service between early morning and late evening and spreading trips throughout the day.
• Maximize the opportunity for trains to operate through Seattle and Portland, maintaining the convenience of traveling on a single train rather than transferring at these stations.
• Maintain current layover times in Seattle (30 minutes) and Portland (15 minutes)
• Schedule the morning express and limited train departures close to 8 a.m., and the afternoon express and limited train departures at or after the evening rush hour to better serve day trip travelers.

Train Speed

For train speeds there were two options studied.

• 1) Baseline slot catalog with a 79-mph maximum speed limit, reflecting existing track alignment, speed restrictions and operating rules as in 2022;
• 2) Upgraded slot catalog with a 90-mph maximum speed limit, assuming track class 5 upgrades to certain sections

Compared to baseline slot catalog, the upgraded slot catalog could theoretically achieve runtime savings of about 13 minutes through the entire corridor between Portland and Vancouver, BC (7 minutes south of Seattle, and 6 minutes north of Seattle).

WSDOT chose baseline slot catalog of 79-mph to Preliminary Alternatives A, B and D, and upgraded slot catalog of 90-mph in some locations to Preliminary Alternatives C and E. The rationale was that the advantage of shorter travel times would benefit more train trips and more riders for alternatives with higher service frequency.

Preliminary Alternative D was the exception to this because it provides shorter travel times by instead using limited-stop and express service for some trips. The Baseline slot catalog was used for this preliminary alternative to provide a clear contrast to the approach of Alternative C and E using higher maximum speed limits to provide shorter travel times.

Service DiagramsExhibit 16: existing service diagram

The existing service pattern consists of 2 round trips between Portland and Vancouver, 2 round trips between Eugene and Seattle, as well as 2 round trips between just Portland and Seattle. The combined trips provide 6 round trips between Portland and Seattle. Thruway Buses provide connections from Eugene to Portland and Seattle to Vancouver when trains aren't running.

Exhibit 17: preliminary alternative service diagram

Preliminary Alternative A and B involve increasing frequency. Alternative C and E involve higher speeds and increased frequency with increased capital cost to add the additional tracks. Alternative D involves increasing frequency with the same max speed as Alternative A & B but uses a limited and express stop service to add more trains. The skip stop service allows adding additional trains without requiring as much expensive capital improvements.

Capacity Limitations and Necessary Capital ImprovementsNorth of Seattle Improvements2045 Capacity north of Seattle2045 Capacity south of Seattle

As shown in the diagram above, generally the largest issues with freight rail congestion are between Seattle and Tacoma.

Exhibit 4: Preliminary locations of capacity improvements north of Seattle

For improvements north of Seattle, around 7 miles of rail track would need to be extended along with additional staging at Delta Yard. The largest improvements involve extending the double track around Rabanco Mile Point (2.2 miles of track)and Custer Mile Point (2.2 miles of track).

South of Seattle ImprovementsExhibit 6: Preliminary locations of capacity improvements south of Seattle

For South of Seattle approximately 29.8 miles of train track would need to be added, along with expanding Auburn and Vancouver rail yards. The largest improvements consist of adding controlled siding around Argo (3 miles of track) and Boeing Mile Point (3 miles) and extending the triple track near Sumner (8.5 miles of track)

Appendix D holds the full details of proposed improvements.

Costs

Unfortunately, there are no cost estimates in the provided reports, but a naive estimate of adding around 33 track miles in an urban area would cost at least a couple billion.

Near term improvements

Amtrak also announced in October that they will be building a new maintenance facility in Seattle. The new upgrade King Street Yard willsupport the introduction of new Amtrak Airo train cars.

Conclusion

Improving the current corridor as Amtrak and Reece suggest would allow Amtrak to grow ridership gradually while Washington, Oregon, and British Columba develop a plan for a new ultra high-speed corridor.

Tribute to RMTransit

(Written by Mike Orr.)

Reece is retiring from making transit videos, so there will be no more RMTransit videos for the next several months at least. The Cascades video is actually the last transit topic published, so it's an honor to have our Cascades corridor be the finale. There are three more videos he wants to make, on Russian and Chinese metros, but they may not be finished in 2025.

Reece's reason for retiring is to spend time with his newborn and consider a career change. The existing nine hundred RMTransit videos will remain up if you want to watch ones you've missed, those from before you heard about the channel, or to watch again as a reminder. You can also see how his thinking has evolved over time on transit principles and priorities. The STB editors and staff - and many commentators and readers - would like to thank Reece for his hard work over the years. That includes so much unique content, sound thinking, and clear layman-friendly explanations. And so many visual clips scenes of stations, trains, station areas, and crowds in cities we may never visit or see otherwise.