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Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trio of coastal Washington schools secure money to move out of tsunami zone
Up to a dozen public schools across Clallam, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties could be swallowed by tsunami waves after a major Cascadia fault earthquake. (Photo by Tom Banse) Teachers and staff in low-lying schools along the Pacific Northwest coast face an unusual extra responsibility alongside educators' usual duties: can they herd the entire student body to higher ground on foot in 20 minutes or less to escape a tsunami? It's a daunting challenge with the highest possible stakes should an offshore earthquake unleash a wall of incoming seawater. The last megathrust earthquake to hit the region was in 1700, and the Northwest is now in the window for the next magnitude 9.0+ Cascadia fault quake and tsunami. 'It's something that's always on your mind. You try not to let this take over,' said North Beach School District Superintendent Richard Zimmerman. The Washington Legislature allocated $151.5 million in the recently passed state construction budget to relocate three coastal schools out of the tsunami zone and build a refuge tower at a fourth. Zimmerman's district is one of the beneficiaries, along with the Taholah and Cape Flattery school districts. 'We're anxious to get this done because the lives of our students, staff and community might very well depend on it,' Zimmerman said in an interview from Ocean Shores. In 2022, the Washington Legislature got serious about the hundreds of older, unreinforced public schools at risk of collapse in a major earthquake. Lawmakers allocated $100 million to a revamped School Seismic Safety Grant Program overseen by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 2023, the Legislature chipped in another $40 million. But now comes an unexpected twist. This spring, the Legislature took back more than half of that initial sum — $80 million — because it was unspent. OSPI Director of School Facilities Randy Newman said money was left in the bank toward the end of the budget cycle because many of the prioritized seismic retrofits and school relocations were still in the design phase. The state schools superintendent asked to carry over the unspent balance into the next budget along with the new allocation, but lawmakers chose not to. 'The reality of trying to find the right locations, negotiating the contracts, doing the engineering has taken more time,' noted state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, the chair of the House Capital Budget Committee. 'It's taken us a while to build momentum.' Tharinger said the Legislature's budget writers decided to be more prescriptive in the newly signed state budget by steering specific sums to projects ready to go in the most vulnerable coastal school districts. Hence, the green light to break ground in Ocean Shores, Taholah and Neah Bay. Overall, the seismic safety program was renewed at a lower level than the state superintendent asked for in light of many other competing priorities for state construction dollars. 'It's pretty exciting to have avoided a tragedy and to be able to start building schools in safer places,' Tharinger said. From his perch in the state superintendent's office, Newman wishes the Legislature had funded additional school seismic projects in the new budget. Since 2021, he's seen state-funded earthquake retrofits through to completion in Centralia, South Bend, Boistfort and Marysville — with Cosmopolis Elementary on deck to receive seismic strengthening this summer. 'We were happy with the funding level we received from the Legislature,' to now lift the highest priority schools out of the tsunami zone, Newman said in an interview last week. Placed on standby pending future funding were multiple projects in Hoquiam, Aberdeen and the Long Beach peninsula, including seismic retrofits and elementary school consolidations and relocations. Also on the state's future priority list is a rooftop tsunami refuge atop a seismically-strengthened North Beach Junior/Senior High School in Ocean Shores. Washington state has long lagged behind neighboring West Coast states and provinces in addressing earthquake risk in school buildings. The Oregon Legislature, way back in 2005, created a school seismic retrofit grant program on the scale now underway from Olympia. The provincial government of British Columbia started a seismic mitigation program for schools in 2004 and has shelled out more than $1.9 billion since then. The relocation of the Taholah K-12 public school is part of a larger, years-long process led by the Quinault Nation to move much of the lower village of Taholah about three-quarters of a mile uphill, out of danger from increasingly common floods, storm surges and a future tsunami. The new school will eventually be surrounded by neighborhoods, parks and ballfields to be built on freshly-cleared forestland. Taholah Superintendent Herman Lartigue Jr. said he hopes to welcome roughly 200 students to their new quake-ready school in 2027. He said the use of cedar planking on the outside of the school and exposed cedar beams and columns inside — as well as installations of tribal art — would give the building a distinctive appearance. 'This building is going to be indicative of the culture. It's great,' Lartigue said. The Cape Flattery School District is making a parallel push to incorporate tribal culture in the new Neah Bay K-12 campus, which will replace an elementary school and secondary school at sea level on the Makah reservation. The groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for mid-July, with move-in anticipated in mid-2027. The Makah Nation donated a long-term lease on a hillside parcel about one mile inland from Neah Bay to build the new school with a capacity for about 600 students. District Superintendent Michelle Parkin said she harbored a lot of concern last winter upon reading about the budget shortfalls the 2025 Legislature had to grapple with. 'It's such a relief,' the school relocation funding came through, Parkin said. 'Our children are going to be safe.' Some unusual features of the new Neah Bay school she mentioned include a fish hatchery on campus, carving and canoe making areas in the shop class space, and outdoor fire pits where students can learn to kipper salmon. In Grays Harbor County, the $8.2 million budgeted by the Legislature to relocate Pacific Beach Elementary covers land acquisition and conceptual design, but isn't enough to construct a new school on higher ground. The existing school, which enrolls around 100 students, was built within earshot of the Pacific surf in 1956, long before modern seismic codes existed. Moving the North Beach district's other primary school out of harm's way is virtually impossible because there is no suitable high ground nearby on the long and flat Ocean Shores peninsula. The solution the Legislature blessed with $8.2 million is to build a tsunami evacuation tower next to Ocean Shores Elementary. This robust steel tower will have a platform on top with a minimum capacity of 300 people to host the entire student body and staff. Modeling done for the city of Ocean Shores in connection with another tsunami tower proposal said the refuge platform should be about 50 feet high to be comfortably above the surging waves. Earthquake risk mitigation can also be done with local funding, which is how larger and wealthier Washington school districts have replaced or modernized the majority of their buildings to withstand strong shaking. But small and rural districts with limited tax bases and tax-averse voters usually have trouble with that approach. Waiting years in line for state grant funding for seismic upgrades is a gamble, but there's a financial incentive for districts: taxpayers statewide foot the bill for at least two-thirds — if not close to 100% — of the school reconstruction costs. 'We know that districts have struggled to pass local bonds and levies to modernize their school facilities,' Newman said. 'It's a big lift to address all the seismic needs of aging school buildings.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bids to build new plug-in Washington state ferries come in high
Washington State Ferries said it would deploy its new electric ferries first on the Mukilteo-Clinton run. The short route is currently served by diesel ferries like the Tokitae, seen here approaching Whidbey Island. (Photo by Tom Banse) Ferry system managers and state budget writers in Washington took a cold wave over the bow Monday upon opening the bids to construct up to five new hybrid electric ferries. 'I don't see how you get to five. There's money for three on a good day,' said state House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey, D-Tacoma. The Washington Legislature previously set aside about $1.3 billion to build new ferries and charging infrastructure over the next six to eight years. New vessels are overdue to stabilize the state's aging and sometimes unreliable ferry fleet. Simultaneously, the ferry system and the state's Democratic leadership want to reduce the ferries' air pollution footprint by switching to battery propulsion as much as possible. Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, submitted the low bid for the state's desired plug-in hybrid, 160-car vessels, according to a summary of the bids posted by WSF late on Monday. The $251 million price tag for the first ferry in the series was roughly in line with the state engineer's in-house estimate. Nichols Brothers Boat Builders on Whidbey Island submitted a competing bid that was considerably higher, even after including a 13% bid credit authorized by the Legislature to incentivize home state construction. Neither bid includes the expensive hybrid electric powertrains for the new ferries, which the state plans to acquire separately. A third shipbuilder, Philly Shipyard, was expected to submit a bid, but didn't in the end. The Nichols Brothers and Eastern Shipbuilding Group bids both include escalator clauses that Fey predicted 'will invariably make it (the price) go up.' The escalators allow the shipyards to charge more in case of unpredictable cost increases, such as on steel or from tariffs. Washington State Ferries said in a mass email to interested parties that it will evaluate the bid documents in greater detail for the next few weeks before awarding a contract. The agency will undoubtedly also consult further with the governor's office and key legislators about what is affordable. The most recent date given for delivery of the first new ferry was 2029. 'First things first, I need to understand exactly what we've got with the bids,' Gov. Bob Ferguson said Monday after an initial, high-level briefing. Ferguson declined to speculate more before getting additional information. Fey said he expects to discuss where more money could potentially be found. The veteran legislator said multiple currents in the bid environment drove up costs, including rising raw material prices, tariffs and limited shipyard competition – even though the ferry system's request for bids was opened to shipyards nationwide. A Democratic legislator from ferry-served Bainbridge Island, Rep. Greg Nance, said he was struck by how Washington's procurement was affected by the hollowing out of the nation's shipbuilding industry. He was pleased there was more than one bidder. 'Given the state of shipbuilding writ large, we knew that we were swimming upstream,' Nance said in an interview Monday. 'We need to do more to support shipbuilding. We've lost our shipbuilding edge over the past 50 years.' The 144-car Suquamish was the most recent of the workhorse Olympic-class ferries upon which the new plug-in ferry design is based. The diesel-powered Suquamish was delivered to WSF in 2018 at a cost of about $122 million. Debate about how to proceed with further vessel acquisitions in that size class has stretched from then until now. During this dickering, the state pivoted to electrification, costs shot up and the reliability of the existing aging fleet went down. The bid request published by WSF included the high-level design for a plug-in ferry capable of carrying up to 160 cars and 1,500 passengers. Drawings show boats that resemble a slightly elongated version of the diesel-powered Olympic class ferries delivered between 2014 and 2018. However, the new design has just one passenger deck stacked on top of the two auto decks. The center of the ship's hold will be packed with racks of water-cooled rechargeable batteries so the ferry can sail fully on electric power most of the time. The engine room will also feature twin diesel generators as a backup source of propulsion power. Assuming they use green electricity to charge, the new ferries should achieve a large reduction in fuel consumption and an associated reduction in global warming emissions. WSF tentatively plans to deploy the new ferries to the Mukilteo-Clinton run first, probably followed by the Seattle-Bremerton route. Republicans, who are in the minority in the Legislature, have pushed for a cheaper diesel ferry option to be put back on the table. WSF leaders have been consistent in warning against reverting to conventional diesel power because that would necessitate a lengthy redesign and re-bid. 'If we were to switch now to go to diesel, we would have to stop what we're doing with the hybrid, design a new diesel boat and lose the funding from the Climate Commitment Act,' deputy WSF boss John Vezina said under questioning from state Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Pierce County, at a Senate hearing in March. 'It would probably add two years to the acquisition of those new vessels.' BC Ferries has also been in the market for new car ferries and has been able to acquire new vessels at far lower cost than its Seattle-based neighbors. Unlike Washington State Ferries, BC Ferries can solicit bids from shipyards worldwide. The newest additions to the province's fleet were built in Romania. Building ferries to serve domestic U.S. routes at a foreign shipyard is prohibited under a century-old federal law known as the Jones Act. Of late, the Trump administration and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers in Congress have highlighted the need to make the American shipbuilding industry more competitive. But President Donald Trump's recent statements on the matter make no mention of jettisoning the longstanding made-in-America requirements. Washington State Ferries currently has 21 vessels of various sizes and ages in its fleet, making it the largest public ferry system in the nation. The WSF long-range plan contains a goal to grow to 26 ferries to provide reliable service on every route, with allowances for maintenance tie-ups and a vessel in reserve. The hefty bids come just as it seemed the agency was sailing into smoother waters. This summer, the ferry system will get nearly back to operating its full pre-pandemic schedule, missing only a second boat on the Port Townsend-Coupeville run during midweeks and the long-suspended international crossing to Sidney, B.C. Last week's generally celebratory blog post about the summer schedule cautioned that peak-season crewing will be stretched close to the limit. Blog author Bryn Hunter said it will be challenging to find a short-term replacement whenever an aging vessel breaks down. 'I wouldn't let this be a Debbie Downer,' Rep. Fey concluded at the end of his initial construction bid analysis. 'There's been great progress made by the ferry system over the past four years.'
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Walk-on ferry between Anacortes and San Juans launches on trial basis
A whale watch company with a spare vessel is operating the demonstration of passenger-only ferry service from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands until June 30. (Photo by Tom Banse) This article was first published by the Salish Current. For the next 10 weeks, people can travel to and from the scenic San Juan Islands for free as the archipelago tests the waters of county-run, passenger-only ferry service. State money is paying for a twice-daily roundtrip between the three most populous islands and Anacortes using a chartered whale watching tour boat. The boat trial grew out of frustration with unreliable state ferry service in recent years. But even if the county's walk-on ferry proves popular, it's unclear how it could be sustained. 'Until people in San Juan County feel that they can count on the [state] ferries like they did 10 years ago,' San Juan County Council Chair Kari McVeigh said, 'this is a big deal.' McVeigh rode along on the inaugural round trip between Friday Harbor and downtown Anacortes. The foot ferry made intermediate stops at Orcas Landing and Lopez Island in each direction. McVeigh noted the boat was very punctual, as hoped for. Ridership was light during the opening weekend of service due to the short-notice startup and limited pre-launch publicity. Captain Brian Goodremont steered the 55-foot tour boat Sea Lion across sun-splashed seas at about the same speed as the state ferries – 17 knots – on an unusually warm Good Friday to inaugurate the service. 'I think it is mostly going to be islanders that use this service,' said Goodremont, who owns San Juan Safaris, the contracted passenger-only ferry operator. 'As we get closer to peak season for visitors – once school is out – I can see visitors using it as an alternative.' As part of the same state-funded pilot project, San Juan County also contracted with a different local tour company for emergency interisland water taxi service, which will sail only when the state interisland ferry is expected to be out of service for more than four hours. That standby water taxi contract similarly expires on June 30. In recent weeks, state ferry system leaders have told the public and their overseers in the state Legislature that the car ferries have turned the corner on reliability. Washington State Ferries chief Steve Nevey and his deputy told a state Senate panel last month that crewing is back to pre-pandemic levels and cancellations significantly reduced. 'We're clearly going in the right direction,' deputy John Vezina testified. 'We're clearing the maintenance backlog. We are on the path to building new boats. But it's been tough for our customers and we are aware of that.' The San Juans to Anacortes passenger-only ferry pilot project was designed with the needs of ferry-dependent islanders at the top of mind, but the service should be appealing to visitors from the mainland too. The foot ferry terminates in downtown Anacortes at the Cap Sante Marina where islanders can walk to a wide variety of businesses, restaurants and medical/dental clinics. Daytrippers headed to the San Juans can park at the marina for free, unlike at the state ferry Anacortes terminal. The Sea Lion vessel is certified for 49 passengers, but Goodremont said it will be limited to 35 riders for the time being so that everyone has access to the heated, indoor seating if desired. Orcas Island resident Sooz Stahl was pleased to hear about the new county-run ferry as she waited in the sun for the state ferry to take her to her job running the post office on neighboring Shaw Island. 'I think it's fantastic,' Stahl said. 'They should support ways and plans for people to get here and to visit the islands without a car.' Stahl said she was unsure whether she would use the walk-on ferry during its 10-week tryout. The county-provided service skips Shaw Island because the isle lacks a public dock suitable for the passenger-only ferry. A potential drawback of the foot ferry for visitors is that there is no public transit or Uber/Lyft on the islands. Friday Harbor is quite walkable, but Orcas Landing and the Lopez dropoff at Odlin County Park are a good distance from the main attractions of their respective islands. Traditional taxis are available on San Juan and Orcas islands, though. Bikes can be brought on board the passenger boat with prior reservation. For travelers going between Friday Harbor and the mainland, the walk-on ferry takes longer than Washington State Ferries because of the intermediate stops. In years past, Bellingham was proposed as the mainland terminus for a San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry run. But San Juan County officials only considered Anacortes as the mainland landing this time around because the point of the state funding was to backstop the state ferry service. The temporary passenger-only ferry is fare-free because the state is footing the bill. Former Gov. Jay Inslee awarded the county $1.5 million in discretionary emergency relief funds last September after hearing a litany of complaints from islanders about missed appointments, stranded schoolchildren and other disruptions caused by cancelled state ferry sailings. Just recently, the state Department of Commerce denied the county's request to spend leftover grant funds after the state's fiscal year ends on June 30 so this walk-on ferry service could be extended into peak tourist season in July. Passengers who use the free foot ferry will be surveyed to provide the county with data that it can then use to make the case for a permanent service, if that seems justified. An ongoing passenger-only run would require a big subsidy if the fares were to be kept reasonable. McVeigh said San Juan County does not currently have the deep pockets to shoulder those operating costs. San Juan Safaris' contract to operate the grant-funded temporary foot ferry costs $7,647.50 per day, which adds up quickly to more than half a million dollars for the ten-and-a-half week duration of the pilot project. Earlier this year at the Legislature, San Juan County council members testified in support of a bill dubbed the Mosquito Fleet Act to launch new, locally operated walk-on ferry routes across Puget Sound. But that proposal was stripped of funding last month and then died in the state Senate at the beginning of April. Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, said the state government is not in a position to subsidize new ferry services in the near to medium term. 'The (2025-27) budget is really focused on making sure that our mainstay Washington State Ferries service is healthy, strong and sustainable,' Liias said in late March. 'We want to make sure that the service we're providing is top notch again and we're investing to get there. Passenger service in the future makes sense, but for now we're focused on the core of WSF service.' Absent further state support, another option would be federal grant funding. But McVeigh observed the chances of getting that look grim given the current budget-slashing tenor in the nation's capital. A third option would be to turn to local voters for approval to create a county transit district with taxing authority, as Kitsap County did previously. However, McVeigh said it is very premature to go down that path. 'We're not there yet,' McVeigh said. 'This is really just proof-of-concept, this pilot. We want to look at the data. We want to see how our constituents feel about this.' For now, the council chair from Friday Harbor said people should try out the limited-term passenger service and let the county know what they think. It's use it or lose it time, to paraphrase her. 'It's a free ferry ride for now,' McVeigh said. 'Come, come, come.' What: Anacortes-San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry service When: Limited-duration from April 18 to June 30, 2025 Cost: Free to ride. Foot passengers save $16.50 each using the county-run ferry to get to the San Juans instead of Washington State Ferries. Mainland terminus: Cap Sante Marina 'B' Dock, downtown Anacortes Island stops: Lopez (Odlin County Park dock), Orcas Landing, Friday Harbor (Spring St. Dock) Schedule: One morning round trip starting in Friday Harbor and similarly, one afternoon round trip, seven days per week For more info and to make reservations, which are strongly recommended: The Salish Current is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, online local news organization serving Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties. Based in Bellingham, the publication serves 400,000 residents and tens of thousands of annual visitors to the three-county area.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Amtrak Cascades begins restoring canceled service
Amtrak has not provided a timeline for when replacement train cars might arrive to replace the aging Horizon coaches that were abruptly pulled from service on March 26. Here a train is seen at the Olympia-Lacey station in 2022. (Photo by Tom Banse) Amtrak is moving train cars to the Northwest from other parts of the country to swap in for 26 cars abruptly pulled from service in late March due to corrosion problems. The issues with the Horizon-class railcars left Amtrak Cascades with just one working trainset. With the arrival of the additional cars, two trains between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, — trains No. 516 and No. 519 — resumed service Tuesday, Washington State Department of Transportation rail division spokesperson Janet Matkin said in an email Amtrak is moving train cars to the Northwest on the Empire Builder line from Chicago. Matkin said more trains will return to service later this week, including trains between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, and a train between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. 'The goal is to quickly restore all trips, but with a limited number of cars on each train,' Matkin said. This will mean trains with fewer seats available in the near term — less than half as many coach seats as normal in some cases. How long it will take for Amtrak to return to full seating capacity on the line is unclear. In 2024, nearly 1 million passengers rode Amtrak Cascades trains, which run in a north-south corridor between Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The Coast Starlight, a long-distance Amtrak train, makes the same stops as the regional Cascades service on its once-daily departure between Seattle and California. Service on that route has not been affected.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
Corrosion problem knocks most Amtrak Cascades trains out of service
Amtrak has not provided a timeline for when replacement train cars might arrive to replace the aging Horizon coaches that were abruptly pulled from service on March 26. Here a train is seen at the Olympia-Lacey station in 2022. (Photo by Tom Banse) The years-long process to restore regional intercity rail service and build up train ridership in western Washington and Oregon was dealt a major setback this week when Amtrak suddenly withdrew dozens of train cars from service for emergency repairs. It means the state-supported Amtrak Cascades service is, for now, left with just one working train. On its website, Amtrak said substitute bus service will be offered to passengers booked on cancelled trains 'until further notice.' Corrosion discovered on Amtrak's aging Horizon-class railcars caused the trouble. The rail company immediately removed all 70 of its Horizon train cars from the fleet nationwide, including 26 used on the Amtrak Cascades line. 'Amtrak is determining how to replace the grounded Horizon trains by redistributing other trains in its national fleet,' said Washington State Department of Transportation rail division spokesperson Janet Matkin via email Wednesday. 'Amtrak will notify the states of Washington and Oregon as soon as a plan is in place to move replacement trains to the Pacific Northwest.' Matkin deferred to Amtrak to provide further details. An Amtrak spokesperson was unable to fit in an interview on Thursday. 'My guess is that it's going to take robbing other services to come up with cars,' said rail consultant Thomas White by phone from Mountlake Terrace, Washington. 'It's not going to be easy.' 'To me, this is really disappointing,' White added, since this happened against a backdrop of rising ridership on Amtrak Cascades despite its poor on-time performance. 'Now if we wind up doing without trains for a year or more, we're going to have to start over from scratch on ridership,' White said. 'It's kind of a habit thing.' In 2024, nearly one million passengers boarded the state-supported trains between Eugene and Vancouver, British Columbia. That surpassed the pre-pandemic high of 829,000 riders in 2019. White is active in several groups that advocate for improvements to the regional rail service, including the Climate Rail Alliance and Rail Can't Wait Campaign. Spare passenger rail cars were already in short supply before Amtrak sidelined its Horizon fleet at midweek. Amtrak told WSDOT last year that it was unlikely to be able to supply additional carriages for the 2026 World Cup because of a nationwide equipment shortage. The one remaining non-Horizon Amtrak Cascades train is now scheduled to make one daily southbound run from Seattle to Eugene during mornings (train #503) and return north to Seattle in the afternoon and evening (train #508). There is no rail service for the time being between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, which used to have two daily round trips. Amtrak's long-distance trains in the Northwest, the Coast Starlight and Empire Builder, are not affected. The Coast Starlight makes the same stops as the regional Cascades service on its once-daily departure between Seattle and Northern California, but this run is frequently delayed by freight trains that share the mainline. The Amtrak Cascades line has new trains on order from manufacturer Siemens in California, but the first deliveries are not scheduled before spring 2026. The train car order is part of a larger transformation of the Amtrak fleet funded through the bipartisan infrastructure package passed by Congress in 2021. Amtrak Cascades is slated to get eight of the next-generation 'Airo' class trainsets, along with two additional new locomotives. The Amtrak Cascades line was already down one trainset before this week due to a scary accident last November. An Amtrak-operated train owned by Oregon DOT hit a fallen tree north of Seattle on a stormy night. The stout tree impaled the cab where the engineer was driving, but he miraculously survived. The badly damaged, integrated Talgo Series 8 trainset remains on a maintenance siding in Seattle awaiting repairs. The Horizon train cars were manufactured more than 35 years ago by Bombardier Transportation at a now-closed factory in Vermont. They have an aluminum body bolted to a steel undercarriage. Unhappy rail fans active in the Amtrak Cascades Facebook group said that corrosion was a foreseeable risk for the Horizon cars due to electrolysis where the aluminum comes in contact with steel. Even before this latest setback, passenger rail advocates were trying to light a fire under the Washington Legislature and WSDOT to aim higher with the regional Amtrak Cascades service. A bipartisan legislative bill to set ambitious goals for service upgrades and reliability passed the state House earlier this month on a 68 to 29 vote. House Bill 1837 directs WSDOT, in partnership with Oregon, Canada and BNSF Railway, to set a goal to shave about an hour off the current scheduled trip times between Seattle and Portland as well as Seattle and Vancouver. The bill also sets a target for Amtrak Cascades to provide a minimum of 14 round trips per day between Seattle and Portland and a minimum of five round trips per day between Seattle and Vancouver by 2035. The Legislature did not provide additional funding to achieve the new targets in the policy bill. A BNSF lobbyist cautioned lawmakers last month that speeding up Amtrak trains above 90 mph would be incompatible with the slower freight trains that share the rails. The bill says that if WSDOT determines a service improvement goal is unlikely to be achieved, it must report on what the constraints are and how to fix them. The priority-setting measure is now pending in the state Senate, where the Transportation Committee will give it a hearing next Tuesday.
