The Everett Herald has an excellent story regarding the upcoming Stanwood Amtrak Station.
Ben and myself had a great e-mail debate regarding future commuter rail service and a post should be coming soon from the both of us regarding extending Sounder to Stanwood, it’s complications and the battles it would take to bring Stanwood and Marysville onto the map.
Just an FYI – you mean to say “Ben and I had…” Proved by the removal of “Ben and” leaving “I had” versus “Myself had”
Here’s my dream Sounder network: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=47.35278,-122.362976&spn=0.515431,1.235962&z=10&msid=113008191536486129548.000459bb2f47444a8c817
Okay – but you will have to build a lot of track.
I’m also surprised you didn’t take the Kruse Jct and create a spur to Arlington. Arlington is a much larger town than Stanwood.
That’s probably a better idea; I don’t know the area that well, so I just put the stations in the general area that I think they should go. I also wonder if in the future it would be possible to add Kitsap County to the ST district, and have Sounder from Tacoma to Port Orchard, and Sounder/LRT from Bremerton to the north…
But Stanwood includes the population of Camano Island so therefore it would be a better spot because it would get a larger commuter base.
No BNSF Woodinville Subdivision on the Eastside?
I’d rather see Olympia added than Stanwood. Aren’t the tracks between Everett and Marysville really slow anyways? And also, the Cascades REALLY need to be more frequent and always have Talgos. I think a town as small as Stanwood could get by with just the Cascades service.
Alexjonlin, that’s a nice starter network. I’d love to see those lines extended to Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass. I want to get of a train and go skiing!
DJStroky,
You’ll need convince the BC Government if you want additional Amtrak Cascades trains north of Everett =) There will only be a maximum of 4 trains between Seattle and Vancouver BC but as you may already know now, we are having issues just getting the second train to Vancouver. I don’t foresee the Talgo train sets sticking around besides what we have now. I can see a Siemens tilt train set being selected next. With the current train sets, we are able to
The biggest issue with getting to Olympia will be to get Thurston County onto the RTA taxing district and that isn’t worth doing so JUST for Sounder service for the distance covered. If anything, it would be a private operator that would bring that service to meet Sounder at Dupont Station. This would be easier and overall, could be cheaper if DMU’s could be use for that route. More importantly, his could be a benefit to ST.
Getting to Stanwood would be much easier, faster, cheaper, and would not congest the corridor as much as the Seattle Subdivision already is. The Seattle Sub sees between 60-120 trains a day while the Bellingham Sub sees between 10-20 trains a day, both including Amtrak and Sounder movements. The Seattle Subdivision has joint trackage rights between BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railway, along with Amtrak, Sounder, locals, and other various equipment moves. The Bellingham Sub sees some daily freight and Amtrak (Sounder between Seattle and Everett but that is the Scenic Sub)
What would make the Lakewood – Olympia line so expensive is if BNSF tells the State or agency they need to provide funding to add another track between Nisqually and East Olympia.
Sound Transit and the DOT are working on track improvements between Seattle and Blaine, Washington to improve the corridor, increase speed which will allow better On-Time Performance. Part of this plan is double tracking 4 of the 5 major bottlenecks, one which was completed last month. The rest of the projects will double track Interbay (Magonlia), Edmonds, Mukilteo, and Richmond Beach. Unfortunately their is no way to bore an additional tunnel under Downtown Everett so the solution for this is to upgrade the low line (More direct route to Everett/Seattle for freight) Bayside Yard, and Delta Yard. These critical components will speed freight and passenger trains by 25% The other big bottlenecks will be left alone which are the drawbridges on the route which vary from 10mph to 25mph. The work would also support the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the additional trains that will be running between Seattle and Vancouver/Whistler, BC.
With all of the sidings being extended, new station at Stanwood, it makes sense to start up North and progress South. Their is no huge grade/civil work to do unlike the South line, and could be setup in the next few years. Add a station in Marysville and you’ll probably add an additional 3,500-5,000 passengers to Sounder North which would be nearly the same as the extension to Olympia.
In closing, both are needed, more so, improvements on the North line with a station at Broad Street would be a strong, strong combination, especially if bus service (not sure the lone 99) would generate a huge benefit. The South line’s delay is unfortunately not so much the fault of Sound Transit than the City of Tacoma. Until the construction starts on the M Street to D Street connector will be when we can start discussing the possibility of getting to Olympia but a private firm would, in my opinion, be best served for Olympia/Dupont service.
I agree that Stanwood and Edmonds probably shouldn’t be Amtrak stops. I also think it would be good for the future to have a passenger train bypass that would go straight through downtown Olympia. Right now, the Olympia/Lacey stop is about a half an hour from downtown, and therefore is not very useful.
Edmonds makes sense as an Amtrak stop because of the connection to the Kingston ferry.
Edmonds, believe it or not, is the 4th most used station in Washington, with Seattle, Vancouver, and Spokane respectively.
A line to Kitsap County would be unfeasible because the only possible line is Centralia – Elma – Bremerton via the Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad (a Rail America company)
As for Olympia, the only way to access Downtown Olympia would be the BNSF Railway from Nisqually to East Olympia (A few miles south of the current Olympia/Lacey station) and use the Tacoma Rail line from East Olympia to Downtown Olympia.
Best location for the station would be between Union Ave SE and 8th Ave SE http://maps.live.com/?v=2&encType=1&sp=Point.rv60yw4rryzh_Olympia%20Station_Best%20location%20for%20Olympia%20Sounder%20Station___
Distance to the station from the Capital Building would be 3 minutes driving, 10-15 minute walk. The bad is that it would take a little over 70 minutes between Lakewood Station and this location where driving without traffic is about 40 minutes and Intercity Transit can do the run 65 minutes.
The plus… a lot of sleep =)
Well if they ever did get around to doing a Kitsap line or a Downtown Olympia track, I was assuming that they would build new track (possibly along I-5 median for the Olympia part?) And now that I think about it there is a rail tunnel under downtown Olympia. An underground station at Capitol & 7th, with an above ground facility in part of the square that is currently there, would be good, and that’s right in the very middle of downtown Olympia, just a few minutes from the Capitol Campus.
I just updated the Google Map to more exact routing south of Tacoma Dome.
Ben and Brian, when do you plan to post your debate about extending Sounder? I live in North Snohomish County so I dream of this possibility:). I suspect the politics will be … torturous!