In Part 3 I will be going into detail on OTP, how and why the delays are happening (expect odd graphs) and other items like what you mentioned.

Shawn,

I responded to that question but in short, ST can only operate within the taxing district. Thankfully though, it is easier to extend the district already a part of the county than add a new county into the district (Thurston for example)

A stop is 2-5 minutes, and then tack on the X minutes to slow down/accelerate back to the “cruising speed”. Say 5 minutes total on top of the stop. So each “minor” stop adds 10 minutes to the travel time.

A ‘Limited’ (P-V-T-S) would save four stops (K-C/C-O-Tu) for 40 minutes (which seems like a lot of time). So with the current schedule, and lots of other assumptions, that would get you to 2h50m.

I’ll leave it to others to shot this down, but I’ll advocate for hourly service between PDX and SEA, with service on the even hour being “limited” and otherwise all stops.

Part of the reason Oregon City has lower boardings is the number of trains that stop there. Perhaps when ODOT finds that pot o’ gold to provide four trains like WSDOT the numbers might increase (of course if the Tukwila station provided a direct shot to SeaTac …).

re: bike rentals – Don’t know of any myself, and since AMtrak isn’t DB, they don’t offer it. (Another future service improvement – ZipCar and bike rentals at all stations).

Will you go in detail into what will increase OTP in the future? Are delays usually conflicts with freight? Or are they other things (equipment failure, signalling, etc.)?

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6201D799-18F3-4BF7-BF2A-4E2F4F61F774/0/Ridership030607.pdf

Josh, is there a place where I can rent a bike down there near Portland Union Station?

The average station stop for Amtrak Cascades is about 2 to 5 minutes. I’ve timed this several times. Even with a handicap/wheelchair, it’s still no more than a 5 minute station stop which is included as padding at each station.

Is Tukwila or Oregon City or Kelso worth the X minutes it takes to slow down, stop, and then get back up to speed?

Strangely, nobody is covering the remodeling of King Street Station except for me on my photo site. You can view that at http://macster.smugmug.com

I’ll be posting another update tomorrow afternoon since I need to pick up my tickets for the trip.

I forgot to mention a couple of other projects – There are 3 more new crossovers and rebuilding of an old cross over in Chehelis. 95% of the new crossovers are new or have been upgraded to 35mph or 50mph crossovers.

I should also mention that with the installation of PTC may encourage high speed freight trains as well. What I mean by high speed freight trains is 70mph for intermodal (container trains) 60mph for general freight..over-tonnage freight, like unit grain or coal trains will still be restricted to 45mph.

I hope that while we may never be like Amtrak California, we’ll at least get to a point where people heavily rely and depend on the train to get between Vancouver, BC and Eugene, OR.

The hope of less than 6 hours between Vancouver BC and Portland, Oregon would be an incredible feat for us!

1. Take the 7:30–>11am, and catch the 6:15–>9:45pm back (hoping my meeting doesn’t go long).
2. Take the 7:30-11am, and catch the 2:50->6:20 back if my meeting is really short (and hope it doesn’t go long).

And that’s it, short of having some strange evening meeting or getting a hotel room.

If I do the same thing for Vancouver, I only have one option: 7:40–>11:35am then the 6:20–>9:05pm. And we’re spoiled – the poor Vancouverites don’t have an option that doesn’t involve a hotel room.

Oh, and I appreciate posts like this. If we’re going to find ways to make trains really work the we need to know the roadblocks in our way. Have fun in Portland.

However, I do have a slightly off-topic question related to KSS. I know that work is (finally) getting underway on refurbing this facility, but I’ve been having trouble finding on-line info tracking the progress. Do you know of any sites that are currently doing this?

Many thanks.

If your departure/arrival time is near the rush hours in either city (7:00-9:30 am/4:00-6:30 pm here and 7:30 am-9:30 am/4:30-6 pm there) then the train is already competitive in terms of speed of journey. Really the main place that commuter airlines and driving beats the train is the plethora of departure times available – so well, I’m basically agreeing with you except I’d put the frequent service stuff at the beginning!