There is also the time factor I’m not sure taking a train from King Street to Cle Elum then a bus to the Ski Areas would be any better than running a coach from Seattle directly up I-90.

In fact, the original Snoqualmie Ski-Bowl was opened by the Milwaukee Road around the early part of the 20th century.

The nearest alternative would be a station near the top of Stampede Pass and a bus connector.

I hope you will make a place on your sidebar so it will be easy for readers, old and new, to find these posts for reference.

Haven’t worked out a schedule, but trains that arrive in VanBC at 7-8am and in PDX at roughly the same time – and then modify the Sea-VanBC daytime run be midday.

Just a thought.

We will hear the “population is too small” argument again. But Hwy. 2 is a mess and is the only option for residents of the valley. A fast, frequent reliable rail connection to Everett, Seattle and Bellevue would be highly desireable to those who live in the Skykomish Valley.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
111126460327519054783.00045b5dce4b8d12d99c5

Shawn

sae1969 @ yahoo.com

If I remember correctly, WSDOT was looking at upgrading the track between Quincy, WA to Spokane, WA to Class 5 rail that would allow 90mph running (which is the Maximum speed the Superliners can do)

It is correct that I-695 stripped the funding for that program, along with most of the Amtrak Cascades funding. I’ve been examining how California, Chicago, Maine, and North Carolina does their funding and due to some of Tim Eyman’s prior initiatives, things will be difficult to say the least. More on this later.

I’m not sure if anyone has driven down I-5 as of recent but it’s a pretty brutal drive down and it is mostly 60mph where it was previously 70mph for construction and widening.

By the end of the year, I’ll have a lot of information on the trains which will provide any information that may be needed for presenting towards the government and possibly submitting a proposal for getting additional funding.

Since I will be taking a HTML and Flash class this Winter, I plan on making the website during the class which will get the information out. I don’t want to involve STB fully involved in a campaign in this unless they want to be involved.

My goal is by pushing the subject, it will encourage the State that people do want more of it and want it more frequent and service more communities. For an excellent example, train service on Stampede that could serve Cle Elum, Ellensburg, Yakima, and Pasco with a connection Empire Builder would be great for the college students, especially if it is a daily train. How about daylight service to Spokane as well? There a lot of ideas but working on the corridor trains first and foremost is important.

New routes over Stampede, restarting Amtrak’s Pioneer, and daylight service to Spokane are all on my wish lists but money becomes the number one issue.

After that episode, I wrote Gov. Gregoire about the potential of running an Amtrak Cascades-style train to Spokane (other than the Empire Builder, which leaves at 2am and takes eight hours – twice the time of driving), and received a very raw draft study that WSDOT did about the feasibility of a decent passenger train between Seattle and Spokane. They thought they could get it down to six hour travel times, but had no funding to pursue anything due to passage of I-695.

If you know of anything new happening along that route, I’d love to know.

Holy Crap I had no idea and that has quickly became my favorite show

White Rock BC … is used in lieu of Santa Barbara, CA for the waterfront scenes in the TV Show Psych on USA Network

I’d welcome seeing Sounder get extended to Stanwood or Monroe, but preferably both. It surprises me actually how narrow the ST teaxing district in fact is – even in my part of Issaquah – four miles south of the Issaquah P&R and just east of Renton, we found ourselves outside of the Sound Transit district and yet my wife’s commute benefits from 554 buses at Issaquah P&R.

I hope the delays on a second train to YVR are not interminable as so many of these things tend to be.

Thanks again, Brian

Tim

Lor Scara

The new administration says it will be the most ‘pro-train’ administration ever. Hopefully, they mean train passenger-friendly and not ‘train-company’ friendly. It’s about time someone holds the carriers accountable for the lack of maintenance which leads to slow orders, delays, padded schedules, etc.