by MIKE SKEHAN
Our economy is in shambles, infrastructure rotting away, global warming hanging over our heads and $5 or $10 a gallon gasoline not far off again. Sounds pretty gloomy, but soon, Congress will enact a stimulus-funding package to bootstrap our economy out of the doldrums. The question is: What do we do with the money?
It has to be for “projects ready to go”, and will likely be for only a 2 year period. Why not spend a large chunk of Washington State’s share of the pie on working towards high-speed rail, along the I-5 corridor, between Bellingham and Portland?
We have a lot of the pieces in place. Our Talgo tilt trains are capable of 125 mph. We have new stations along the line, in most of the major cities, transit centers co-located with train stations, but most important is a vision by our own State Dept of Transportation that laid all the ground work in previous years, and is only lacking the needed funding to proceed.
While 110 mph travel along the whole corridor is still years away, we have lots of projects that are ‘shovel ready’ to go. These include a Sounder/Amtrak bypass track through Lakewood, and another bypassing a congested rail yard in Vancouver, WA.
Additional train set assembly would provide jobs right here in Seattle. New grade crossings, track and signal improvements all along the way provide lots of good paying local jobs.
High Speed Rail, when combined with local transit and rail is a natural fit. Why drive to Portland when you can leave the car at home, hop off a light rail train onto the next Amtrak Cascades and be in downtown Portland in less than 3 hours?
Or how about driving to SeaTac, going through security and flying down? You’ll be strolling the streets of Portland long before your flight lands.
Energy consumption and CO2 emissions from modern trains easily beat either cars or planes for efficiency – 10 times better in some cases.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and this may be one of ours for the taking.
I’m letting my representative know how I feel and hope you do the same. Posting a comment to President Elect Obama’s transition team would really help as they assemble the nuts and bolts of the package. [www.change.gov]
Mike Skehan
2040 Granger Way
Lummi Island, WA, 98262
Him: 360-758-7333 cell 360-480-4940
Mike Skehan is a former member of the State Public Transit Advisory Committee [1994], Co-Founder of Transportation Choices, and Former Secretary of All Aboard Washington.
for high speed rail to work … the system needs a dedicated, grade-separated right of way … where’s that gonna go?
For the most part, it’s where the tracks are already located. Part of any HS rail project is grade-separating all crossings, or at least all where the trains are actually operating at HS.
It would be medium-high-speed rail (up to 110 mph), not the super-high-speed rail (150+ mph) that requires separate tracks.
Hey! This is what I suggested a few threads ago. Although with very little clarity, facts or plan. Just pie in the sky dreams as I am sometimes wont to do. :)
Though I would still love to see 150+ mph trains that are practically ubiquitous in Europe. But these assorted improvements could help us get on our way to that end and also meet the “ready-to-go” requirement of the Obama Infra plan. Good post!
I’ll add also that the F59PHI locomotives that are used on the Cascades are capable of 125mph though I believe they will be capped at 110mph due to “vibration and hunting” issues.
I’d love to see 150mph+ running though but I think the only place that could happen at would be between Everett and Bellingham if the routing was done right.
Here’s a question… I like the idea but why go all the way to Bellingham (<75k people) and not just push through to Vancouver (600k or 2.2m people) when it’s only another 50 miles or so. They might even help pay for it.
I think it would be amazing it have a line like that up into Canada. Though the fact that my company has offices in Burnaby probably helps.
Is it something about the border crossing? Do we try to avoid lines like that normally?
This is the right idea. Vancouver-Seattle is more important than Portland-Seattle. They way this happens is you bug people about it with pursuasive argument so they bug people.
Andy from CA
The issue of high speed rail on the Amtrak Cascades is clearly an issue that excites all of us on this blog. Coming as I do from Europe, I am especially keen to see high speed rail coming to all parts of the United States, but I don’t see it happening unless the BNSF and the Union Pacific give up more track rights to Amtrak, shorten their train sets so that they can use less of the main line and more of the sidings that they current force Amtrak on to.
Bottom line is that we need more main lines up and down – one for freight and one for Amtrak in each direction. On the London to Brighton route in England, passenger rail has access to two main lines – one for express trains and the other for milk-run trains! That probably won’t happen here but at least, lets build a line each in either direction for Amtrak and one for the freight companies – probably a logistical nightmare for more mountainouss parts of the journey on the West coast (i.e. we are not going to see an express Coast Starlight anytime soon) but at least as far south as Eugene, we could do something to speed up long stretches of the track?
Tim
Separated grade is the ultimate goal. Maglev technology as researched by the Federal Railroad Administration in 1998 to build from Eugene to Vancouver, BC for around $11 billion.
In the meantime, let’s push more realistically for triple tracking the BNSF mainline where the right of way allows such an expansion, from Eugene to Seattle. Let’s build this ASAP to gather momentum for working on the Seattle to Vancouver stretch.
Some naive pondering: Would this be an extension of Sounder services (schedule, fare policies)? Would Centralia and Keslo get service at existing stations? Perhaps the route could first extend to Vancouver, Wa? It seems like the whole process would get played out like some bureaucratic battle across state lines involving cost, bridge repairs, and ROWs. Seems like a big headache to expand to the Portland Amtrak station, despite its central location This keeps it within WSDOT’s jurisdiction until ridership dictates. Maybe this could be included with the Columbia River Crossing project?
I figure that this will get built before any sort of HS rail traverses the Willamette valley. The demand would be pretty low in the Eugene-Albany-Salem corridor, even with all the college students. Seems almost like the future of rail in our area is dependent on how the WES does in the next few years, despite it’s awkward route, but I’ve heard whisperings of a 99w route to McMinnville and a possible Forest Grove route.
The lines for stimulus funding will be very long indeed. Our two state universities have already identified 3 Billion in needs to the Governor. The only chance transit and rail have to get into the game over roads and bridges is to have identified projects ready to go, or ‘shovel ready’ as it’s being kicked around.
Our state is one of a few HS Rail corridors approved in the nation. We have an adopted plan. [http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/AE671CC5-6633-4BF2-9041-FB328ADB1F31/0/LongRangePlanforAmtrakCascades.pdf]
We have good projects that could be made ready to bid that help fulfill the plan.
Sure it’s not 150 mph, or Maglev, but it’s far better than doing nothing. It’s a start. A big one!
Given the drivel and vitriol Mike Skehan (aka PSLRTS) has thrown at light rail supporters in the past, he shouldn’t expect many transit supporters to be jumping on his train anytime soon….
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/piuser/showuser.asp?username=PSLRTS
Moving forward on a truly multi-modal system isn’t about taking your friends out at the knees; this is all Skehan has achieved. The results of his mode wars are posted all over the internet for everyone to see.
http://www.issaquahpress.com/2008/10/14/sound-transit-prop-1-pays-for-more-buses/
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=383847
And, no, Lummi Island is not ever going to be part of a regional transit system. Why he thinks it was useful to take potshots at Puget Sound high capacity transit while sitting at his post on Rosario Strait (100 miles away) goes beyond my comprehension.
One other issue arises with HSR—electrification. Will Amtrak want to spend extra money for the system’s electrification.
I heard the Bombardier corporation (who made the Acela train sets) had experimented with a HST “jet” train that allowed for high-speed services WITHOUT electrification. Was it successful?
It so far has not been a success and nobody has any orders for them. The California Desert Xpress however is looking at this trainset for 150mph running between LAUS and Las Vegas.
The main issue was fuel cost since it used jet fuel.
Bombardier has another version of the Acela but was never produced that would use a Detriot Diesel 5250HP engine for each locomotive and would be capable of 150mph but won’t be possible unless the FRA lessens the weight requirement for passenger trains in the United States.
Engage more governments and access more funding by expanding the high-speed train line (from the originally proposed Bellingham to Portland segment) to encompass Vancouver BC and Eugene OR. This would allow accessing a portion of the economic stimulus funds designated for Oregon, as well as Canadian Federal Government and British Columbian Provincial Government funding.
The Seattle to Portland segment is probably better suited as the starter line: There are over twice as many scheduled air flights between Seattle and Portland compared to Seattle and Vancouver BC. One great side benefit of high-speed trains is the possible elimination of most short-range air traffic among the three major Pacific Northwest cities: Less greenhouse gas emissions and less need for airport capacity expansion.
I’ve traveled on Japan’s Shinkansen several times. They’re extraordinarily fast, but noisy as hell. Anyone know how much noise mag-lev trains generate? In either case, as noted in previous posts, grade-separation is the way to go . . .
“There are over twice as many scheduled air flights between Seattle and Portland compared to Seattle and Vancouver BC.”
Maybe because it’s twice as far from Seattle to Portland, than from Seattle to Vancouver, BC?
What kind of math are you using – it’s a difference of about 40 miles, not twice as far, and the drive is almost equal time.
Just to let you know that there is a Canadian national citizen’s advocacy group that has been established to help educate people about the benefits of high speed rail. We do this through our website http://highspeedrail.ca and through our public symposiums. Please check out our website.
The big problem is BNSF. I agree that we need to have a separate passenger line. And maybe this could be included in the rerouting/expansion of the tracks going through Bellingham.
Without BNSF paying the freight Sounder would have never turned a wheel. If the entire ROW were turned over passenger rail would die because even with the ability to schedule trains as you please the operational and capital costs would bury it. Working with the freight schedule is a challenge but let’s keep in mind that without it there would be no train tracks. Improvements to the tracks should to as great a degree as possible be done to improve both freight and passenger service.
What ever happened to the fast freight combined consist. What improvements in signaling and changes to safety and labor laws would it require to attach passenger and mail service to trains hauling perishable goods?