Amtrak Cascades #517 departing Seattle by Brian Bundridge
[Update 2 from Brian Bundridge: The Amtrak Reservations System now has the train available, starting August 20, 2009. The trip is slated to be 8 hours and 15 minutes to cover the 320 mile distance with a cost between $48 to $65 one way between Vancouver, B.C. and Portland, Oregon]
[Update from Brian Bundridge: The Amtrak Reservations System curently does not show the additional train in the computers yet. This should be fixed sometime this week.]
WSDOT reports that the second Amtrak Cascades round trip to Vancouver BC, extending the existing round trip that currently terminates in Bellingham, will begin service on Wednesday the 19th. The new service is expected to maintain the existing schedules, with a Vancouver morning departure at 6:40, and an evening arrival at 10:45.
For people like me who enjoy spending a weekend in Vancouver, this will make a Friday departure from Seattle feasible for an extra night. This is the first through service between Portland and Vancouver since 1979, when the Amtrak Pacific International left Vancouver at 11:25 am and arrived in Portland at 8:25 pm. This is also the first change to Seattle-Vancouver service since the current round trip started fifteen years ago.
At the moment, this train is only a pilot project. Service will only last until after the Olympics and Paralympic Games this winter. This would be a great time to talk to your state representatives and senators about fighting to keep this service operating!
This may sound slower than driving, but unless you either have a Nexus Card or go at non prime times, this is definitely faster for the southbound trip. And Vancouver’s road network is pretty lousy compared to Seattle’s, IMHO.
I wouldn’t call it “lousy” – I’d say “pedestrian friendly”. I prefer it.
Ditto. Vancouver is an island of walkability/bikability in an otherwise sprawling region. Try driving from Vancouver to Maple Ridge and you’ll feel like you’re on I-405 in Tukwila. I’m grateful for Vancouver’s lack of freeways!!!
I go to Whistler via car about once a month so I know what you are talking about but it does seem like for a major World city, Vancouver’s highway system is 3rd rate. Will be interesting how it goes in the Olympics.
A “3rd rate” highway system is kind of a “1st rate” city as we go forward.
Will be interesting to see if the Olympics energizes people into building more transit in the US and Canada by seeing what Vancouver has.
I, too, drive to Whistler a few times a year. Whenever I have the time, I stop and walk around. Whenever I don’t, I look out the car windows enviously at all the people.
The other perk for those who will travel for the weekend can always take the Whistler Mountaineer to Whistler for the day though the train only runs May 12 to October 6, 2009.
http://www.whistlermountaineer.com
The Whistler Mountaineer would be great if it weren’t so ungodly expensive. Same goes for VIA’s Canadian. The $35 Cascades fare from Seattle to Vancouver looks pretty sweet by comparison!
Isn’t it sometimes as low as $28?
Yeah, my bad. Most dates I plug in return a $35 fare…I forgot about the lower tier.
Too bad the Mountaineer heads out from North Vancouver…
There is a bus that will get you at many stops around the city and at the West Coast Express or Amtrak/VIA Rail station
Doesn’t the rail line through North Vancouver go through like Port Moody? It would be a long ride. Too bad VIA Rail doesn’t have the old North Van-Prince George DMU train any longer.
Since the current train is used by many Seattleites spending the day in Vancouver, I hope with the new one, that Vancouverites will be coming here for the day, somthing that didn’t make sense heretofore. Seattle ought to benefit from this addition as well.
It’s about time. WSDOT’s long-range plan calls for 4 trains per day, which will be a great addition once fully up and running. The border crossing is terrible, and I-5 traffic isn’t great either. Plus, if you’re not driving, the train is so much more comfortable than a bus. No comparison.
I’d call the train more comfortable than driving, too. I can sleep. Plus, there tend to be bald eagles on the coast as you get farther north.
It is such a beautiful ride, especially up by Bellingham! The station in Vancouver is also a walk across the front plaza from the Skylink to and from downtown Vancouver. Highly convenient.
I recommend getting off in Bellingham (WA’s best little city) then head up north the next day!
It almost sounds like you grew up there. Fairhaven perhaps? ;)
I can’t sleep while I drive? Oops.
unfortuntely it starts a few days too late for those wanting to use the service to go to vancouver for the canada line opening on monday.
Wholly Crap! It opens next week? That’s like 3 months early!
August 17th, 1pm to 9pm
!
Well, you can always go when the crowds aren’t so intense. :)
Yes, but if you don’t mind spending hours on rails… (A problem for folks here, I’m sure :-)
You could take Amtrak up to Vancouver. Transfer to SkyTrain (isn’t the station across the street?) into Downtown. Transfer to Canada Line out to Richmond. Go to the Downtown stops instead of the Airport stops and you could have some lovely Chinese food, or spend the night and go sightseeing in Steveston Village to see what great dense development could look like if we tried harder here and stop by the Richmond Night Market.
It’s good to see the night market back. I read somewhere a couple years ago that it wasn’t properly permitted and got shut down right in the middle of a summer season. It’s really fun. It’s almost too bad that the Amtrak doesn’t stop in Richmond – I’m not sure where the tracks go, though. Sure, you can ride the Canada Line back, but Richmond is such a cool destination in its own right.
If it did, I would take it up to my parents because it would be more convenient (even with my Nexus card)… but the tracks swing out to the East and cross out by New West and Burnaby. It provides a good view of parts of the SkyTrain track, though. It’s also why there’s a bit of a time loss coming into Vancouver.
WSDOT has actually be good about this second train. They have fully funded the operations for quite sometime and the B.C. Provincial Government put up the money for a capitol project to make this necessary, it was a great partnership.
The hold up was with the Canadian Federal Government who wanted to charge for the extra border crossing costs, which is ridiculous.
In the meantime tell your senators and to fully fund the Amtrak Cascade mid-range program, which will add a bunch more trains between Seattle and Portland.
Yes – and that’s dependent on Point Defiance Bypass, isn’t it?
That bypass can’t be done soon enough. It’s almost eerie to see finished Sounder stations that have never seen a train.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here but the absolute earliest the second train would start would be August 21st however this is very unlikely.
It seems that even though the issue of paying for the 2nd shift of customs agents has been resolved the Canadian government just told Amtrak that they now have to pay the overtime for the agents. Of course Amtrak is crying foul on this and refusing to pay so the train is held up ONCE AGAIN. Amtrak was ready to go, we had new jobs put up for bid and awarded, all the trainsets are ready, etc etc but the Canadian government wants to drag their feet once again.
I’m an assistant conductor based in Seattle and we had put up all new jobs based on the changed schedule for the 2nd Canada train when it was supposed to go through on the 7th, then when it got delayed to the 14th and now the 21st(at the very earliest). Since the jobs are being delayed for this long they had to throw out the results and abolish all jobs and start the bid process all over again.
The only good news lately is that the last Talgo trainset is done with its facelift and the Canada train (510/517) is the 8 car Mt Adams set. So you can now go to Canada in business class, take an unboxed bike and there is room for approximately 100 more people so you actually have a shot at getting a ticket for the train. The daily train is still sold out pretty regularly and I assume the second train will be as well whenever/if it ever goes through.
I’ll posts updates whenever they actually occur.
Tim, thanks for the update!
8 cars? I assume the other trainsets are running 12 cars?
Thanks for the update!
oops. by 8 cars i meant 8 coach cars. so the usual power, 2 business, lounge, bistro, 8 coaches, baggage car.
that means all the other trains will have 9 coaches. the mt adams is easily distinguished by its all chrome in the lounge car.
OOPS again. 6 coaches. 2 business.
the rest of the sets being 7 coaches and 2 business. sorry, long day.
No dining car. :(
I miss the pumpkin cream cheese french toast.
Will they be offering the breakfast/dinner w/ table service as on 510/517 before the Talgo refurb program began?
Ah, I get it – the 8 car Mt Adams train will used pretty much exclusively on 510/517 whilst the other four 9 car trains will rotate through all services between EUG and VAC.
Christ, Brian, that’s another brilliant shot. Why aren’t you a professional photographer?
that is indeed a nice shot. good spot to shoot it from. i hate all those charlie’s produce truckers though, they park so close to the wye tracks and always try to run in front of our train on that crossing.
Vancouver is definitely meant for transit usage and is such a great city. Now with begging the legislature, also add in some dollars to build a dedicated HSR line along the I-5 up to Bellingham then to the border to speed up travel. 4 hours is ridiculous and I believe it takes 90 minutes to go from Bellingham across the border? Time for an HSL for 125 mph.
Daniel,
I seriously doubt the people around Lake Samish would go for an HSR line along their pretty little lake. They’ve already got I-5; give them a break. Besides, once you over the hill west of Lake Samish, you’re at the east edge of Fairhaven. Where are you going to put the tracks from there?
If there is ever HSR to Vancouver it’s going to have to tunnel through Chuckanut Mountain from Blanchard to the Lagoon below Spokane Street with a new straight tunnel under the point west of the lagoon. Unfortunately, that bypasses the spectacularly beautiful 25 mile and hour trackage along Bellingham Bay through Larrabee State Park.
Ride it now while it’s still in use. In fifteen years it will be bypassed.
Daniel,
I seriously doubt the people around Lake Samish would go for an HSR line along their pretty little lake. They’ve already got I-5; give them a break. Besides, once you get over the hill west of Lake Samish, you’re at the east edge of Fairhaven. Where are you going to put the tracks from there?
If there is ever HSR to Vancouver it’s going to have to tunnel through Chuckanut Mountain from Blanchard to the Lagoon below Spokane Street with a new straight tunnel under the point west of the lagoon. Unfortunately, that bypasses the spectacularly beautiful 25 mile and hour trackage along Bellingham Bay through Larrabee State Park.
Ride it now while it’s still in use. In fifteen years it will be bypassed.
Brian: All your photo’s have been really good for past Link and todays photo. Keep up the good work!
Indeed – kudos on the excellent photos.
The Amtrak Reservations System now has the train available, starting August 20, 2009. The trip is slated to be between 7 hours and 55 minutes (Northbound) to 8 hours and 15 minutes (Southbound) to cover the 320 mile distance with a cost between $48 to $65 one way between Vancouver, B.C. and Portland, Oregon
Southward service starts Aug 20, but northward service starts Aug 19, according to .
Oops, the URL didn’t come through. I meant to say “… according to …”
http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak
washdot is indeed correct. amtrak was informed yesterday of the train going through on the 19th and everyone was in full panic mode today. jobs were abolished and put up for bid again so that we can get everything ready for the 19th. thanks for being so wishy washy canada!
Tim F.
All in a day’s work for our esteemed federal govt. These are the same clowns who instituted an immediate visa requirement (i.e. no advance notice, unless one week counts) to all Mexican and Czech nationals travelling to Canada. This caused untold inconvenience and stress all the way down the line, from airlines to travel agents to embassies and, of course, to individuals. It forced many people to cancel their travel plans at the height of the holiday season, and added an high stress component to so-called pleasure travel for those who perservered.
Wishy-washy is too kind.
This also works great for bar/club nights in Vancouver. My friend and I will be going up next month in the evening and coming back the following morning.