In fact, I am sure Sound Transit would be quite happy to allow Amtrak Cascades trains to stop in the already-built Lakewood station. Amtrak would lose less than 2 minutes of runtime, and they’re gaining six minutes plus reliability — so Amtrak could probably be convinced to stop in Lakewood, with the proper lobbying effort.

A line used three times a week is very much “active”, and the fact that residents have short memories does not change the fact that the line has been potentially highly active for its entire existence. Federal railroad law exists *precisely* to prevent cities like yours from blocking nationally and regionally valuable improvements of railroad service because they’d conveniently “forgotten” that the train line used to have lots of trains on it.

Furthermore, the current state of the line may have caused confusion among people such as yourself as to the results of putting passenger trains on the line. Slow freight locals block crossings for much longer times and are much less unsightly and much louder than passenger trains.

Also please see my comments earlier on how Lakewood will indirectly benefit from the Amtrak service.

If you really want another train station in south Lakewood, which I suspect would *benefit* “vital commercial redvelopment”, we would back you. If you want improved crossings — separated gated pedestrian crossings, or even an overpass — we would understand that too.
Attempting to degrade service for people coming from as far as Los Angeles on essentially spurious grounds is not attractive.

(Because the current Tacoma station is going away, if there is such an accident, trains will bypass Tacoma and head directly to Tukwila, or Seattle in the case of the Coast Starlight.)

Please note that on the current plans, the Amtrak trains from the South will stop in Tacoma, and it will be possible to change trains at Freighthouse Square for a Sounder train back to Lakewood. And the trip for the Amtrak trains to Tacoma will be six minutes shorter than currently, and more reliable.

Also, the move to a shared station with Sounder will allow straightforward train changes at Tacoma for Cascades heading north, which would otherwise require a crazy walking transfer across fast Tacoma streets.

Lakewood is getting benefits from the byapss.

It seems that Lakewood would warrant at least one southbound morning Cascades stop and one evening return. But I guess if it was a money maker Amtrak would be doing it.

Currently there is no Amtrak service to Lakewood because no trains currently pass through Lakewood. Once the Pt. Defiance Bypass is in operation then Amtrak may consider putting a stop there.

Lakewood residents will be able to take morning Sounder trains to the Amtrak station in Tacoma in order to catch a train the Portland.

Wouldn’t that be rather absurd to take a northbound train into Tacoma only to get on a southbound train that goes right past the station you just boarded at 30 minutes to an hour earlier? Give that most people are driving they’d just go downtown and use the free parking garage. And if your taking the bus I’d imagine connections to and from downtown are going to be much more plentiful than to Lakewood Station. It seems that Lakewood would warrant at least one southbound morning Cascades stop and one evening return. But I guess if it was a money maker Amtrak would be doing it. How much does it cost to stop and reaccelerate a Talgo?

It’s going to take a long time for them to exit the Interstate Era, and see the value in passenger rail.

Many of the opponents to the Pt. Defiance bypass project cite “loss of parking” within the rail right of way. As in, businesses which have been freeloading on BN/ST right of way for years, and now feel entitled to it.

I don’t think that’s a fair way to look at any transportation project.

Lakewood exists, in many ways, because of heavy rail. Someday they might get a station if ST expands to Olympia.

It’s stupid to try and oppose something that’s already a done deal.

On the question of whether the Amtrak bypass “benefits” Lakewood, I would answer yes for the following reasons.

Lakewood is the second-largest city in Pierce County and one of the fastest growing in the state. It is therefore reasonable to assume there is a market for travel between Lakewood and Tacoma.

Because Lakewood will be a few minutes from Tacoma via Sounder, Lakewood residents will be able to take morning Sounder trains to the Amtrak station in Tacoma in order to catch a train the Portland.

The reduced travel time between Tacoma abnd Portland achieved by the bypass makes the “benefit” real for the Amtrak passenger whose origin/destination is Lakewood.

That said, grade separation is a really, really good idea. A lot of people seem to think that being hit by a train is a good way to commit suicide, which is a tragedy from a humanist perspective, traumatic for engineers, and a huge pain for the transit authority. Grade separation makes it much, much harder to people to set themselves up for train-assisted-suicide.

I would only suggest that the wider community is paying for this as WSDOT receives not just state but also federal funding for its operations. It is also true that WSDOT hasn’t exactly pumped a lot of money into rail improvement projects in Washington State down the years but we have a real chance now with the current administration in Washington, DC to try to make up for lost ground in federal and state attention being paid to national rail priorities. We haven’t had such an opportunity for so long now and they do say that fruit should be picked when ripe and that moment is as now as it can be.

I am sure you do have legitimate concerns in Lakewood, but the rest of us have legitimate concerns in our trains running late or getting stalled on the existing ‘scenic route’ around Point Defiance plus we need more trains as an environmental alternative to driving and flying between Seattle and Portland. Also, if we can expand the number of trainsets on the route, then maybe you will have less polluting cars passing through the Lakewood area. As Sound Transit has built a station in Lakewood, there is the opportunity for you to also ask Amtrak to stop there also. As the BNSF will not be using that corridor, I don’t see that Amtrak would need to negotiate with the railroad for the right to stop there. Sound Transit will get its trains to Lakewood and we know it has been a long time coming. Eventually, it would be nice for them to push down to Du Pont to capture Olympia traffic.