Search Results for "high speed rail"

Communities up and down the Cascadia corridor from Vancouver, BC, to Eugene, Ore., are humming with the news of record increases in ridership this year on the Amtrak Cascades, the passenger rail system that will see $600 million in improvements as part of Barack Obama’s high-speed rail initiative.

These investments could generate tremendous benefits here in Vancouver in the long term if we can maintain current service between our city and Seattle. Similar interest in north-south rail travel is growing in Montreal, where Quebec officials hope they can secure investment south of the border to slash the 11-hour rail travel time from New York to Montreal with a high-speed train.

Thanks to the addition of a second Cascades train between Vancouver and Seattle before the Winter Olympic Games, city tourism businesses saw an additional 35,000 visitors between September and April, on an annualized basis. This is equivalent to several cruise ship visits and generates an estimated $16 million in additional business, possibly much more. (The numbers come from an Amtrak study.)

But the benefits of the second train — and access to the improved US rail corridor — could be in doubt if Ottawa decides not to continue special arrangements made to secure the additional Amtrak service last year. Those arrangements expire in mid-September. [Read more →]

Unreported in BC, as far as I know, was the very significant news that the Washington and Oregon State high-speed rail supporters landed nearly $USD600 million in investments along more than 400 miles of track to speed up Amtrak service.

This massive investment will take the states much closer to the long-term goal of 240-km an hour high speed rail.

Seattle rail advocates, like the Cascadia Center, have done a better job of advancing Vancouver’s role as the northern terminus of the route that we have. That must change after the 2010 Games.

Vancouver's latest rail arrival: Bombardier's Flexity ready for Games service between Olympic Village and Granville Island. With Canada Line's success and a second Amtrak train, can we build momentum for higher speed rail to Seattle?

The dream of a high speed rail connection along the Cascadia corridor from Vancouver through to Seattle and Portland may be far in the future, but a critical step toward that goal is much closer: a permanent second daily Amtrak train from Vancouver to Seattle that could add $20 million a year to the city’s economy.

Tireless Washington State rail advocates led by the Cascadia Centre’s Bruce Agnew are determined to make the second train, approved as a pilot project during the 2010 Games, into a permanent feature of the region’s transportation network, a logical stepping stone to a third train, track improvements and ultimately, high speed rail.

That’s like adding another cruise ship at a time when the cruise industry is  faltering in Vancouver for a number of reasons.

Agnew convened a high level group of rail, transportation and tourism experts in Vancouver yesterday to nail down marketing plans for the new service, which is already drawing solid bookings in the run-up to the Games. They were welcomed by Mayor Gregor Robertson, who’s made the Cascadia rail opportunity a top priority. [Read more →]

Amtrak's Talgo trains can travel well over 100 mph but are limited to 90 by US law. Modest changes to border crossing arrangements and some track upgrades could result in much higher speed travel between Cascadia cities, a stepping stone to true High Speed Rail.

Only two Canadian cities — Montreal and Vancouver – stand to be winners in the battle for benefits from President Barack Obama’s $8 billion high speed rail development program, but so far Ottawa won’t let Vancouver get in the fight.

As state and city officials from Oregon and Washington prepare their bid for hundreds of millions of dollars to develop passenger trail travel from Eugene, Ore., to Vancouver, they remain stymied by Ottawa’s demand that Amtrak pay the customs and immigration costs for a second daily train to our city.

Yes, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan has agreed to waive the $1,500 daily fee during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but after that anybody seeking to bring up an estimated 35,000 additional visitors to BC annually, as the Amtrak train would, should expect to pay.

It’s a penny wise, pound foolish policy that Mayor Gregor Robertson could only express embarassment about and promise to raise with Ottawa when he talked to US officials during this week’s Cascadia Rail Week. The event was organized to focus and co-ordinate the bid for new funding on the Pacific Northwest route identified as a candidate for support in Obama’s April announcement.

US state and municipal legislators made it clear during the two-day rolling seminar, which traveled from Seattle to Portland and back on Amtrak’s modern Spanish-designed trains, that the Obama announcement is viewed as a turning point in American transportation policy on a par with the creation of the national freeway system.

The economic and environmental benefits are obvious.

BC could be a ground floor beneficiary of this massive new investment, but Ottawa so far seems unaware of the possibilities.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Transportation held an urgent meeting on the high speed rail issue earlier this month, but federal officials were mute on the BC possibilities, focusing instead on Ontario and Quebec.

Fortunately, US officials like Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Washington State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen and Oregon Congressman Pete De Fazio are pulling together make the Pacific Northwest bid a reality. Adams and Robertson signed a memorandum of understanding to create a cross-border collaboration in support of rail development.

This is not about billions of dollars for bullet trains. Very simple improvements in customs clearance policies on both sides of the border could dramatically cut travel times from Vancouver to Seattle, a route that has seen dramatic growth since service resumed 12 years ago.

Modest track improvements, like the new Delta siding that received provincial government support last year, could cut the current three hour and 55 minute trip to something closer to three hours, about equivalent to a road trip that includes a quick border crossing.

All these changes would lay the foundation for true high speed service in a corridor where even moderately higher speeds – well within the 120-km per hour capabilities of the current Amtrak train sets, never mind the superfast times achieved in Europe and Asia – would transform intercity travel.

All that’s missing is a clear, unequivocal statement from Ottawa that says “yes” to laying the groundwork for a sustainable, 21st century passenger rail system in the Cascades corridor.

Clearly, that Canadian response needs to be built in BC, crafted by the region’s municipalities, Victoria and the business interests, including our railways and the tourism sector, with the most at stake.

Until that happens, our friends in Cascadia will be fighting in Washington with one hand tied behind their backs, proposing an enhanced rail system to a destination that wants them to pay for the privilege.