The popular international service is expected to resume two months ahead of schedule. Officials at the US State Railroad had he said in May Trains would not be back on the route until December at the earliest. No passenger trains have crossed the BC-Washington border since the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, although ground and air travel has taken place be allowed between the two jurisdictions, with minimal restrictions. Amtrak had blamed staff shortages for the long delay, saying it did not have enough conductors, engineers and service personnel on board to operate the trains. SERVICE TO CANADA RESUMES IN SEPTEMBER: WSDOT & ODOT are pleased to share that train service to all cities north of Seattle, including Vancouver, BC, will now resume in September 2022. Previous plans called for a December return in Canada, but Amtrak was able to move the schedule forward. pic.twitter.com/nKmvCfJZoj —@Amtrak_Cascades Janet Matkin, with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), said the rail service was able to be creative with staff and equipment, allowing service to resume. “WSDOT … is really excited that we’re able to return service in September,” she said in an interview. “Originally, Amtrak had notified us that it wouldn’t be until December 2022, which we were very unhappy with.” Before the pandemic, about 159,000 people took the train route between Seattle and Vancouver each year. And almost twice that number of passengers boarded or disembarked at stops between the two cities. The railroad’s Cascades route has been running on a limited schedule between Seattle and Portland for several months. When it expands service north into Canada again this fall, Matkin said Amtrak plans to make one round trip each day. If demand increases, eventually two round trips will be on the schedule. Both WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation are responsible for Cascades route service, with Washington overseeing service that runs in B.C. Matkin said ridership on the US Cascades line segments has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but is increasing “a lot.” In the absence of its train to Vancouver, Amtrak offered coaches between Vancouver and Seattle. Matkin said the service has seen significant absorption, carrying more than 350 passengers a day. “The demand is definitely there,” he said. “Not just from Vancouver, but the stops in between, from Bellingham to Everett.” Washington state lawmakers this year approved $150 million to study and design high-speed trains between British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, with the goal of possibly replacing Amtrak someday. But if that happens, it will cost at least $42 billion and decades to build. The BC government supported the idea, with Premier John Horgan saying in 2019 that a high-speed, one-hour trip between Seattle and Vancouver would “strengthen the relationship” between Washington state and BC and “create” countless opportunities ” at both sides. of the borders.
