All Things Cascades incl Vancouver

[wigwagfan]

it should have a stop just like any other town of 50,000 to 100,000 prosperous, car-lite households full of people with affinities elsewhere.

That's what the Tacoma stop is for.

Should Cascades also stop in Milwaukie and Junction City, too? Or a stop in St. Johns and another one on the north side of Vancouver, and again in Woodland, Ridgefield and Kalama? Maybe make all those Sounder stops too in Puyallup, Sumner and Auburn.

The north end of JBLM is four miles away from downtown Tacoma. How many stops is too much until you lose even more passengers because it takes too long? It's already a good 90 minutes longer than driving Portland-Seattle and that's even considering Seattle's notoriously bad traffic. If JBLM has poor public transit options on the weekends, the solution isn't to force Amtrak to stop - the solution is to work with Pierce Transit to add more service. Does Amtrak Cascades really help the folks of Salem who currently have no weekend transit service get around? Do you expect people in Salem to do their grocery shopping in Portland or Eugene (since Albany also has no weekend transit, and Oregon City's Amtrak station is a very long walk from the nearest TriMet bus stop)?

[Backshophoss]

DOD controls the military bases and what civilian access is allowed. After 9/11 outside civilian access was tighted up to all military bases,
with all outside vehicles and personel subject to inspection and ID checks,including local transit buses and passengers on board!
During weekends and holidays there might be 1 or 2 gates open for military personel to enter or leave the base that LIVE on the base!
NO outside civilians and vendors allowed on base,except for those vetted and cleared by that base.

DOD would never allow a passenger station in the middle of the base,too many security issues
Where i-5 and the Sounder tracks are is surrounded by high fencing,gates and MP's
When troop trains were around,one of the team tracks surrounded by pavement was used as the platform

[Literalman]

DOD would never allow a passenger station in the middle of the base,too many security issues

You may be right, but I've gotten off at Quantico many times and never had to pass through security. I've heard, though, that Quantico is unique in being an actual town that is inside the limits of a military base.

[Backshophoss]

Believe Quantico is a a shared base with the FBI(as I understand it).

[NIMBYkiller]

Everything I'm seeing shows that Exit 122, Berkley Av SW, Tillicum is outside of base grounds, which is where I was looking. And even if I'm, I-5 has numerous exits that anyone could use but would still have to go through the guard shack to get onto the base, so why is it any different from having a train station right next to any of those exits if it's in the publicly accessible area. If you get off the train trying to go to the base and have no business there, guess what, you're not getting in. It's not like the I-5 exits or a potential station automatically get you past the guard shacks.

[Tadman]

I hear Boeing Paine Field is gaining 24 passenger flights a day soon. Will there be a station there, whether Cascades, Sounder, or Light rail? The main goes right behind the field. Not that they do a good job connecting to Seatac anyway... the station is a few miles from the airport across a river and interstate. Uber is the only way...

[Arlington]

Sound Transit says that by 2036 they'll be in Everett with light rail.
https://www.soundtransit.org/system-exp ... -extension" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Including a stop at "SW Everett Industrial Center" on PAE's northern edge (Rt 526). Planning for the line doesn't even begin 'til 2020, though, so if United & Alaskas flights to PAE are well-established by then, they may be a planning factor. Still the real trip-generation around PAE has got to be industrial/work stuff.

Air service at PAE is being pioneered by Alaska Airlines Frequent Fliers who are tired of an unpredictable drive to SeaTac, so it will still be a park-and-fly orientation from a passenger standpoint.

Seems like Sounder and Cascades are going to stick to the coast, but you could do a backtrack connection Everett to PAE in 2 light rail stops.

[Tadman]

Here's something interesting we discovered in discussions about connections on another thread. Cascade trains have almost no connection possibilities in Vancouver.

1. Canadian - erratic schedule, often very late, mostly global travelers (not PNW regional)
2. Rock Moutaineer - same problems, different station
3. West Coast Express - different station, and no connections within 8 hours
4. BC Ferries - multi-seat ride to docks 10km and 30km away

Also, the 1145pm arrival in Vancouver arrives just in time for bed. I've been on it a few times. They advertise a 1145pm arrival, but factor in half hour for CN's BS at the bridge plus another 30-60 minutes for customs, and you've got one late train.

I assume the Vancouver trains operate when they do because of the very finite availability of Talgo trains, which makes it hard to change the schedule of the Vancouver trains as the Portland-Seattle is the important segment. One thing to consider: the Talgos were bought because they tilt and handle curves better. The curviest part of the route is Seattle to Vancouver. If there is no flexibility with the Talgo fleet, a conventional train might be run south of Seattle to allow a Talgo to handle the curves north of Seattle.

I also notice there are a lot of buses to Vancouver. I'm of the mind that I'll ride a train but not a bus. I have little interest in riding a bus.

[bdawe]

Here's something interesting we discovered in discussions about connections on another thread. Cascade trains have almost no connection possibilities in Vancouver.

Other than the single busiest rapid transit line that the Amtrak Cascades passes anywhere near, which has a station across the street. And most Vancouver coach buses, which operate out of Pacific Central Station as well.

WRT coach buses, an interesting fact is that the numerous coaches are scheduled for a four hour schedule just as the train is. They're both much inferior to to private cars for time, but it does suggest that Amtrak could wipe out the coaches with better fares and greater frequencies

That said, connections and station siting would probably be better of Amtrak were to be allowed to take advantage of the upcoming double-tracking of the Burrard Inlet line and terminate in Waterfront

[Vincent]

Sound Transit is reporting that there have been zero train cancellations due to mudslides this winter between Seattle and Everett. This week there were cancellations on Cascades service to Vancouver BC due to mudslides near Bellingham, but the Empire Builder service between Seattle and Everett wasn't affected. The $18 million spent on the landslide mitigation project seems to have paid off.

[theseaandalifesaver]

Why is track speed so slow from Vancouver, BC to The US Border? I was on the 6:35am train this morning and after an hour we were still at the city limits of Vancouver.

[Tadman]

Canadian National is no friend of Amtrak. There are two bottlenecks. The first is the wye leading on to Pacific Central Station trackage, CN will tie it up with intermodal trains to the port. The second is the bridge in New Westminster. I think (can't recall for sure) that's the BN-CN handoff, and a busy bridge. I've sat there for 30-45 minutes before, watching skytrains go by on the overpass.

Those two delays can be quite lengthy, and CN isn't exactly helpful for the rest of the route, either.

[NorthWest]

The slow track is a few things. BNSF keeps speeds low in White Rock to keep the neighbors happy in a congested area. Things afterward are usually fine until New Westminster, but from then on I think most of the track is technically in yard limits and thus has a very low speed limit.

On the landslide issue, I'm reluctant to claim victory yet. We didn't get much rain this winter, so we'll just have to see what a wet year does.

[AgentSkelly]

From what I have been told, CN on its home turf is a bit more reasonable. The CN Jct for example, I’ve watched the conductors call ahead to CN dispatcher when running a bit late to hash out a plan.

[theseaandalifesaver]

[quote="Tadman"][quote="theseaandalifesaver"]Why is track speed so slow from Vancouver, BC to The US Border? I was on the 6:35am train this morning and after an hour we were still at the city limits of Vancouver.[/quote]

Canadian National is no friend of Amtrak. There are two bottlenecks. The first is the wye leading on to Pacific Central Station trackage, CN will tie it up with intermodal trains to the port. The second is the bridge in New Westminster. I think (can't recall for sure) that's the BN-CN handoff, and a busy bridge. I've sat there for 30-45 minutes before, watching skytrains go by on the overpass.

Those two delays can be quite lengthy, and CN isn't exactly helpful for the rest of the route, either.[/quote]

That was exactly the two spots we stopped in on the ride to Seattle.