The route from Pacific Station in Vancouver to Bellingham is 62 miles and requires almost 2 hours (1:59). Tukwila to Olympia is 64 miles and takes 1:06. Even allowing for a stop at the border, VAC to BEL is a slow, slow trip.
British Columbia hasn't been willing to make the significant investments needed to speed up Cascades service and it's doubtful that CN/BNSF will be building any infrastructure solely for the benefit of passenger trains either. I don't know of any recent cost projections for improving the tracks north of the border, but if the goal is to speed up service and add additional trips, I'm sure the cost would be close to $1 billion US.
The Cascadia High Speed Rail plan hasn't presented any financial projections yet, but given the high cost of building fast and reliable service on the BNSF/CN ROW, I would strongly consider building true HSR between Seattle and Vancouver rather than sinking more money into the existing Cascades service north of Seattle.
British Columbia hasn't been willing to make the significant investments needed to speed up Cascades service and it's doubtful that CN/BNSF will be building any infrastructure solely for the benefit of passenger trains either. I don't know of any recent cost projections for improving the tracks north of the border, but if the goal is to speed up service and add additional trips, I'm sure the cost would be close to $1 billion US.
The Cascadia High Speed Rail plan hasn't presented any financial projections yet, but given the high cost of building fast and reliable service on the BNSF/CN ROW, I would strongly consider building true HSR between Seattle and Vancouver rather than sinking more money into the existing Cascades service north of Seattle.