All Things Cascades incl Vancouver

When is the Point Defiance Bypass set to open?

My son and me took a trip to Seattle this past weekend; 500 on Saturday 505 on Sunday.

Saturday was a Horizon set, which my 3 year old son was rather confused that it wasn’t a Talgo, but he figured it out. Sunday was the Mt. Jefferson Talgo set, his favorite!

I’m glad to see food service has returned, but it’s interesting that it uses the national menu and not the Cascades-specific menu. Bistro Car attendant on the 505 was telling me that WSDOT back in April of 2020, let the various vendor agreements they had except for local beer lapse due to uncertainly of when food service will return. Apparently that is being resolved soon and it’s going to have new items from both Oregon and Washington.

As for Point Defiance Bypass, one of the conductors told me they are almost done qualifying crews, he expects it ready by August.

Cool, thanks for the report! Glad you had a good trip.

You beat me to the post by about thirty seconds. I'm glad I rode the Starlight south a few weeks ago, even though it was raining. At least they can finally utilize the new station.

Today was the day the Point Defiance Bypass was supposed to reopen.

Literally, crickets. Absolutely no news coverage (other than reports from over a week ago), and not even much chatter on the railfan groups.

No news better than bad news?

wigwagfan wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:04 am Today was the day the Point Defiance Bypass was supposed to reopen.

Literally, crickets. Absolutely no news coverage (other than reports from over a week ago), and not even much chatter on the railfan groups.

No news better than bad news?

King5 just did a small piece on it and KOMO had a small article yesterday. I think the flooding has taken up most of the news cycle around here in the past few days.

The first train just departed the new Tacoma Station as I write this.
Edit: First train through, hopefully it'll be the norm from here on.

wigwagfan wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:04 am Today was the day the Point Defiance Bypass was supposed to reopen.

Literally, crickets. Absolutely no news coverage (other than reports from over a week ago), and not even much chatter on the railfan groups.

No news better than bad news?

KING 5 in Seattle posted a video to YouTube showing the first northbound to use the Point Defiance bypass. The video, which is 30 minutes long, was shot from a helicopter pacing the train. The problem is I'm guessing KING 5 didn't know where the bypass begins (CP Nesqually) and ended up pacing the train for 10 miles or so before it even got to CP Nesqually. Then they stopped filming before the train got to Lakewood. Oh well, here's the video. I'm starting it at 21 minutes in at CP Nesqually.

https://youtu.be/V4B_fz5mIko?t=1256

Too bad there was not a video 4 years ago????

ST Saint wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:26 am

wigwagfan wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:04 am Today was the day the Point Defiance Bypass was supposed to reopen.

Literally, crickets. Absolutely no news coverage (other than reports from over a week ago), and not even much chatter on the railfan groups.

No news better than bad news?

King5 just did a small piece on it and KOMO had a small article yesterday. I think the flooding has taken up most of the news cycle around here in the past few days.

The first train just departed the new Tacoma Station as I write this.
Edit: First train through, hopefully it'll be the norm from here on.

There hasn't been much follow-up coverage nationally, except in Trains Magazine.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... ce-bypass/

Apparently, nothing crashed that first day, so outside of dedicated coverage... it's all good?

Looks like no service to Canada until 2022.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/amtrak ... -1.6252614

A few other sources on the re-opening of the bypass: https://www.google.com/search?q=Point+D ... il&tbm=nws

After a delay until December 2022, WSDOT and ODOT just announced they worked with Amtrak to push the reopening Cascades service to Vancouver, BC for September 2022.

tweet: https://twitter.com/Amtrak_Cascades/sta ... 5182281728

No specifics are provided about schedule or equipment. I would guess one train heading northbound in the morning and an evening return with whatever equipment is available.

Is the Coast Starlight also using the bypass? I recall from some years back that it would be using the old route, the coastal one, because the bypass's grades were too much for it. But what I've found more recently says that the CS will be using the bypass, mostly sources about the reopening of the bypass.

Anything more recent?