Amtrak trains in Pennsylvania will begin traveling at up to 110 miles an hour next month, the fastest American run outside the Washington, D.C.-Boston corridor.
The new service cuts travel times between Philadelphia and Harrisburg to 90 minutes from about two hours -- considerably faster than driving. The $145 million project includes new rails, which allow a smoother ride, and cleaner electric trains. Amtrak plans to add trains to meet the bump in ridership that's likely with the improved service.
In Cascadia, the governments of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia need to move faster to meet growing demand for an efficient way to move around the region. Train ridership between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland has soared along with improved service in recent years. But going by train is still slower and less convenient than driving.
Plans call for gradually improving infrastructure along the route in order to add frequency and speed the trips. By about 2013, eight trains a day would run between Seattle and Portland in three hours, and three trains would run between Seattle and Vancouver in 3:30. Currently there are no plans to add trains or cut travel-times between Seattle and Vancouver before the 2010 Olympics.
Its depressing how the funding section of the rail plan talks 100% about direct government funding. If rail services is such a valuable thing why must they be continually subsidized.
One big reason is that they compete in transportation market where the alternatives are also heavily government funded. Any comprehensive plan for this rail corridor should include a toll on I-5.
Posted by: Brian | September 15, 2006 at 13:06
Absolutely. It's a bit chicken-and-egg though. Alternatives need to be in place before we can hit people with a tax in the form of tolls. Or at least a very clear plan for the phasing in of alternatives.
Posted by: brad | March 02, 2007 at 10:54
The biggest frustration for me right now is convenient departure times and the lack of more than one train a day up to Vancouver. In making up for their shortfalls in service through to Vancouver, Amtrak subcontracts bus service to make connections. Who the hell wants to sit on a stinking bus trapped in an airplane seat with nowhere to walk around and no bathrooms for nearly 4 hours all while paying for a "train" ticket and still getting stuck in traffic like everyone else anyway??? Buses have NEVER been the answer... they're just cheap bandaids. I would pay up to double the fare of Amtrak's bus service if it would go twice as fast and if they'd employ a passport agent to ride the train and check passports on the fly like they do in Europe instead of having to stop at the border and de-board to go through customs. I'd also like to see a nice sleek electric TGV or ICE style train pulling into Pacific Central Station one of these days. Its a great way to ride down for a football or baseball game.
Posted by: Jay | June 12, 2007 at 23:15
3.5 hours for 227 kilometers? That makes an average of 65km/h! Via Rails Corridor Trains reach top speed of 160km/h. The journey should thus take less than 2h, and this not even talking about TGV (>300km/h).
Posted by: Stefan | October 11, 2009 at 11:37