SEATTLE — A steam locomotive that worked for years in the Pacific Northwest is headed home after a vacation in Arizona. Former Northern Pacific No. 1762 and Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 539, a 2-8-2 Mikado built in 1917, has been acquired by the Port of Kalama, located along the Columbia River near Longview Wash. […]
Zone & Region: Pacific Northwest
Seattle streetcar’ Center City Connector is ‘on’ again NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — Seattle’s financially-troubled on-again, off-again Center City Connector streetcar project appears to be on again. The Seattle Department of Transportation has asked the City Council for $9 million for additional design and engineering work on the mile-long line through downtown that would link two operating streetcar lines. Mayor Jenny Durkan suspended work on the […]
Amtrak to provide partial match to Oregon ‘Cascades’ grant request NEWSWIRE
Morning Amtrak Cascades No. 500 heads north near Salem, Ore., in June 2015. Amtrak has pledged funds in support of an Oregon effort to secure a federal grant to add a passing siding on the Cascades route south of Portland, Ore. Bob Johnston OREGON CITY, Ore. — Amtrak has pledged to contribute $750,000 to a […]
Seattle light rail project to feature tracks on floating bridge NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — One of Sound Transit’s latest light rail projects is featuring what the transit agency says is a first-of-its kind rail line on a floating bridge. The Seattle Times reports that after more than a decade dealing with the technical challenges involved, the agency is installing tracks on the Interstate 90 bridge across Lake […]
Portland, Ore., floats idea of light-rail tunnel under downtown NEWSWIRE
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland-area officials are beginning to explore the possibility of building a light-rail tunnel under downtown to address the bottleneck at the center of the city’s rail system. The Oregon Metro website says the idea, still in its early stages, was first floated two years ago as transit agency TriMet looked at ways to […]
Study urges ‘ultra’ high speed rail in Pacific Northwest; offers list of action items NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — A newly released business-case study argues that ultra-high-speed ground transportation in the Vancouver, British Columbia-Seattle-Portland, Ore., corridor would deliver economic and social benefits, and could cover its operating costs as soon as 2040. But getting to such a system by 2040 depends on resolving some huge questions, such as what technology — conventional […]
Washington tourist line to operate without steam this season NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — The address for the website of the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad tourist excursion service in southwestern Washington is “steamtrainride.com.” Unfortunately for the Chehalis-Centralia, there’s no steam locomotive at the moment to pull its trains. The Chehalis-Centralia had been relying on a 1916 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado. “Our engine was getting ready for annual inspection and testing […]
New Sound Transit light rail equipment debuts NEWSWIRE
The first of 152 new Siemens light rail vehicles was unveiled by Seattle’s Sound Transit on Wednesday. Sound Transit Sound Transit says the new equipment has wider aisles, more luggage space and more bike capacity than current light rail vehicles. Sound Transit SEATTLE — The first of 152 new Siemens light rail vehicles for Sound […]
Washington city wants Point Defiance Bypass to stay closed until all recommended safety installations are complete NEWSWIRE
A view of the wreckage of derailed Amtrak Cascades Train 501 on Dec. 18, 2017. Steve Carter SEATTLE — The city council in Lakewood, Wash., has approved a resolution asking the Washington State Department of Transportation and Amtrak not to reopen the Point Defiance Bypass until all of the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations are […]
Washington state puts up money to explore cross-state passenger rail service NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — The Washington state Legislature has approved a transportation budget with funding for several rail projects, including a feasibility study of a cross-state passenger train. The $250,000 allocated to the Legislature’s joint transportation committee would look at the former Northern Pacific route from Seattle over Stampede Pass, then south through the Yakima Valley and […]
State chooses eastern Washington short line operator for publicly owned line NEWSWIRE
SEATTLE — The shuffling of operators for segments of the state-owned Palouse River & Coulee City in eastern Washington state continues. The Washington State Department of Transportation said it picked Omaha Track as the winning bidder to operate the 90-mile P&L branch of the PCC, which runs from the Idaho border near Pullman to Marshall, […]
Sound Transit will revise its safety protocol in response to NTSB report NEWSWIRE
Sound Transit’s board chairman says the agency will call in an outside investigator to review its safety procedures in the wake of the National Transportation Safety Board’s findings and recommendations in its own investigation into the December 2017 Amtrak Cascades derailment. NTSB had criticisms for multiple agencies and entities including Sound Transit, which owns the […]
