OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington state Supreme Court has ruled that the Pierce County, Wash., medical examiner isn’t entitled to a copy of a video recording made and held by BNSF Railway of a 2017 fatality in which a man standing on tracks was struck and killed. The ruling, filed Jan. 31, stems from a […]
A Wilsonville-bound Westside Express Service train passes through Tigard, Ore., in June 2018. An Oregon legislator wants the service extended to the state capital, Salem. TRAINS: David Lassen PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon legislator is making a fourth attempt to generate interest in a plan to extend Portland’s lone commuter-rail line to Salem, Ore. The […]
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Department of Transportation has issued a request for proposals for an operator of a 90-mile branch of a state-owned short line in eastern Washington. The Palouse & Lewiston branch is one of three sections of what’s collectively known as the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad. The Palouse & Lewistown […]
SEATTLE — The topic of high-speed rail for the Vancouver, B.C.-Seattle-Portland, Ore., corridor continues to generate interest in the region. Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia are cooperating on a study of routes, stations, equipment, and costs of a high-speed rail system operating at up to 250 miles per hour. Microsoft is also funding the study, […]
SEATTLE — The mayor of Seattle says she wants to go ahead with a long-delayed, over-budget, mile-long downtown streetcar line, but there’s still the small matter of finding the additional millions of dollars to pay for it. Mayor Jenny Durkan put the project on hold in March 2018 for a review; the report itself and […]
SANDPOINT, Idaho — The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for public comments on how two bridge proposals by BNSF Railway would affect navigation on the Pend Oreille River and Lake Pend Oreille. Two new bridges would parallel the existing 1905-built Northern Pacific bridges on BNSF’s “Northern Transcon.” One would be 4,874-feet-long. The other would be […]
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Any replacement for the century-old Interstate 5 bridge connecting Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., must include light rail, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said last week. Inslee, speaking at a preview of the 2019 legislative session that beings today, said light rail will be included because Oregon, which will pay for half of […]
SEATTLE — Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration have finalized an agreement for $1.2 billion in funding for an 8.5-mile extension of its light rail system. The FTA announced the grant on Thursday, after the conclusion of a 30-day congressional review period for the funding agreement announced in November. [See “Sound Transit, FTA reach […]
A year after the fatal derailment of Amtrak Cascades train No. 501, service has not yet returned to the Point Defiance Bypass. Steve Carter A northbound Amtrak Cascades train passes the southern end of the Point Defiance Bypass, the track at right, at Nisqually, Wash., in June 2018. A year after the derailment of the […]
SEATTLE — In a busy year for changes in operators for short lines in the Pacific Northwest, here’s another one. This time it’s a BNSF Railway-owned line in northeastern Washington and southern British Columbia currently operated by OmniTrax subsidiary Kettle Falls International Railway. The new operator, according to Surface Transportation Board filings, will […]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Railroad has been shutdown following two earthquakes north of Anchorage on Friday morning. The back-to-back quakes measuring in 7 and 5.8 on the Richter scale shook buildings and damaged roads across the southern part of the state. The Associated Press reports that there were no immediate reports of death or […]
SEATTLE — The Pacific Northwest has an abundance of publicly and privately owned short lines. Two of the publicly held railroads have new operators. Oregon In the case of the International Port of Coos Bay in Oregon, the new operator is the port itself. The 133-mile line, running west from Eugene, Ore., to the coast […]
