Amtrak has increased service from Portland to Vancouver to six round trips a day. We tested out commutes here: www.kgw.com/ar... Subscribe: / kgwnews8 Watch the latest KGW newscast: www.kgw.com/watch Get the KGW app: kgw.com/appred...
That uses to be owned by the Great Northern and The Northern Pacific Railway before the 1970 Merger With Burlington Northern and The 1995 Merger With BNSF.
Actually, the Portland to Seattle route was jointly owned by GN/NP/UP. Today, that translates to BNSF and UP. Nor is any part of that line between Tacoma and Portland particularly straight. A separate passenger track is vital.
@@pacificostudios I rode it when it was NP they have closed down some lines and BNSF is in trouble for poor track maint now the quality has dropped considerable
@@lutomson3496 As I said, the joint GN/NP/UP line between Seattle and Portland is a legacy of the early 1900s alliance between Hill (GN/NP/SP&S/CB&Q) and Harriman (UP/SP). They also shared the Deschutes River route to Bend, OR and constructed Union Stations at places like Tacoma and Portland. The tightness of that alliance is a major reason why the entry of Milwaukee Road in 1907 was so underwhelming to PNW.
That would be nice. However, to secure funding for $42 Billion is a huge obstacle. Perhaps work towards increasing the frequency. 6 roundtrips per day is way too few. Upgrade the tracks where possible for much less to get higher speeds.
@@davidjackson7281 they can call the new rail “The Fetanyl Express” as many of the homeless people will use it to go between the two best cities in PNW for them.
Trimet should run commuter/regional trains via new rail/road bridge to Vancouver, WA & on to Kelso, WA also to Astoria, Oregon via St Helens, Oregon & also regional trains in Oregon's wine country
I wished that if the railroad between banks and Tillamook was rebuilt instead of the Salmonberry trail project I would reverse the rail to trails projects to expand Amtrak to Garibaldi and All the cities along the Oregon Washington and California coast line. 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
With a drawbridge in the middle and all the freight trains, a Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR commuter train service is not going to be reliable. The best answer is to build the LRT as fast as possible NOW so drivers have an alternative with the I-5 bridge is rebuilt.
But we're buses provided!?! When I got stuck a few weeks ago, to arrive in Vancouver at 8 39, we were notified about 3 hours in that we would be returned back to our original destination and the next stop would be kelso and transportation would be provided to us to our destination. I sat on the train until 11 30 with few updates when we all received a text saying transportation was not secured. PERIOD NOTHING ELSE. it was mid night I was going to Vancouver where I live. I had 3 options sit in the train station until it was cleared, find my own transportation (Uber, lyft) 30 miles or find a hotel. a lot of people ride the train because it is what they can afford. Amtrak left us all stranded to fend for ourselves. SHAME ON YOU AMTRAK, DO BETTER!
meanwhile here in Commifornia Amtrack runs commuter trains every day I rode them every day and they were pretty reliable so this garbage is that amtrack is not in the commuter business is propaganda and an excuse for not performing
NOTE: Commenter said “Amtrak is not really in the business of commuting . . .” - bite your tongue ! Amtrak in fact operates most of the commuter trains on both coasts.
She's talking about that particular line. It wasn't made for more local commutes, it was made for longer distance travel. The longer distance combined with the fact that Amtrak does not own the railroad tracks it operates on, creates more opportunity for delays.
It's not even their fault, the government and class 1 railroads keep fucking up everything, which is why they are in the position they were in. But it's been getting way better this past decade. They spent millions on new equipment such as the new Siemens Airo sets, which should be rolling out soon. They also spend millions on upgrading existing right of way, such as in Illinois and Michigan. Yes Amtrak has a lot of problems, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a bad company, and that doesn't mean that those problems can never be solved.
I'll tell you. Decades ago, I periodically made business trips between Albany, NY and NYC; distance about 140 miles. It really was a great way to go. Could get pre-business and post-business work done on the trips. There were a few people who used it as a long-distance commuter line even back then.
People who live in a country with infrastructure from a previous century can't imagine using trains to commute. For some reason they think sitting in traffic for an hour is more reliable.
@@GrantMcWilliamsTrains are from two previous centuries ago. Maybe you should bring a gramaphone on your next train trip with a bag full of you favorite violin hits.
