News media says, 'we never needed that stupid bypass anyway.'

High-speed Amtrak route still stalled in Pierce County. But in a pandemic, who cares?
BY THE NEWS TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD
AUGUST 27, 2020 12:00 PM

Sorry to disappoint all you high-speed travel fans eager for a more reliable, 5-to10-minute shorter train ride from Tacoma to Portland. But you’ll have to keep waiting (and enjoying the scenic shoreline route) for the foreseeable future.

There’s no timeline for putting trains back on the Point Defiance Bypass, Sound Transit representatives told Lakewood city officials this week. That means Amtrak Cascades passengers won’t be diverted onto the long-planned $180 million shortcut through South Tacoma, Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont before reconnecting with the usual route in Thurston County.

Another case of COVID-19 causing society to grind to a halt? Nope. The cautious approach to launching 79-mph trains through the heart of South Pierce County is the result of a deadly local Amtrak derailment nearly three years ago.

That a major safety reckoning is happening now, during a pandemic, is merely a coincidence — and perhaps a good one.

Strange as it sounds, the coronavirus shutdown may be one of the best things to restore public confidence in the South Sound’s rail corridor. Mistrust and bad memories are still raw among some residents and local leaders from Dec. 18, 2017, the morning of Amtrak’s ill-fated maiden run on the Point Defiance Bypass.

A southbound train carrying 77 people rocketed around a sharp curve near DuPont at 80 mph, more than double the 30-mph speed that section of track is engineered for. Three people were killed, dozens were injured and Interstate 5 was closed for two days. Juries have been awarding multi-million-dollar verdicts ever since.

Fortunately, there’s no rush now to reopen the bypass.

Nationally, Amtrak ridership is down 95 percent during the pandemic. Amtrak has proposed cutting long-distance routes from seven to three days a week next year. And politicians, including Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, are focused on the long-term viability of Amtrak routes, including the two that operate in our state — the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder.

In the grand scheme of things, who really cares anymore whether Amtrak attains its high-speed holy grail, shaving 10 minutes from a 3-hour, 20-minute trip from Seattle to Portland?

The COVID-19 shutdown creates breathing room for the tangled web of railway operators, track owners and government regulators who need to fix a broken safety culture. A scathing federal review last year determined the derailment was caused by a perfect storm of human error and lax bureaucratic oversight.

[www.thenewstribune.com]
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