There has been a proposal on the books for years to have a second Amtrak Cascades train connect Vancouver BC to Seattle. A lack of willingness on the part of the Government of BC to partially fund the service meant the train that has been funded by the Washington State DOT for years currently teminates at Bellingham.

This announcement indicates that the Gov of BC has now commited to contibuting $4.5 million towards having this second train complete its journey to Vancouver daily. I think the pending Winter Olympics may have played some roll in this plus the fact that with continued high income and sales taxes combined with excess user fees the Government of BC is running a healthy surplus every year.

There is a 24 mile strech of track between Swift, Wa and Brownsville BC that has no passing sidings. Occasionally the current Amtrak train to Vancouver has met a BNSF freight at Colebrook, which is the junction with the BC Rail port Sub. This Port Sub is extreemly busy with CP and CN coal and intermodal trains to/from the Deltaport sea terminal. A Colebrook meet requires the Amtrak train to route onto the Port Sub, then back out after the BNSF freight passes. Not a conducive arrangement for scheduled trains.

The BNSF New Westminster and Bellingham subs have seen tremendous growth in the last five years in terms of tonnage hauled and number of trains. Fitting another scheduled train into this mix was hampered greatly by the 24 miles of single track that has several permanent slow orders such as 15 mph over bridge 69 at Crescent Beach, 25/20 mph along the promenade at White Rock and customs and immigration requirements crossing the USA/Canada border. Having another siding to allow trains to pass will increase traffic flow over the border. Its important to note that for most of the 24 miles there is no where to economically install a second track. Much of the line is either on bridges over a mud bay, on a fill or along the beach below an unstable bluff. The proposed location north of Colebrook is really the only place the siding can be installed. It was looked at by BNSF engineering brass from an inspection train that specifically came to Canada for that purpose about three years ago. That train ran north only as far as the site of the proposed siding, backed to Colebrook, ran the power around then returned to Seattle.

Its about time the BC government came on board. The extension of the Bellingham train will allow Vancouverites and tourists to make a day trip to Seattle and/or connect to other Amtrak services in Seattle without having to spend the first night in a hotel. Also the increased ridership through tourism will pad the government coffers nicely.

Ken Storey
cp1400