The long-awaited second "Cascades" round trip to and from Vancouver, B.C. is expected to start up around Aug. 15.

Trains #513 and #516 will actually provide single-seat, same-day service between Portland, Ore. and Vancouver. The trains currently begin and terminate at Bellingham, Wash.

Train #513 will depart Vancouver in the early morning, arrriving in Seattle in late morning and Portland in mid-afternoon. Train #516 will depart Portland in mid-afternoon, with an early-evening arrival in Seattle and a late-evening arrival in Vancouver.

This service will complement existing trains #510 and #517, which currently provide a morning Seattle-Vancouver run and an evening southbound return trip.

Amtrak, Washington DOT and the British Columbia provincial government were able to work out an agreement on the service startup, which was held up by a dispute with the Canadian boder service agency. The agency wanted a $1,500 daily payment to provide customs services for the new train.

Meanwhile, Seattle also gets its equally-long-awaited "Link" light rail service as of Saturday, July 18. The first segment of "Central Link" runs from downtown Seattle south to Tukwila, with a bus shuttle extending the route to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The rest of the line to the airport is scheduled to open later in the year.