Hi Everybody--
Here is the latest report on the long studied "Train to the Mountain" concept involving Mt.Rainier, the City of Tacoma, the City of Seattle and assorted other agencies and private and public entities. This report comes from "Brian" (aka 'Macster' on T.O.) in the Tacoma area, as evidently, he has been attending some of the meetings.
Things are rather private and hush-hush right now, but when the public meetins commence in February-2008, it should be rather interesting to see what happens.
IMHO, I think this concept can be a "GO" compared to the ATSF 5021 idea..

Your comments are graciously solicited !!
"Key Route Ken"
--------------------------------------------------------

"At this time, this is about all the information I can readily give. I can not give out names at this point until open discussion is brought forth in February 2008. I urge you that if you want this train and it's benefit to be a reality that you attend these meetings. Next year, there will be a website launched, along with ad's and many other items to promote this concept and further details about the entire scheme.

The concept has been tossed around for years and years now. The City of Tacoma's desire to be back on the map in Western Washington as a strong and credible city where Technology could also be produced and look to which has inspired to put in so much money in the "Dome District". New condos, apartments, and housing are spurring more intense construction, next year Tacoma will build a massive 3,000 stall parking garage for preparations for the Tacoma Streetcar Network, Sounder to Lakewood, LeMay Auto Museum, a new Casino, and much, much, more. Tacoma's long range plans has always included a train to Mt. Rainier National Park but they needed attractions in Tacoma first to start things off. Tacoma Link was the first part of the idea. The streetcar would be the link to get people through Downtown, quickly. Minimal walking is required to get to your basic needs, jobs, etc. People can park at Tacoma Dome Station for free, go where they need to go or parking for the train. Next was the revamped Tacoma History Museum. Cleaning up the Theatre District followed shortly thereafter with a new conference center and high class hotels. The Museum of Glass was built and new condo's have continuously been built in that area. New night clubs has spawned up as well. With that moving, meetings started up on how to approach starting the Train to the Mountain. This started with Golden Pacific and failed. It was renewed after Golden Pacific ended with 2 investors from Redmond and Bellevue. It since has been a rolling idea with private meetings.

Out of the 5 meetings I have attended so far since I sent my idea to the Tacoma City Council, several private meetings have been made with public meetings starting in 2008 for comments and thoughts. Colorado Railcar is being a big player in this operation because of the DMU. It's fuel efficiency and ability to handle a 3 car train on a %3.5 with a single engine makes it attractive but the possibility of using regular locomotives and a 7-8 car train is there. The DMU would in long term save millions in operating costs and could run the cheaper bio-diesel.

The investment in track would be for passenger comfort, speed, and to assist Tacoma Rail in generating more traffic on the line. Businesses in Morton are dying for Rail Traffic back and while the funding would only be Freighthouse Square to Ashford and the Nisqually River Bridge, the speed and reliability of having freight back would help these businesses grow again. The goal is to travel from Seattle to Ashford in 2 hours, 45 minutes or less.

The City of Seattle comes in because they do also want to invest in this train, citing it could be a huge tourist boom for Seattle and Tacoma. Passengers have the option to board at King Street Station in Seattle or Freighthouse Square in Tacoma. Seattle would pay for the operating expensives along the 37 mile BNSF corridor and the City of Tacoma and Mt. Rainier National Park will fit the bill for operating expensives on the 55 mile Tacoma Rail portion. Food, beverage, and entertainment, along with on-board guides will be part of the train.

MTM Luxury Lodging has been interested in this project for 8 years and is pushing to have something done by Summer 2009 or will put the money set aside for this plan into another lodge in the Leavenworth area. MTM has initial design plans for a 3 story 220 room lodge located at Park Jct which would allow connections to the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. MTM would also put money aside for an additional track and platform for the GrandLuxe Rail Journeys train. It will include a Restaurant serving local seafood, world class wines, spa and sauna, large gardens, Olympic Sized swimming pool that is heated or cooled. A 18 hole golf course and luxury cottages off site is also planned. The lodge would be open year around.

The train itself would depend on what it is selected. If a DMU is choosen, there will be ecomany class and first class seating along with a lounge car/diner car that would serve basic food and snacks. Wine and cheese tasting will be available as well. If a standard passenger train consist, it would have the same as above but it will cater more of a full course meal on-board the train and on-board movies. First Class will have wider seating and soft leather seating that properly recline. Coach will have cloth seating with reclining seats as well. Coach seating would be 95 passengers, first class would be 85

MTM would contract out a current Charter Bus company to handle tours of Mt. Rainier from the Resort to the mountain. Mt. Rainier National Park services would handle passengers who wish to stay in Ashford lodging. MTM would put up a small amount of cash for the operator to purchase new MCI coaches for the tour operations. There will also be a coach or shuttle bus in Tacoma that will take guests to Sea-Tac Airport.

While it does seem that Park Junction would have the "glory" it is expected that Ashford would undergo a revitalization. The existing motel and hotels there have already expressed they would be more than willing to remodel if the train brought more guests. The station will be located in the town with an area for charter buses to greet passengers.

The train is only expected to run from Mid-Spring to Mid-Fall. Owners of Stevens Pass ski resort would like to use the train during the Winter Season as an experiment to see if a Ski-Train would work for them. Dropping passengers off at Scenic, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee with coaches picking passengers up at Scenic.

Welp, a lot of info, hopefully this is some in-sight to all that is going on and hopefully will happen."

Brian