Growing interest in returning train service to central WA

[JayPea]

I read your Posts Jeff, but other than Spokane and the town where Washington State U. is Located (???) are there Any People in Eastern Washington? ^_^ (Its always been Dark when I rode the On-Time, Believe It or Not , Builders between SEA/PDX and SPK so except for along the Columbia on the WB Builder to PDX I have to say it looks mighty Bare in Eastern Washington! ( I never got to ride the North Coast Hiawatha or the Pre-Amtrak Empire Builder!)

Well, the Tri-Cities area (Pasco, Richland, and Kennewick ) has, if I remember correctly, a population of a quarter million or so. And the population of Yakima is 93,000 within its city limits and about 243,000 in its metropolitan area. And there are several small to large towns in Eastern Washington. It's not quite as devoid of population like, for instance, West Texas. Besides, in order to get from Spokane to Seattle, one does have to travel through all that empty space in between. :lol:

 

[Bob Dylan]

I read your Posts Jeff, but other than Spokane and the town where Washington State U. is Located (???) are there Any People in Eastern Washington? ^_^ (Its always been Dark when I rode the On-Time, Believe It or Not , Builders between SEA/PDX and SPK so except for along the Columbia on the WB Builder to PDX I have to say it looks mighty Bare in Eastern Washington! ( I never got to ride the North Coast Hiawatha or the Pre-Amtrak Empire Builder!)

And there are several small to large towns in Eastern Washington. It's not quite as devoid of population like, for instance, West Texas.

:hi: Touche! ^_^

 

[CHamilton]

Jim, for your edification, here is a list of WA places with estimated 2012 populations exceeding 15,000 that are on the east side of the Cascade mountains. Almost all of them were founded and/or are served by railroads. Come on out, and we'll get apples, onions, and wine for you!

Spokane
209,525
Yakima
93,101
Spokane Valley
90,641
Kennewick
75,971
Pasco
65,398
Richland
51,440
Wenatchee
32,562
Walla Walla
31,864
Pullman
31,359
Moses Lake
21,182
Ellensburg
18,348
Sunnyside
16,054

 

[jimhudson]

I know its a good farming area and that salt of the earth folks live there Charlie! City folks like us wouldn't want to live there and I like teasing our friend Jeff who has lived there his entire life! How's the snow/rain/mudslide situation on the Starlite/Cascades Route?I know you've been in Cali on a trip!

 

[Big Green Chauvanist]

Washington Route 14 is one of the unsung great scenic byways of the country, paralleling the mighty and majestic Columbia River for many miles. The route west to east takes you from near rainforest conditions to hard desertscape within the distance of mere hundred miles, while the Columbia rolls on ever nonchalantly. A special treat for the rail fan is to spend the night in the tiny hamlet of Lyle at an old railroad inn, the Lyle Hotel. It is LITERALLY next to the tracks of the former SP&S (now BNSF). As a train approaches, you think it is going to burst through the windows into your room. May not be conducive to a restful night's sleep, but it was music to the ears of this rail fan. A bridge next to the hotel passes over the tracks, so great viewing from on high is an added treat. Of course the UP runs on the Oregon side--sound muffled by the distance from the hotel, but a mighty good-looking sight from across the water. For the tourist, many fascinating venues all along the route.

 

[Ryan]

We took our honeymoon out in that part of the world (but more focused on that coast, we were based out of Astoria for most of the trip). Absolutely BEAUTIFUL country that I'd love to spend more time exploring.

Definitely on the "I'd move there in a heartbeat if a job came up" list.

 

[MrFSS]

We took our honeymoon out in that part of the world (but more focused on that coast, we were based out of Astoria for most of the trip). Absolutely BEAUTIFUL country that I'd love to spend more time exploring.

Definitely on the "I'd move there in a heartbeat if a job came up" list.

One of the best sea-food dinners I ever had was at a little, unknown to the tourists, restaurant in Astoria. Can't remember the name, but was it good!!

 

[Ryan]

We had some amazing meals at a few places like that. The hotel* we stayed at provided some excellent dinner recommendations. They had menus for a bunch of local places, and would call and make you reservations. They also had some antique cars that they would use to drive you to dinner (and then come and pick you up when you were done - you could just tell your server at the restaurant and they would call back to the hotel for the car for you. AMAZING customer service).



'39 Cadillac by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

*The Hotel is the Cannery Pier Hotel. Amy found it online and it was absolutely first rate all the way. Out on a pier over the water, the view was incredible. The first night we were there we hung around in the hotel room and watched the Caps playoff hockey game that was on. Amy went down to the front desk to ask if there was a market nearby that we could grab some snacks at. The hotel gave her a basket, and filled it up with a bunch of sodas and snacks and said "Have these, if you need anything else, let us know and we'll get it!". Easily the best place I've ever stayed, and I can't wait to go back.

Here's the hotel - IIRC, all of the rooms are on the other side of the building and face the water:



The Hotel Under the Bridge by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

 

[fairviewroad]

Jim, for your edification, here is a list of WA places with estimated 2012 populations exceeding 15,000 that are on the east side of the Cascade mountains. Almost all of them were founded and/or are served by railroads. Come on out, and we'll get apples, onions, and wine for you!

Spokane

209,525

Yakima

93,101

Spokane Valley

90,641

Kennewick

75,971

Pasco

65,398

Richland

51,440

Wenatchee

32,562

Walla Walla

31,864

Pullman

31,359

Moses Lake

21,182

Ellensburg

18,348

Sunnyside

16,054

And to be fair, almost all of the cities on this list are served by Amtrak. (Granted, by a once-a-day train that's frequently late).

Spokane/Spokane Valley (one metro area), Richland/Pasco/Kennewick (one metro area) and Wenatchee are all on the Empire

Builder route.

Additionally, Moses Lake is 20 miles from the Ephrata stop (though w/o local connections, I suspect).

That leaves Yakima, Walla Walla, Pullman and Ellensburg. The latter three are college towns and could probably support some

sort of rail service. (I suspect Sunnyside's population is inflated by migrant workers, and I don't think it would support much

rail service).

 

[Bob Dylan]

We had some amazing meals at a few places like that. The hotel* we stayed at provided some excellent dinner recommendations. They had menus for a bunch of local places, and would call and make you reservations. They also had some antique cars that they would use to drive you to dinner (and then come and pick you up when you were done - you could just tell your server at the restaurant and they would call back to the hotel for the car for you. AMAZING customer service).



'39 Cadillac by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

*The Hotel is the Cannery Pier Hotel. Amy found it online and it was absolutely first rate all the way. Out on a pier over the water, the view was incredible. The first night we were there we hung around in the hotel room and watched the Caps playoff hockey game that was on. Amy went down to the front desk to ask if there was a market nearby that we could grab some snacks at. The hotel gave her a basket, and filled it up with a bunch of sodas and snacks and said "Have these, if you need anything else, let us know and we'll get it!". Easily the best place I've ever stayed, and I can't wait to go back.

Here's the hotel - IIRC, all of the rooms are on the other side of the building and face the water:



The Hotel Under the Bridge by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

Fantastic Ryan! Thanks for Posting, it really is a Special Place! :hi: (My Grandparents had a '39 Cadillac almost exactly like this one! Never got to drive it but it was a Sweet Ride! )

 

[AC4400]

Ellensburg is similar to Corvallis,OR, which is home to Oregon State University. It has no airport (with commercial airlines), no train station, and 15 miles off the freeway.

Amtrak relies connection from infrequent Valley Retriever buses (8550, 8551, 8552, 8575) to/from ALY and PDX.

There was a online petition initiated by an OSU professor to reroute Cascades to Corvallis, but looks like it failed.

I saw most of the passengers getting off at ALY are OSU students/faculties who need pickup by friends. That's a pain.

 

[JayPea]

Ellensburg is similar to Corvallis,OR, which is home to Oregon State University. It has no airport (with commercial airlines), no train station, and 15 miles off the freeway.

Amtrak relies connection from infrequent Valley Retriever buses (8550, 8551, 8552, 8575) to/from ALY and PDX.

There was a online petition initiated by an OSU professor to reroute Cascades to Corvallis, but looks like it failed.

I saw most of the passengers getting off at ALY are OSU students/faculties who need pickup by friends. That's a pain.

The only advantage Ellensburg has over Corvallis is that Ellensburg is right at the junction of two interstates, I-90 and I-82.

 

[JayPea]

Jim, for your edification, here is a list of WA places with estimated 2012 populations exceeding 15,000 that are on the east side of the Cascade mountains. Almost all of them were founded and/or are served by railroads. Come on out, and we'll get apples, onions, and wine for you!

Spokane

209,525

Yakima

93,101

Spokane Valley

90,641

Kennewick

75,971

Pasco

65,398

Richland

51,440

Wenatchee

32,562

Walla Walla

31,864

Pullman

31,359

Moses Lake

21,182

Ellensburg

18,348

Sunnyside

16,054

And to be fair, almost all of the cities on this list are served by Amtrak. (Granted, by a once-a-day train that's frequently late).

Spokane/Spokane Valley (one metro area), Richland/Pasco/Kennewick (one metro area) and Wenatchee are all on the Empire

Builder route.

Additionally, Moses Lake is 20 miles from the Ephrata stop (though w/o local connections, I suspect).

That leaves Yakima, Walla Walla, Pullman and Ellensburg. The latter three are college towns and could probably support some

sort of rail service. (I suspect Sunnyside's population is inflated by migrant workers, and I don't think it would support much

rail service).

Probably correct about Sunnyside. About five years ago, there was a proposal, made as part of a project by architectural landscaping students at WSU, to revive passenger rail service between Spokane and Pullman, home of WSU, a distance of 75 miles or so. The Washington DOT, our county commissioners, and our county Port Authority were all behind the proposal. Of course, they were all behind it probably knowing full well there was no money to fund the project.

 

[CHamilton]

Ellensburg also has a beautifully-restored depot that is ready to go--just add trains! All Aboard Washington met there last year, and we were very impressed with the work that has been done. Pictures available on the Friends of the Northern Pacific Depot's Facebook page.

As a result, most of the potential stops on a SEA-SPK line via Stampede Pass already have stations, and so the capital costs would be small.

 

[AC4400]

Ellensburg also has a beautifully-restored depot that is ready to go--just add trains! All Aboard Washington met there last year, and we were very impressed with the work that has been done. Pictures available on the Friends of the Northern Pacific Depot's Facebook page.

As a result, most of the potential stops on a SEA-SPK line via Stampede Pass already have stations, and so the capital costs would be small.

Who owns the track?

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Ellensburg also has a beautifully-restored depot that is ready to go--just add trains! All Aboard Washington met there last year, and we were very impressed with the work that has been done. Pictures available on the Friends of the Northern Pacific Depot's Facebook page.

As a result, most of the potential stops on a SEA-SPK line via Stampede Pass already have stations, and so the capital costs would be small.

Who owns the track?

BNSF

 

[X]

We had some amazing meals at a few places like that. The hotel* we stayed at provided some excellent dinner recommendations. They had menus for a bunch of local places, and would call and make you reservations. They also had some antique cars that they would use to drive you to dinner (and then come and pick you up when you were done - you could just tell your server at the restaurant and they would call back to the hotel for the car for you. AMAZING customer service).



'39 Cadillac by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

*The Hotel is the Cannery Pier Hotel. Amy found it online and it was absolutely first rate all the way. Out on a pier over the water, the view was incredible. The first night we were there we hung around in the hotel room and watched the Caps playoff hockey game that was on. Amy went down to the front desk to ask if there was a market nearby that we could grab some snacks at. The hotel gave her a basket, and filled it up with a bunch of sodas and snacks and said "Have these, if you need anything else, let us know and we'll get it!". Easily the best place I've ever stayed, and I can't wait to go back.

Here's the hotel - IIRC, all of the rooms are on the other side of the building and face the water:



The Hotel Under the Bridge by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

The hotel is about a mile from where we live. It had not been built yet or the waterfront jazzed up to make it a people place in this outdated USCG photo. Note in the center of the photo there is a 4-story condo over the water. Our digs are several blocks up from there in the trees where we have a view of the bridge from midspan to the WA side. We also have a closeup view of shipping chugging by slowly close to the shoreline as river and bar pilots are embarked/ disembarked.

[SIZE=medium]As a side note, during the Lewis and Clark becentennial, Amtrak offered reservations on this RDC from PDX. Sadly I was gone at the time and missed a chance to get in some rare miles.[/SIZE]

 

[X]

We had some amazing meals at a few places like that. The hotel* we stayed at provided some excellent dinner recommendations. They had menus for a bunch of local places, and would call and make you reservations. They also had some antique cars that they would use to drive you to dinner (and then come and pick you up when you were done - you could just tell your server at the restaurant and they would call back to the hotel for the car for you. AMAZING customer service).



'39 Cadillac by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

*The Hotel is the Cannery Pier Hotel. Amy found it online and it was absolutely first rate all the way. Out on a pier over the water, the view was incredible. The first night we were there we hung around in the hotel room and watched the Caps playoff hockey game that was on. Amy went down to the front desk to ask if there was a market nearby that we could grab some snacks at. The hotel gave her a basket, and filled it up with a bunch of sodas and snacks and said "Have these, if you need anything else, let us know and we'll get it!". Easily the best place I've ever stayed, and I can't wait to go back.

Here's the hotel - IIRC, all of the rooms are on the other side of the building and face the water:



The Hotel Under the Bridge by Ryan Stavely, on Flickr

The hotel is about a mile from where we live. It had not been built yet or the waterfront jazzed up to make it a people place in this outdated USCG photo. Note in the center of the photo there is a 4-story condo over the water. Our digs are several blocks up from there in the trees where we have a view of the bridge from midspan to the WA side. We also have a closeup view of shipping chugging by slowly close to the shoreline as river and bar pilots are embarked/ disembarked.

[SIZE=medium]As a side note, during the Lewis and Clark becentennial, Amtrak offered reservations on this RDC from PDX. Sadly I was gone at the time and missed a chance to get in some rare miles.[/SIZE]

 

[CHamilton]

I did get a chance to ride the Lewis & Clark train. Photos are here. It was a very pleasant journey, and I wish they had continued it.

 

[CHamilton]

From Facebook.
All Aboard Washington shared Erin Condit's photo.

The Outdoor Lights are up and illuminating the Northern Pacific Railway Depot in Ellensburg, WA for the first time in a generation. Slowly but surely the depot is getting restored and rehabilitated for the safety and benefit of Kittitas County residents and visitors.

 

[Guest]

I am a central Washington student and I can tell you that a train through Ellensburg would receive a lot of business. Students constantly travel to either Spokane or Seattle to visit family on weekends and the crowd would be even bigger in the winter when mountain passes are treacherous. I have a car and would choose train travel over the 2+ hr drive any day and if it connected to Seattle station I would use it to travel down to Vancouver, Wa on a regular basis also.

You should look into All Aboard Washington and see what you can do to help bring that about.
I'm sure Charlie will be along presently to give some more concrete suggestions.

I tried and tried to get in touch with "All Aboard Washington", since I used to be a member of Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers. All Aboard Washington never returned my requests for information. I looked into privately operating passenger service between Kansas City, MO and Seattle, via Pasco and Auburn on this very line, with daily service departing 6pm and arriving 6am Auburn and the same times at Pasco, running as an alternate, commuter and overnight business schedule to AMTRAK's trains between Pasco and Shelby, MT. ...Had the cars lined up to run. ...Even had advertisers lined up to fund the trains with pro-business ads to subsidize shortfalls in fickle passenger revenue, but, BNSF advised me that the Association of American Railroads has "Rule 8" that prohibits advertising on rail cars! That was the end of that! ...Seems that rail and the rest of the American transportation system is rigged to specifically deter privately-operated rail passenger service. That way, they can support the mantra that "no passenger rail system in the world operates without (involuntary and forced) taxpayer subsidy", and so that the aviation, Big Oil, highway contractors and Big Auto can keep their grip on the (rich man's only) American economy without the utter and natural efficiency of rail passenger service taking the wind out of the sails of their wasteful, expensive (to the passenger and shipper), and therefore lucrative (for those invested in) automotive and aviation monopoly on our transportation needs.

 

[CHamilton]

I tried and tried to get in touch with "All Aboard Washington", since I used to be a member of Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers. All Aboard Washington never returned my requests for information.

You may reach All Aboard Washington through the contacts on their website at http://allaboardwashington.org/contact-us/, their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Allaboardwashington , and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/allaboardwarail

 

[Paulus]

I tried and tried to get in touch with "All Aboard Washington", since I used to be a member of Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers. All Aboard Washington never returned my requests for information. I looked into privately operating passenger service between Kansas City, MO and Seattle, via Pasco and Auburn on this very line, with daily service departing 6pm and arriving 6am Auburn and the same times at Pasco, running as an alternate, commuter and overnight business schedule to AMTRAK's trains between Pasco and Shelby, MT. ...Had the cars lined up to run. ...Even had advertisers lined up to fund the trains with pro-business ads to subsidize shortfalls in fickle passenger revenue, but, BNSF advised me that the Association of American Railroads has "Rule 8" that prohibits advertising on rail cars! That was the end of that! ...Seems that rail and the rest of the American transportation system is rigged to specifically deter privately-operated rail passenger service. That way, they can support the mantra that "no passenger rail system in the world operates without (involuntary and forced) taxpayer subsidy", and so that the aviation, Big Oil, highway contractors and Big Auto can keep their grip on the (rich man's only) American economy without the utter and natural efficiency of rail passenger service taking the wind out of the sails of their wasteful, expensive (to the passenger and shipper), and therefore lucrative (for those invested in) automotive and aviation monopoly on our transportation needs.

 

[Ryan]

 

[user 1215]

I kinda find it funny that an anonymous guest who talks about collecting revenue from coporate sponsors to fund his private (for profit) company then rants about weathly people.

Now then, from the Association of American Railroad's website, the only reference to "Rule 8" is regarding slack adjustment. Need a subscription to actually read the rule.

I don't think any North American railroad company can dictate "no passenger rail system in the world [really??? The WORLD???] operates without (involuntary and forced) taxpayer subsidy". Plenty of corporations in Japan run their own light rail systems without public subsidies.