Northern Puget Sound by Rail, Bus and Boat

[Matthew H Fish]

I just finished a five day, four night long trip, and I have a lot to talk about! I will be editing and posting videos for each day, probably about once a day.

This is my video showing my trip northward, on May 27th. I took a city bus from Corvallis to Albany, took an Oregon POINT/Amtrak Thruway bus to Portland, and then got on a train proper all the way to Mount Vernon.
The video does a pretty good job covering the trip, although as is often the case, there are places I focused on some things more than others.
There are a few important takeaways, though.

1. This was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, so the train was sold out. But in general, most of my experience with both rail and long distance bus transit in the past few months is that they are usually booked close to solid. Seeing how many people were taking the train, it makes sense for Amtrak to run more trains, at least from a demand standpoint. Also, from this trip, I wonder why none of the Amtrak Cascades go the entire route--- there are Seattle to Eugene trains, and Portland to Vancouver BC trains, but no Eugene to Vancouver BC trains. I know there are probably many logistical reasons for this, but it still seems to be something to aim for. Or, if the border crossing is the issue, Eugene to Bellingham.
2. The Amtrak Cascades isn't a "long distance" route...but it isn't a short route either! It is over 450 miles on its entire route, counting the Canadian portion. I ride the Cascades often for what amounts to "commuting" travel between Portland and Eugene, but taking almost the entire route made me realize how big it is. This was also meaningfully for me personally because I am a Northwesterner who has travelled a lot in the Pacific Northwest---but has gone north of Seattle only around 10 times in my life. Before taking this trip, I would have thought of the Northern Puget Sound area as basically the same thing as the areas I was familiar with. This trip made me realize that the area north of Seattle, and north of Everett, was both further away, and different, from what I was familiar with. This is also important for people wishing to schedule travel north of Seattle---there are only two trains and two buses a day, as opposed to the five trains between Portland and Seattle. Mount Vernon and Bellingham are nice places to visit, but they might not be easy places to reach for day trips.
3. There are some small towns along the route. And there are places between Vancouver and Olympia where I was surprised that I couldn't even pick up any radio stations. Compared to many places I've been, I think of the I-5 corridor as basically totally settled, but there is a lot of woodland and natural areas that the train passes through around Kelso and Centralia. This is also important in terms of the trains' passenger base: the train is usually thought of as the Portland-Seattle train, but the passengers, and the political support, also comes from people in towns like Stanwood and Kelso in Washington, and towns in the mid-Willamette Valley in Oregon.
   

I probably had some other points! Feel free to question or comment, and tomorrow I will have more travel videos to share.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

This video is from Day 2 of my trip to Mount Vernon, and my first complete visit there:

As I mention in this video, I was actually born in Mount Vernon! But have spent virtually no time there, so it was still a "new" place for me. Since it was a new place, I spend a lot of time walking around and sometimes don't find what I am looking for.
From a transit point of view, there are a few things to mention:

1. The downtown, with shops, dining and entertainment, is located directly next to the Skagit Transit Center/Amtrak station. If someone is so inclined, they could take the Amtrak Cascades from Seattle, have some ice cream and walk along the river in Mount Vernon, and then head back to Seattle! Someone doing a long distance trip could even work this into a longer trip---if you are coming into Seattle from the east on the Empire Builder, it would be pretty easy to swing up north for the afternoon, before continuing south the next day.
   1a. But also, due to the current Amtrak Cascades schedule, this isn't really easy to do because there are two trains and two buses north south a day, so it takes some planning. Significantly, from Mount Vernon, the Cascades reaches Seattle after the Coast Starlight leaves. With expansion of Cascades service, it might be possible to work this into more trips
2. While the downtown is cute, and fun to walk around---it is a "theme park" downtown. The boutiques and restaurants tend to be impractical. And, for example, there are no grocery stores reachable from downtown. And the downtown area is surrounded on every side by freeways or parking lots. So at first, seeing the transit center and the downtown, this seems like a walkable, transit oriented city perfect for travellers---but it is a mirage. Outside of that shopping district, the city quickly becomes not very friendly for pedestrians or travellers. Including, most of the hotels are located a while outside of downtown, with lots of 6 lane highways to cross.
3. The local transit facilities I saw were incredibly clean, well-maintained, spiffy, modern---and underutilized. The buses run on time and use an app for payment. The bus stops have nice signs and good shelters. The bus routes have many connections. But because this is a typical road-centered US small city, there isn't a lot of riders. And some places are difficult to get to, especially connections outside of Mount Vernon, which I will talk about in following posts.

So from a transit/travel perspective, I saw a lot of potential here, and parts are nice to visit. However, it doesn't have quite the access it seemed to have at first.

 

[JayPea]

I live in Eastern Washington and have been through Mt. Vernon a few times, though have never stopped and explored the town.

 

[Willbridge]

I just finished a five day, four night long trip, and I have a lot to talk about! I will be editing and posting videos for each day, probably about once a day.

This is my video showing my trip northward, on May 27th. I took a city bus from Corvallis to Albany, took an Oregon POINT/Amtrak Thruway bus to Portland, and then got on a train proper all the way to Mount Vernon.
The video does a pretty good job covering the trip, although as is often the case, there are places I focused on some things more than others.
There are a few important takeaways, though.

1. This was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, so the train was sold out. But in general, most of my experience with both rail and long distance bus transit in the past few months is that they are usually booked close to solid. Seeing how many people were taking the train, it makes sense for Amtrak to run more trains, at least from a demand standpoint. Also, from this trip, I wonder why none of the Amtrak Cascades go the entire route--- there are Seattle to Eugene trains, and Portland to Vancouver BC trains, but no Eugene to Vancouver BC trains. I know there are probably many logistical reasons for this, but it still seems to be something to aim for. Or, if the border crossing is the issue, Eugene to Bellingham.

I probably had some other points! Feel free to question or comment, and tomorrow I will have more travel videos to share.

Note: Tukwila evolved from a proposal to stop trains at Longacres Racetrack. Besides being near Sea-Tac it is a hub for transit buses. Before there was a WSDOT I was loaned from ODOT to do a field trip and photograph it, so the idea must have been circulating for some time.

https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/stops-stations/tukwila-station
A through train EUG<>VAC would work best with a third train north of SEA in midday in each direction. (The original GN Internationals had three trains daily, in addition to a local train that handled milk, mail and stopped in smaller towns, such as Ferndale.) WSDOT is focused on getting PDX<>SEA improvements done. Improvements on the line north of Seattle have focused on stabilizing slide areas. And unlike PDX<>SEA which has been double track since before we were born, SEA<>VAC includes heavily-trafficked single-track segments.

SEA<>VAC was tried as a connection with the Coast Starlight, but it was pushed into very marginal hours at Vancouver, especially if it was held for connections from Train 14.

While I've traveled this line and I-5 a number of times I've never visited Mt. Vernon. Thanks for posting this travelogue.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

I live in Eastern Washington and have been through Mt. Vernon a few times, though have never stopped and explored the town.

Well, it might be an interesting place to stay. There is some pleasant stuff downtown. But as this and some following videos will show, it is not something specifically important to stop and see---especially since there is other stuff in the area that is probably more interesting. Which I will be posting...soon.

 

[Trollopian]

There is some pleasant stuff downtown. But as this and some following videos will show, it is not something specifically important to stop and see...

Except the birthplace of Matthew H. Fish! I hope there's a plaque.

 

[Maglev]

I live nearby on Orcas Island, and Mount Vernon is our nearest city. That's where Lowe's is located (Costco is right across the river in Burlington), and I regrettably spent a few days in the hospital there. There is a brew restaurant right near the station, but not much downtown anymore. I look forward to hearing of your adventures in the area!

https://www.skagitbrew.com/

 

[Asher]

Well, it might be an interesting place to stay. There is some pleasant stuff downtown. But as this and some following videos will show, it is not something specifically important to stop and see---especially since there is other stuff in the area that is probably more interesting. Which I will be posting...soon.

It’s all good. Hoping you will maybe cross deception pass, go on down to Coupville and catch the ferry to Port Townsend. But, any direction will do.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

A through train EUG<>VAC would work best with a third train north of SEA in midday in each direction. (The original GN Internationals had three trains daily, in addition to a local train that handled milk, mail and stopped in smaller towns, such as Ferndale.) WSDOT is focused on getting PDX<>SEA improvements done. Improvements on the line north of Seattle have focused on stabilizing slide areas. And unlike PDX<>SEA which has been double track since before we were born, SEA<>VAC includes heavily-trafficked single-track segments.

It does make a lot more sense to focus on the Portland to Seattle section, since that obviously has a lot more people. And, existing infrastructure. I did note the double tracking in my first video, which is why, unlike the Willamette Valley section, we didn't have to stop to let anyone pass.
There is certainly demand though! If the infrastructure issues could be solved with a magic wand, the trains would fill up.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

This video is a short addendum to the Mount Vernon video: I go to Burlington, a city that is just north of Mount Vernon, across the Skagit River.
It was not very fun.
Although I am obviously a person who likes transit and walking, unlike some people, I don't get snotty that cities usually have an area with low density retail. Big box stores exist. But in this case, the highway seemed to last forever. Looking at it now on the map it was only around a mile and a half. On a good day, that should be about a 25 minute walk. But it was a long ways to trudge across until I got to the small downtown area (which was nice).
The reason I am including this in a video about trains and transit is this shows the contrast between the easy access to long distance transit in the area with how car-centric local travel is.
This is also relevant to the somewhat-related area of the Pacific Northwest's current housing situation. There are some theories that believe that the level of land-use protection in the Pacific Northwests is responsible for the high cost of housing. But in contrast to that, retails areas like this use a lot of space---and some of it, like the mall and the K-Mart are now closed. Acres and acres of abandoned parking lots that could fit in a lot of housing!

 

[Matthew H Fish]

This is more fun, and a lot more directly Amtrak related!
Funny story: when I originally planned the trip, it was for two complete days...and then I realized that Monday the 29th was Memorial Day, and that I couldn't get where I wanted to go on that day. So I extended the trip one day, and used Monday to go to Bellingham, since Amtrak runs every day of the year. Bellingham is just a half hour north of Mount Vernon on the Amtrak Cascades, and is the last stop before the Canadian border. It is a fairly large University town, around 100,000 people, and has generally lots of good energy and fun stuff going on. As well as natural beauty and history. Also, the usage of public transit and walkable areas seem to be much more integrated across the city than in Mount Vernon.
One thing about Bellingham though, for Amtrak travellers---the station is in the Fairhaven district, a commercial district a few miles south of "downtown" Bellingham. Its basically a second downtown, but if you want to visit the main downtown, it is a few miles away.
A few takeaways about Bellingham:

1. As I mentioned with Mount Vernon, the two buses and two trains a day make this a destination that is easy to reach for people in the Seattle area, or people who are taking a long distance trip and want to take a detour. In addition, this is the Alaska Marine Highway terminal in the lower 48, so if someone is doing something ambitious like Empire Builder->Amtrak Cascades->Alaska, you will pass through here---and might consider adding a day or two here.
   1a. As mentioned with Mount Vernon though, the schedules aren't quite flexible enough that you can just come and go without planning. Especially because the Amtrak Cascades trains (as opposed to the Thruway buses), leave in both directions in the morning and come back at night. This may change as more routes are added.
2. Fairhaven Station in Bellingham is an Amtrak Cascades station where you can hop off and you are immediately surrounded by amenities. There is actually a beach less than 5 minutes away! And the Fairhaven dining district is also about 5 minutes away! In addition, Bellingham itself seems to be designed to be transit and pedestrian friendly. The only catch is that downtown Bellingham is not by the station.
3. Of course, this was Memorial Day, but as with most Amtrak Cascades I have taken lately, it was full. Hopefully there will be more trains soon!

 

[Willbridge]

This video is a short addendum to the Mount Vernon video: I go to Burlington, a city that is just north of Mount Vernon, across the Skagit River.
It was not very fun.
Although I am obviously a person who likes transit and walking, unlike some people, I don't get snotty that cities usually have an area with low density retail. Big box stores exist. But in this case, the highway seemed to last forever. Looking at it now on the map it was only around a mile and a half. On a good day, that should be about a 25 minute walk. But it was a long ways to trudge across until I got to the small downtown area (which was nice).
The reason I am including this in a video about trains and transit is this shows the contrast between the easy access to long distance transit in the area with how car-centric local travel is.
This is also relevant to the somewhat-related area of the Pacific Northwest's current housing situation. There are some theories that believe that the level of land-use protection in the Pacific Northwests is responsible for the high cost of housing. But in contrast to that, retails areas like this use a lot of space---and some of it, like the mall and the K-Mart are now closed. Acres and acres of abandoned parking lots that could fit in a lot of housing!

Note: When the streamlined Internationals were running thrice daily, only the mail/milk train stopped in Burlington. When that all-stops train was withdrawn, at least one International in each direction stopped in Burlington.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

So while seeing Mount Vernon and Bellingham was nice, the main reason I planned this trip was to see the San Juan Islands, an archipelago of unbridged islands in Washington State. (Technically speaking, it isn't in the Puget Sound, but for practical purposes, it is). The San Juan Islands are also a county, and are one of three counties in the Lower 48 without ground access. They have a population of around 18,000 people, which swells considerably with tourists. There are hundreds of islands, but four of them have regular ferry service. The largest town in the islands is Friday Harbor, where I visited.
Since they are not connected to the mainland by bridges, the only way to visit the island is by ferry or airplane. In my case, I took the Washington State Ferries from the Anacortes terminal, which is reached by two buses from the Mount Vernon Amtrak station.
So there is obviously a lot to talk about, but just from a travel/transit point of view, there are a few things that stick out.
One is that there is no coordinated service by Amtrak to the Ferry Terminal in Anacortes. It is 20 miles between them, so something that would be crossed quite easily by a small bus coordinated with incoming Cascades trains and thruways. (At least some of them). Especially since the San Juan Islands are a big tourist destination.
A second transit related point is that transportation to and from the islands is really car heavy, which is in contrast to the islands being delicate natural areas. The ferry loading area in Anacortes was intensive and a little ugly, to be honest. And in Friday Harbor, which I thought would be a quaint town, I was greeted by a traffic jam. There is no public transportation there. Which would be normal in a town of 2400 people---but this is a town with a lot of tourism. Cars are also time intensive when loading and unloading the ferry. I am not saying that they should ban cars, but maybe just a little bit of encouragement to have people get to the islands other ways would be helpful. (It would also benefit the island residents: since commercial goods come in by ferry, every car on that ferry means that the trucks carrying food will be stuck, and will charge more...driving up the cost of living).
Obviously I only went there for one day, so I might not know what I am talking about, but I was surprised by the difference between the area's reputation for pristine beauty and the grind that transportation was in places.
So, a few takeaways:

1. The San Juan Islands are a unique natural and social area, and if you get a chance to visit them, you should! The Washington State Ferries are also a great travel experience, as they are large, comfortable, and usually pretty fun! The "Train energy" is present there, but even more so because you can socialize with the wind and the ocean as a backdrop!
2. Currently, Amtrak doesn't offer connecting service to the ferry terminals from its Cascades routes. It is pretty easy to get to Anacortes from Mount Vernon for the more adventurous traveller, but its not at the level where someone in (or passing through) Seattle could just pop up for the day and then turn around.
3. The San Juans are a prime tourist destination---and they are priced like it! The ferry isn't too expensive itself (about $15 for a passenger, and free on the way back), but food on the ferry is expensive. So is food in Friday Harbor! And so are hotels in Friday Harbor. Which is too bad, because since it takes some time to get there, it might make sense to stay overnight---but that gets expensive quickly.
4. Friday Harbor doesn't have public transportation, which also might make it harder for a train traveller to get around the islands. There are private taxis and the like, but no easy system of hop-on/hop-off buses. Related to this, the areas around the ferry terminals in Anacortes and Friday Harbor are anything but quaint.

So that is just a little of what I have to say about the ferries and the San Juans. Feel free to ask questions!

 

[Northwestern]

I enjoyed your videos, Matthew.

I see you took a POINT bus to Portland. How was that experience? One of these days, I would like a trip, on the Starlight, to Klamath Falls then a POINT bus to Medford and Ashland.

Did you get a glimpse of the Tacoma Dome, when you were on the Cascades, from the train? Really too bad they couldn't retain the station for Amtrak trains. There is a glass museum now within the old station. My sister visited it and said it's worthwhile.

I once stayed overnight in Everett, WA. The largest public marina on the west coast Lots of boats along the waterfront.

In the late 1980's or 1990's, I took a Cascade train from Portland to Mt. Vernon. Rented a car in Mount Vernon and drove up highway 9 to Chilliwack, BC to visit a friend who was an amateur radio operator. He had a small house and backyard where he had a a huge yagi/quad combination antenna. It no doubt didn't please his neighbors. I used to have a noon meeting schedule with him and a couple of friends from Arizona. I was living in San Jose, CA, at the time, and my Chilliwack friend had the loudest station on the band.

On the way up from Mount Vernon to Chilliwack, I cut east to highway 9 and then to the BC border. Over to BC via the Sumas entrance. A very remote border crossing and I felt I was in the wilderness getting there. Almost spooky on how distant even a gas station was along the route.

On the way back, I had a nice breakfast in Anacortes, WA then drove over to La Conner, WA, nearby. La Conner is kind of a small scale version of Carmel, CA. Lots of artsy-craftsy shops. I don't know what it is like, today. I hope it hasn't become as commercialized as Carmel.

Richard

 

[TrackWalker]

Ah, yes. The San Juan's consisting of 172 islands depending on the tide.

 

[Augusta_H]

I just finished a five day, four night long trip, and I have a lot to talk about! I will be editing and posting videos for each day, probably about once a day.

This is my video showing my trip northward, on May 27th. I took a city bus from Corvallis to Albany, took an Oregon POINT/Amtrak Thruway bus to Portland, and then got on a train proper all the way to Mount Vernon.
The video does a pretty good job covering the trip, although as is often the case, there are places I focused on some things more than others.
There are a few important takeaways, though.

1. This was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, so the train was sold out. But in general, most of my experience with both rail and long distance bus transit in the past few months is that they are usually booked close to solid. Seeing how many people were taking the train, it makes sense for Amtrak to run more trains, at least from a demand standpoint. Also, from this trip, I wonder why none of the Amtrak Cascades go the entire route--- there are Seattle to Eugene trains, and Portland to Vancouver BC trains, but no Eugene to Vancouver BC trains. I know there are probably many logistical reasons for this, but it still seems to be something to aim for. Or, if the border crossing is the issue, Eugene to Bellingham.
2. The Amtrak Cascades isn't a "long distance" route...but it isn't a short route either! It is over 450 miles on its entire route, counting the Canadian portion. I ride the Cascades often for what amounts to "commuting" travel between Portland and Eugene, but taking almost the entire route made me realize how big it is. This was also meaningfully for me personally because I am a Northwesterner who has travelled a lot in the Pacific Northwest---but has gone north of Seattle only around 10 times in my life. Before taking this trip, I would have thought of the Northern Puget Sound area as basically the same thing as the areas I was familiar with. This trip made me realize that the area north of Seattle, and north of Everett, was both further away, and different, from what I was familiar with. This is also important for people wishing to schedule travel north of Seattle---there are only two trains and two buses a day, as opposed to the five trains between Portland and Seattle. Mount Vernon and Bellingham are nice places to visit, but they might not be easy places to reach for day trips.
3. There are some small towns along the route. And there are places between Vancouver and Olympia where I was surprised that I couldn't even pick up any radio stations. Compared to many places I've been, I think of the I-5 corridor as basically totally settled, but there is a lot of woodland and natural areas that the train passes through around Kelso and Centralia. This is also important in terms of the trains' passenger base: the train is usually thought of as the Portland-Seattle train, but the passengers, and the political support, also comes from people in towns like Stanwood and Kelso in Washington, and towns in the mid-Willamette Valley in Oregon.

I probably had some other points! Feel free to question or comment, and tomorrow I will have more travel videos to share.

I have never been to the PNW. My parents took us almost everywhere when we were growing up. My youngest brother lives in Bellingham, and I want to visit him by train. I need to see my sister, who used to live in Birmingham. When her husband died suddenly in 2021, her son and daughter whisked her away to Houston to live in a memory facility 15 minutes away from her son.

This is more fun, and a lot more directly Amtrak related!
Funny story: when I originally planned the trip, it was for two complete days...and then I realized that Monday the 29th was Memorial Day, and that I couldn't get where I wanted to go on that day. So I extended the trip one day, and used Monday to go to Bellingham, since Amtrak runs every day of the year. Bellingham is just a half hour north of Mount Vernon on the Amtrak Cascades, and is the last stop before the Canadian border. It is a fairly large University town, around 100,000 people, and has generally lots of good energy and fun stuff going on. As well as natural beauty and history. Also, the usage of public transit and walkable areas seem to be much more integrated across the city than in Mount Vernon.
One thing about Bellingham though, for Amtrak travellers---the station is in the Fairhaven district, a commercial district a few miles south of "downtown" Bellingham. Its basically a second downtown, but if you want to visit the main downtown, it is a few miles away.
A few takeaways about Bellingham:

1. As I mentioned with Mount Vernon, the two buses and two trains a day make this a destination that is easy to reach for people in the Seattle area, or people who are taking a long distance trip and want to take a detour. In addition, this is the Alaska Marine Highway terminal in the lower 48, so if someone is doing something ambitious like Empire Builder->Amtrak Cascades->Alaska, you will pass through here---and might consider adding a day or two here.
   1a. As mentioned with Mount Vernon though, the schedules aren't quite flexible enough that you can just come and go without planning. Especially because the Amtrak Cascades trains (as opposed to the Thruway buses), leave in both directions in the morning and come back at night. This may change as more routes are added.
2. Fairhaven Station in Bellingham is an Amtrak Cascades station where you can hop off and you are immediately surrounded by amenities. There is actually a beach less than 5 minutes away! And the Fairhaven dining district is also about 5 minutes away! In addition, Bellingham itself seems to be designed to be transit and pedestrian friendly. The only catch is that downtown Bellingham is not by the station.
3. Of course, this was Memorial Day, but as with most Amtrak Cascades I have taken lately, it was full. Hopefully there will be more trains soon!

One of my brothers lives in Bellingham. I can hardly wait to visit him. I've never been there. He would always visit Alabama from Bellingham to see family and then drive my sister's car to Athens, GA, where he got his MFA and made many friends. I can't wait to see him!



Thank you so much for your videos. I enjoy them!

 

[Maglev]

I am enjoying the report and videos!

I have a few more comments on transportation to and from the San Juan Islands. If one is traveling by air, there is a bus service connecting the Anacortes ferry terminal to Bellingham International and SeaTac airports. Bellair Airporter Shuttle has frequent service, but does not stop in downtown Seattle. When I travel by Amtrak from Seattle King Street Station, I take the bus to the airport then catch the light rail back to downtown.

Even traveling by car, it the ferries from Orcas and Shaw islands do not connect with Amtrak Cascades. There is not enough time to drive from the ferry to Mount Vernon and find a parking spot for the morning trains, however there is an earlier ferry from Friday Harbor and Lopez that does connect. Heading to the San Juan Islands in the evening, the ferries only connect with Amtrak on Fridays in the summer.

I find the town of Friday Harbor to be very quaint and walkable from the ferry terminal. My wife and I have made several trips there without a car (walk-on passengers travel free within the San Juan Islands).

 

[Matthew H Fish]

I am enjoying the report and videos!

I have a few more comments on transportation to and from the San Juan Islands. If one is traveling by air, there is a bus service connecting the Anacortes ferry terminal to Bellingham International and SeaTac airports. Bellair Airporter Shuttle has frequent service, but does not stop in downtown Seattle. When I travel by Amtrak from Seattle King Street Station, I take the bus to the airport then catch the light rail back to downtown.

Even traveling by car, it the ferries from Orcas and Shaw islands do not connect with Amtrak Cascades. There is not enough time to drive from the ferry to Mount Vernon and find a parking spot for the morning trains, however there is an earlier ferry from Friday Harbor and Lopez that does connect. Heading to the San Juan Islands in the evening, the ferries only connect with Amtrak on Fridays in the summer.

I find the town of Friday Harbor to be very quaint and walkable from the ferry terminal. My wife and I have made several trips there without a car (walk-on passengers travel free within the San Juan Islands).

Yep! The connections are there, but they are all complicated. If I had known about the airporter service, I might have done a different trip. But staying in Mount Vernon worked out in the long run, because I got to see Bellingham more easily. But I could have taken an Airporter to Anacortes, and it would have been much easier to go to the islands. (Except, of course, the interisland ferry wasn't running that day).
When I was planning the trip, and didn't realize how complicated the ferry schedules were,
I guess, overall, I would say that for someone who is trying to take an epic trip and see everything, and who doesn't mind an adventure, the San Juans are a good place to see because they are so unique. For someone who doesn't mind running to make connections, and especially if someone is doing something like backpacking/camping with a 30 day rail pass, I would say it is a great place to visit. But as it is now, the schedules don't quite work easily enough for most travellers.

 

[Willbridge]

This is more fun, and a lot more directly Amtrak related!
Funny story: when I originally planned the trip, it was for two complete days...and then I realized that Monday the 29th was Memorial Day, and that I couldn't get where I wanted to go on that day. So I extended the trip one day, and used Monday to go to Bellingham, since Amtrak runs every day of the year. Bellingham is just a half hour north of Mount Vernon on the Amtrak Cascades, and is the last stop before the Canadian border. It is a fairly large University town, around 100,000 people, and has generally lots of good energy and fun stuff going on. As well as natural beauty and history. Also, the usage of public transit and walkable areas seem to be much more integrated across the city than in Mount Vernon.
One thing about Bellingham though, for Amtrak travellers---the station is in the Fairhaven district, a commercial district a few miles south of "downtown" Bellingham. Its basically a second downtown, but if you want to visit the main downtown, it is a few miles away.
A few takeaways about Bellingham:...................

Here are some scenes of the Bellingham station in 2010. I might have missed it in the video, but is the coffee shop gone? A lot of amenities like that disappeared in the COVID lockdown.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

Here are some scenes of the Bellingham station in 2010. I might have missed it in the video, but is the coffee shop gone? A lot of amenities like that disappeared in the COVID lockdown.

I think they were still open, but since I was travelling on Memorial Day, they weren't open when I was there.
In general, it seems that most facilities in long distant transit have recovered, and in fact, are quite busy!

 

[Matthew H Fish]

This is my final video from my five day trip, showing my trip back on the Amtrak Cascades from Mount Vernon to Albany:

After travelling for five days, my energy level was lower, and this trip is a lot of raw footage without much commentary. Maybe not interesting to everyone, but if you want a record of almost the entire Amtrak Cascades route, this is it! The Portland to Albany portion is by Thruway bus. The Tualatin Park and Ride is not the most scenic Amtrak stop, to say the least.
So, here is a few things to sum up everything I saw on this five day trip:

1. The Pacific Northwest region served by the Amtrak Cascades is really big! This might seem obvious, but there are just so many things to see between Eugene and Vancouver. And while the Pacific Northwest has a lot of commonalities, the terrain and settlement pattern in the Willamette Valley is different than in the Puget Sound region. So it is possible to see somewhere very different on a day trip. Even as a native, there are lots of cities that I have only passed through.
2. Unfortunately, along most of the Amtrak Cascades route, while the corridor service is easy, lateral travel off the corridor is still not something that happens automagically. My trip to the San Juan Islands is an example of that. It actually is possible to take the Amtrak Cascades up from Seattle, get off at Mount Vernon, go all the way to Friday Harbor and back, and then catch the evening Amtrak Cascades to Vancouver. It is possible, but it involves a lot of close connections. Of course, the San Juan Islands are an isolated location, but the same would be true of someone going to Astoria or Hood River or Snoqualmie---maybe it can be done, but the dream of a cross-country traveller being able to hop on and off to see these places is a long way aways.
3. Related to this, train travel and other long distance travel seems to have bounced back a lot, post-pandemic. This doesn't seem to be the case for local travel. I was travelling on Memorial Day Weekend, but for the past few months, almost all the Amtrak, Flix and Greyhound I have taken have been full. This isn't true of local transit. And many of the destinations off of the Amtrak Cascades are only served by local transit that has difficult or infrequent service.

So, of course, Amtrak has a lot on their plate, and there are lots of logistical and staffing problems --- as do other transit agencies, as we saw with the Washington State Ferry schedules. Hopefully the increase in service coming to the Amtrak Cascades will make this corridor a lot easier to see. At least one train that goes the entire route would also be helpful. Our theoretical tourists travelling the country might be more likely to stop in Eugene and see the sights if it didn't mean having to take a bus through the Tualatin Park and Ride. Direct Amtrak connecting service to certain destinations, like the Anacortes Ferry Terminal, would probably also encourage tourists. And of course, for many reasons, towns that are enthusiastic about long distance transit showing just as much adaptation of local and semi-local transit, would also be a good thing.
So those are just a few of my observations.

 

[Bob Dylan]

So while seeing Mount Vernon and Bellingham was nice, the main reason I planned this trip was to see the San Juan Islands, an archipelago of unbridged islands in Washington State. (Technically speaking, it isn't in the Puget Sound, but for practical purposes, it is). The San Juan Islands are also a county, and are one of three counties in the Lower 48 without ground access. They have a population of around 18,000 people, which swells considerably with tourists. There are hundreds of islands, but four of them have regular ferry service. The largest town in the islands is Friday Harbor, where I visited.
Since they are not connected to the mainland by bridges, the only way to visit the island is by ferry or airplane. In my case, I took the Washington State Ferries from the Anacortes terminal, which is reached by two buses from the Mount Vernon Amtrak station.
So there is obviously a lot to talk about, but just from a travel/transit point of view, there are a few things that stick out.
One is that there is no coordinated service by Amtrak to the Ferry Terminal in Anacortes. It is 20 miles between them, so something that would be crossed quite easily by a small bus coordinated with incoming Cascades trains and thruways. (At least some of them). Especially since the San Juan Islands are a big tourist destination.
A second transit related point is that transportation to and from the islands is really car heavy, which is in contrast to the islands being delicate natural areas. The ferry loading area in Anacortes was intensive and a little ugly, to be honest. And in Friday Harbor, which I thought would be a quaint town, I was greeted by a traffic jam. There is no public transportation there. Which would be normal in a town of 2400 people---but this is a town with a lot of tourism. Cars are also time intensive when loading and unloading the ferry. I am not saying that they should ban cars, but maybe just a little bit of encouragement to have people get to the islands other ways would be helpful. (It would also benefit the island residents: since commercial goods come in by ferry, every car on that ferry means that the trucks carrying food will be stuck, and will charge more...driving up the cost of living).
Obviously I only went there for one day, so I might not know what I am talking about, but I was surprised by the difference between the area's reputation for pristine beauty and the grind that transportation was in places.
So, a few takeaways:

1. The San Juan Islands are a unique natural and social area, and if you get a chance to visit them, you should! The Washington State Ferries are also a great travel experience, as they are large, comfortable, and usually pretty fun! The "Train energy" is present there, but even more so because you can socialize with the wind and the ocean as a backdrop!
2. Currently, Amtrak doesn't offer connecting service to the ferry terminals from its Cascades routes. It is pretty easy to get to Anacortes from Mount Vernon for the more adventurous traveller, but its not at the level where someone in (or passing through) Seattle could just pop up for the day and then turn around.
3. The San Juans are a prime tourist destination---and they are priced like it! The ferry isn't too expensive itself (about $15 for a passenger, and free on the way back), but food on the ferry is expensive. So is food in Friday Harbor! And so are hotels in Friday Harbor. Which is too bad, because since it takes some time to get there, it might make sense to stay overnight---but that gets expensive quickly.
4. Friday Harbor doesn't have public transportation, which also might make it harder for a train traveller to get around the islands. There are private taxis and the like, but no easy system of hop-on/hop-off buses. Related to this, the areas around the ferry terminals in Anacortes and Friday Harbor are anything but quaint.

So that is just a little of what I have to say about the ferries and the San Juans. Feel free to ask questions!

I have friends that live on Lopez Island ( Seattle ex-pats) and an Auer also lives in the San Juans.

I have visited many times, they are wonderful places in the Summer!

I totally agree that public Transportation could be much better Co-ordinated, and the areas around the Ferry Landings could be much improved.

Banning Tourists Vehicles ( except Bikes)would be ideal, and running shuttles to/from the Ferry Terminals is a No Brainer!

 

[Matthew H Fish]

One other relevant thing to throw in about my Puget Sound trip.
I am curious about why the railroads were built in the area. It seems like they were built for a variety of reasons, including for resource extraction, for both timber and mining.
They are apparently still used for these purposes today, transporting raw materials to and from ports and terminals in the Puget Sound and Georgia Strait.
This is one of the contradictions of the region--- you can go to a cute, historic tourist town and a few miles away, there might be a gigantic industrial complex. Between Mount Vernon and Anacortes, there is a gigantic refinery complex.
This is also pretty significant because the region has a reputation for environmental consciousness---and Washington has taken a lot of steps to curtail carbon dioxide emissions, but the area's European settlement was based on often destructive resource extraction, and the economy is still dependent on that in places.

 

[Willbridge]

View attachment 32781View attachment 32782
One other relevant thing to throw in about my Puget Sound trip.
I am curious about why the railroads were built in the area. It seems like they were built for a variety of reasons, including for resource extraction, for both timber and mining.
They are apparently still used for these purposes today, transporting raw materials to and from ports and terminals in the Puget Sound and Georgia Strait.
This is one of the contradictions of the region--- you can go to a cute, historic tourist town and a few miles away, there might be a gigantic industrial complex. Between Mount Vernon and Anacortes, there is a gigantic refinery complex.
This is also pretty significant because the region has a reputation for environmental consciousness---and Washington has taken a lot of steps to curtail carbon dioxide emissions, but the area's European settlement was based on often destructive resource extraction, and the economy is still dependent on that in places.

That's part of how James Hill got the nickname "Empire Builder."

A lot of the industrial activity in the Pacific Northwest grew out of small companies that provided machinery, transportation equipment, engineering services, etc. in support of the timber industry, shipping, and mining.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

Banning Tourists Vehicles ( except Bikes)would be ideal, and running shuttles to/from the Ferry Terminals is a No Brainer!

The first part of this is one of those many game theory type problems that come up with transit. Because for the tourist businesses on the islands, they obviously want people in their vehicles so they can visit their businesses, especially bed and breakfasts and resorts that are some miles away from the ferry terminals. But also, those same business owners probably realize that too much congestion is going to discourage visitors who like the island because it is supposed to be a relaxing place, not a traffic jam. But who would want to take the plunge into turning the islands into a restricted vehicle zone?
Of course, in this situation, there is also a carrot, like you mentioned: more shuttles. Also, of course, maybe having some passenger-only ferries?
Also, I just visited for one day, so I don't know all the factors about transportation in the area.