EVERETT, Wash. — Anyone who’s thinking of taking the train to Vancouver, B.C., for the 2010 Winter Olympics might want to make a reservation now.
The two Amtrak Cascades trains that make a daily trip into Vancouver are already about 50 percent booked for the Olympics, which begin Feb. 12. Usually, trains don’t start filling up until two weeks in advance, said Vickie Sheehan, a spokeswoman for the state Rail and Marine Office. Read the full story
Amtrak is now offering its first direct, round-trip train service between Portland and Vancouver, B.C., in preparation for the 2010 winter Olympics. The new route stops in Vancouver as part of the Cascades service line. It also means a second daily train runs between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.
The train service, which started Wednesday, is a pilot project that will run until after the 2010 Olympic and Paralympics winter games take place Feb. 12 to 28 and March 12 to 21 in Canada. After the games, the Washington State Department of Transportation will decide if the route is popular enough to continue the service.
The Vancouver games are expected to temporarily boost tourism and travel throughout the Pacific Northwest, including passenger rail traffic. But transportation officials also hope the new service will encourage more leisure and business travel in general on the state’s passenger rail system over the long term.
“If there’s sufficient interest in the train, it may well continue,” said Andrew Wood, deputy director for the department’s rail and marine division. “It’s important that as we start offering people more travel options that the rail mode of transport becomes more popular.”
Wood said the Canadian government has agreed to waive the $1,500 per day fee the new train would incur to cross the border until after the 2010 games. Without the additional fee, the new train costs the department roughly $3,000 per round trip to operate, or up to $100,000 per month. The Oregon Department of Transportation covers the cost of train operations in Oregon.
The agency will need to fill at least 100 seats each one-way trip to keep operating costs in the black, Wood said.
BY LIBBY TUCKER, Columbian.com >>> Read full story
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VANCOUVER — A second daily Amtrak Cascades train will start running between Vancouver and Seattle on Aug. 19.
The Canadian government approved the second service as a pilot project that will run until after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The Washington State Department of Transportation worked with Amtrak, BNSF Railway, U.S. Customs, and other stakeholders to get the service operating.
The new service will allow travelers from Oregon to have direct round-trip service between Portland and Vancouver.
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By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun, >>> continue reading
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Amtrak Cascades is adding a second daily train between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. The Canadian government announced that they are extending border clearance service for the second train — just in time for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The second train is a pilot project scheduled to begin in mid-August, 2009 and will run until after the Winter Games. Washington State Department of Transportation is working in conjunction with Amtrak.
The additional Amtrak Cascades train between Seattle and Vancouver, BC was originally scheduled to begin service in August 2008. But the Canadian Border Services Agency determined that a “cost recovery fee” of $1,500 per day for border services for the second train was required The cost recovery fee was not anticipated and is not funded, so the second train service was delayed while a resolution was worked out.
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By Sue Frause, Seattle Travel Examiner, >>> continue reading
An extra Amtrak train running between Seattle and Vancouver will arrive ahead of schedule after the Canada Border Services Agency agreed to drop a contentious fee.
The additional passenger train, originally scheduled to run between the two cities during the Olympics in February, is now set to begin in August and continue after the Games as a pilot project, officials of Amtrak and Canada’s ministry of public safety said Friday.
“Amtrak is very excited to participate in this, and truly is looking forward to the startup of the second frequency to Vancouver in preparation for the Olympics,” spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
“We’ve always been in favour of that second frequency,” Graham said. “We were just waiting for Washington and the B.C. government to iron out all the various issues.”
Amtrak, the state of Washington and the Canada Border Services Agency had been been negotiating for months.
The border services agency had insisted Amtrak cover the costs of border service agents required to check passengers. The agency now has agreed to waive those fees, said Chris McCluskey, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.
The service would be a test to evaluate if the level of traffic is high enough to justify the customs services required, the ministry said in a release.
Andrew Wood, deputy rail and marine director of Washington state, said, “We’re pleased to see this, and we will be looking at how quickly we can start.”
He said he hopes the service will become permanent.
An Amtrak train now leaves Vancouver at 5:45 p.m. and arrives in Seattle at 10:05 p.m. The return train departs Seattle at 7:40 a.m. and arrives in Vancouver at 11:35 a.m.
The original proposal had called for an extra train to run only during the Olympics, with a train leaving Vancouver at 7:30 a.m. to Seattle and a train arriving in Vancouver at 10:45 p.m. from Seattle.
Graham said she couldn’t confirm the schedule for the extended pilot. She said the schedule would be convenient for people attending Olympic events.
Washington state owns the trains and subsidizes $11 million of the annual costs for the portion of the Amtrak Cascades line that runs between Vancouver and Portland, Ore., and British Columbia and Amtrak also subsidize the costs, Wood said.
Transportation Minister Shirley Bond said in a news release that the additional service would carry 50,000 passengers and inject $13 million into the B.C. economy in its first full year. “That’s why we invested almost $3 million into upgrading railway tracks north of the U.S. border to prepare for the expansion of service,” she said.
Source: By Richard J. Dalton Jr., Vancouver Sun
rdalton@vancouversun.com
