Getting On Track

Right off the bat this morning, I put a link on my Facebook wall about the fact Amtrak is finally putting another train on the Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia route. Amtrak's Cascades route could connect important cities and boost tourism and trade. It will be great to grab the train for a trip to Portland on a long weekend. The current schedule is so inconvenient that if I wanted to travel tomorrow, there are three times that a Amtrak bus runs down to Seattle to meet up with a train from there. That's pretty stupid, as I may as well take Greyhound all the way, or better yet simply drive.

At least starting August 19th, there will be a 6:40 train departure from up here. That makes it feasible to get into Seattle at about 11:00. Mind you, I could blast down I-5 and make it in under three hours depending on the border lineup. Still, there will be returning trains every morning and evening. At least the idea of taking the train may not have to be dismissed outright. The service is only guaranteed to run until the end of the 2010 Winter Olympics here. I hope it proves popular enough to continue.

It's a shame the US Congress didn't shovel some of those US $3 billion in the 'Cash for Clunkers' program into high-speed rail infrastructure.

Talk about cutting one's nose to spite one's face.


September 14, 2005 - "Today we raced across Belguim
to catch a connection in Cologne for an even faster
ICE train to Frankfurt."