The All-Aboard Washington (AAWA) Northwest Rail Summit was held on October 8/9, 2024 in Spokane, WA. I attended day 1 as Secretary of Transport Action BC and fellow board member Bob Broughton attended day 2 via Zoom. The Summit was recorded for future viewing and will be viewable on the All Aboard Northwest Youtube Channel. The meeting was informative and had an impressive agenda and guest list. Some notes from the conference follow.
Day 1
Rail as Economic Accelerator
Local and interstate presenters discussed economic success
stories that resulted from railroad investments:
- Changing workforce – interested in walkable and
bikeable communities with a sense of place and
downtown living, - Movement back to urban centres, even in smaller cities
such as Caldwell, Idaho - Use downtown rail station (refurbished or new build) as
catalyst to reverse downtown decline such as in Meridian, Michigan - Multi-modal station so connections are not auto
dependent as in Orlando Florida with the new Brightline station at the airport - Florida’s Sunrail generated $1.8 Billion in Transit Oriented Development
Success factors for rail include:
- Emphasize quantifiable economic, environmental and
equity benefits, not nostalgia - Local issues drive federal votes as the US Congress is rural
dominated - Collaboration, flexibility, perseverance in Mobile, Alabama it took ~17
years to get passenger rail returned - Surface Transportation Board commitment to passenger
rail - Multi-modal considerations and rural bus connections,
- Early engagement with freight railroads
- Do no harm to freight movement
- Need robust state-level rail divisions
- Win, win, win projects that benefit freight railroads, passenger carriers and local economy
- Amtrak’s statutory access allows demonstration trains, but the budget is limited
Renaissance for Passenger Rail across America: From
Washington DC to Your Local Depot:
- Lengthy explanation of FRA’s Corridor Identification and
Development Program and Long-Distance Rail Study
Amtrak Cascades:
- Present rail travel time as 100% productive; auto travel
time as 0% productive - CY 2024 ridership exceeds FY 2023 ridership, with 2
months remaining in FY 2024 - Positive ridership results of Dec. 2023 schedule change
to Vancouver service (2023 ~61,000 vs 2024 to date
~76,000)
Pacific Central Station customs pre-clearance project:
- VIA contracting for facility changes; Amtrak paying
through ticket surcharge - Eliminate 10-minute Blaine stops
- Go live spring 2025.
FIFA 2026
- 13 matches, each equivalent to a Super Bowl game,
- Seattle, Vancouver venues served by rail
- Possible 3rd train
- Planning for more coaches
- Landslides on BNSF almost eliminated south of the
border. BNSF landslide protocol is to halt passenger
service for 48 hours. - No mention of Canadian side of border
Big Sky North Coast long distance route
- Montana has no money for rail, need for local
funding - Freight railroads unwilling to give up track space
- Seattle – Chicago hydrogen corridor discussion.
- Proposed Pioneer long distance route as smaller communities like Boise, Idaho are losing air service.
Day 2
By far the most interesting discussion was about the Montana-centric Big
Sky Passenger Rail Authority They are pushing for reinstatement of an east-west route, formerly known as the North Coast Limited/Hiawatha. They want two trains a day on it in each direction, as well as extending the Empire Builder to two trains a day. The case they are making is strong, and one key point is weather resiliency; trains were still running in foul winter weather when everything else wasn’t. The route runs through 40 First Nations (Tribal in U.S. terminology) reservations; they will be dealt with on a government-to-government basis. The target date is
2032.
The key issue here is, Montana, like B.C., has low population density, and similar issues with weather and the need for transportation for medical treatment. A lot of the push is coming from small towns currently not served by any form of transportation other than automobiles. So, we need to get people in places like 100 Mile House and Quesnel on board.
There is also talk about restoration of the Pioneer, a route that connected
Salt Lake City to Seattle via Boise. It was discontinued in 1997 and is not
currently part of Amtrak’s expansion vision.
There is a push for twice-daily Seattle-Spokane service. Amtrak is seeing their business ridership decreasing, but their leisure ridership increasing. They need to make changes to adjust to this. A session on tourism included a presentation by Rocky Mountain Railtours. The presenter talked about the economic benefits, but no mention of their destructive effect on passenger rail. I asked in the chat area whether they would drop their opposition to restoration of Vancouver-Calgary passenger service, and did not get a response. The point was made several times that, despite the political polarization in the U.S., rail transportation is a subject where some common ground exists.
Other topics of discussion included:
- High Performance Rail – deconflicting passenger rail and freight
- Passenger Rail as a healthcare hotline – using them for medical evacuation is
important, too; this was being done 100 years ago.
