Amtrak Funding
Neal Pierce, writing in the Seattle Times, tells me something I didn't know:
But state initiatives are also vital. Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi heads the "States for Passenger Rail Coalition" of 30 state transportation departments appealing for an 80/20 federal-state funding split to put some real steam behind rail expansion.
Fourteen states, notes Busalacchi, already provide operating support for Amtrak corridor services — routes responsible for virtually all of Amtrak's recent ridership gains. Cascadia service (Oregon-Washington) had 674,000 passengers last year. The "Hiawatha Service" in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor, he boasts, has boosted ridership 48 percent, to 588,000, in the past five years, with 90 percent on-time performance.
And there have been other breakthroughs. Pennsylvania, in a 50-50 cost split with Amtrak, electrified and rehabilitated the Philadelphia-Harrisburg corridor so well it now offers 110-mile-per-hour service.
110 mph! That's pretty speedy. You can read more about the upgrades on the Keystone Corridor Wikipedia page, or this page from the Federal Railroad Administration.
- Frank's blog
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I found this randomly. I don't know if you have read it but it gives you a good idea of what WSDOT is planning to do. It looks like a well thought out plan that deals with the realities of rail funding in the US. The plan is to get up to 110 mph on some segments as well. Yes it isn't true high speed rail but this is a realistic plan that makes rail travel very competitive.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/E768E7BA-4788-42B1-ADC8-1BE01D1424E...
Thanks!
I came across this a while back and then forgot about it. This is what makes decisions like the right-of-way near the Tacoma Dome so important. Every street-level crossing we build now is going to be an impediment to higher-speed rail down the line.
This plan is what got me interested in local rail, but it needs a lot of support to happen. The small, incremental upgrades are getting funded 20-50 million dollars at a time, but we can't go above 90mph anywhere without automatic train stop systems - a 3/4 billion dollar investment.
The best thing we can do for this plan right now is to support that D to M street connector for Sounder - yes, grade separated, but maybe get Tacoma on board with helping fund it.