Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

CleanTechnica
Overview of the long planned international line of the Pacific Northwest.

Uncategorized

Planning High Speed Rail Line For 17 Years: The Pacific Northwest

Overview of the long planned international line of the Pacific Northwest.

Right around the same time an indie band from Seattle named Nirvana burst onto the national music scene with a song called “Smells like teen spirit”, the Pacific Northwest was designating a high speed train line from Eugene through Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle, ending in Vancouver. Seattle has seen the rise of its music scene, Starbucks proliferate as a worldwide brand and the creation of Bill Gates’ mega-mansion, but it has not seen the development of high speed rail.
Since 1992 there have been plans for an international high speed train line between the US and Canada, but after seventeen years no such line has entered into service. The Pacific Northwest has a good culture of public transportation and seems to be one of the more receptive areas of the country when it comes to improving mass transit. Portland Oregon stands out as having one of the best light rail and bus fleets in the country. Despite this, progress has been painfully slow.
The reason for this is a lack of funding in rail infrastructure. This is a recurring point in the development (or lack thereof) of high speed rail corridors. Since World War II the US government has spent $2 trillion into highway and aviation systems while passenger rail has received less than 3% of transportation funding from the federal government. The results are self evident. Passenger rail in the US is in very poor condition, leaving cars and planes the only convenient options available.
Nearly two decades after the Pacific Northwest was designated as a high speed rail corridor, money is finally starting to flow into the project. In November 2008, voters in the State of Washington passed a ballot measure called “Sound Transit 2,” which provided $17.9 billion for transit and commuter rail investment. Much like the bond issue of $10 billion in California in the same year, it is a start but not nearly enough to fund the line.
The Northwest Corridor also must deal with another potential conflict. As it is not among the most populous corridors in the nation, many tracks currently are dedicated to the movement of freight instead of people. Many ports are located in the major cities of this line and there will be issues on who will get the right of way on the tracks. Freight companies in the region, notably Union Pacific and BNSF, are worried about trains going “too fast”.
Freight carriers are in effect imposing a speed limit of 110 mph on trains that share tracks with them. This is not true high speed rail and exactly half of the velocity planned in California. Andrew Johnsen, assistant vice president for state government affairs at BNSF has said, “You really need to have separate tracks. Whether you need to have separate right of way is a question we can discuss.”
New tracks across the Pacific Northwest to attain high speed rail might be the only way to realize the project. For that, investment is needed.
This is the 4th of a 13-part series on high speed rail in the USA. Read previous articles: High Speed Rail – 12 Corridors to be Stimulated, High Speed Rail at 90 mph?! ARRA & the Northeast Corridor, California High Speed Rail – Who will pay for $40 billion?!
[photo credit: hellothomas]

 
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
 

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:



I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
If you like what we do and want to support us, please chip in a bit monthly via PayPal or Patreon to help our team do what we do! Thank you!
Advertisement
 
Written By

Derek lives in southwestern New Mexico and digs bicycles, simple living, fungi, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyle design, bouldering, and permaculture. He loves fresh roasted chiles, peanut butter on everything, and buckets of coffee. Catch up with Derek on Twitter, Google+, or at his natural parenting site, Natural Papa!

Comments

You May Also Like

Buildings

Clean condo life is messy. It takes time. There’s conflict involved sometimes. Emotions can run high. These are our homes we’re talking about, after...

Buildings

As a resident of a condo without central air conditioning, I’ve been feeling the harsh effects of climate change, particularly during the sweltering summers....

Buildings

It takes work. It takes planning. It takes time. It takes a bunch of people agreeing. It takes someone to recognize the problem, admit...

Cars

It’s a common enough joke on the EV forums: Elon Musk hates trains. Musk hates trains so much, in fact, that he supposedly put...

Copyright © 2023 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.