Date:  Thursday, January 22, 2009

Contact: Vickie Sheehan, WSDOT Communications, 360-705-7904

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Transportation has completed the Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan as directed by the Washington State Legislature.

The Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan fulfills the legislative mandate and identifies options to achieve enhanced Amtrak Cascades services for the next eight years.

“Amtrak Cascades, which provides a valuable travel option for intercity travel, is growing steadily,” said Paula Hammond, Transportation Secretary. “This Mid-Range Plan will help us make the best decisions regarding the future investments in this service.”

The Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan provides Washington State policymakers with four strategic investment options for infrastructure development. These plan options will enhance service capacity, improve on-time performance, and increase ridership on the segment between Seattle and Portland over the next eight years.

The mid-range plan:

• Identifies the needs of intercity passenger train services.
• Assesses the potential of passenger rail as a strategic multimodal transportation solution.
• Specifies the steps of improving infrastructure to deliver additional intercity passenger services.
• Links capital and operational investment to ridership growth and economic and societal benefits.
• Provides a variety of information to support informed decision making processes—legislative budgeting and prioritizing.

In the development of the Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan, an advisory committee was formed, involving stakeholders. The advisory committee’s role was to help WSDOT assess and evaluate beneficial impacts of rail infrastructure improvement on society, understand concerns of local communities, share information, and provide feedback during the development process.

The Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan was delivered to the Legislature in December 2008. The Governor and the Legislature will review the plan and make a determination based on the options outlined in the plan.

The Amtrak Cascades Mid-Range Plan is available on-line at www.wsdot.wa.gov/freight/publications. To request a hard copy of the report on a disc, please call 360-705-7900 or e-mail rail@wsdot.wa.gov. 

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