Do you remember when Amtrak’s Empire Builder stopped carrying passengers from Pasco to Yakima and Seattle? Perhaps not. It was in October 1981. That’s when Amtrak switched the Empire Builder’s route from the Yakima Valley to Stevens Pass by splitting trains in Spokane with one segment going south to Portland and the other west to Seattle. Earlier, in 1979, Amtrak stopped service on its North Coast Hiawatha train from Chicago through Boise and on to Seattle via Pasco and Yakima.

All Aboard Washington, a nonprofit based in Ellensburg, has proposed restoring passenger rail service that would connect with the daily Empire Builder at the Pasco Transit Center so that passengers could go directly to Seattle rather than down the Columbia Gorge to Portland and changing trains. The State Department of Transportation has pointed to a 2020 study that concludes that while there is a very high level of support for restoring intercity passenger rail, the high costs and potential low ridership are prohibitive.

Until it was discontinued in 1979, the North Coast Hiawatha served the Pasco, Yakima, Seattle via Stampede Pass as part of a more southern route from Chicago through Boise. An Amtrak study in 2009 concluded that it would be feasible to restore the North Coast Hiawatha only if the various states would also invest in the route. It is worth noting that recently the Federal Government dedicated nearly $2.3 billion to expand and upgrade intercity rail passenger and freight service. Might that be used here?

The Badger Club will explore the need for improved passenger rail in our area in the next Badger Forum on July 6. Our speakers will be Charles Hamilton, president of All Aboard Washington and Jason Biggs, program manager of Capital and Operations for Washington Department of Transportation’s Rail, Freight, and Ports Division.