We've Been Working on the Railroad - Sort Of.

Oregon just ordered two of these Talgo trainsets for use on the Cascades service in the Eugene-Salem-Portland-Seattle corridor. www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=6419 We have ridden them numerous times to/from Seattle and like them. As I-5 gets more crowded alternatives become more important - just ask anybody who has been stuck in traffic near the Tacoma Dome in the last 10 years. The new trainsets are nice, but in Oregon the bigger problem is the tracks they run on.

I traveled to Eugene by train last Saturday and although pleasant, it was more of a leisurely amble than a high speed rail experience. The official speed limit for passenger trains in Oregon is 79 mph but we never broke 60 and most of the time rocked along well below that. In fact, several times we slowed to 5 mph to pass other trains. The problem was a single track interspersed with passing sidings about every 10 miles. This is fine for moving freight, so it is not fair to ask Union Pacific to add track capacity it doesn't need, but if Oregon is really interested in getting people out of cars and on to trains, it is going to have to pony up for some major track improvements.

Since the mid-1990s the State of Washington has double-tracked and in some cases triple-tracked the main line from Seattle all the way to Vancouver, WA. There are also high-speed crossovers allowing dispatchers to move a fast passenger train around a slower freight and then back to the same track without slowing down at all. New signaling to make this safe was also installed. Many times going to/from Seattle we have experienced the payoff by blasting past freight trains laboring on adjacent tracks as if they were standing still.

Track improvements are not nearly as glamorous as new trainsets, but they are necessary to allow the speed and frequencies that will convince people to leave their cars behind and get into "training." I hope the state will think long term and make the improvements to allow the new Talgos reach the 110 mph of which they are capable. Salem-Portland in 35 minutes or Salem-Seattle in 2.5 hours anyone?