EVERETT – A 200 m.p.h. high speed train zooming passengers from Vancouver, B.C. through metropolitan Puget Sound to Portland, Ore. has tantalized travelers and politicians alike for at least a decade in the Pacific Northwest.
For 10 years, the effort to study and estimate such a high-speed rail corridor has grown gradually with the Washington State Department of Transportation at the epicenter of the international, two-state program currently in place.
The Cascadia High-Speed Rail vision began with funding from the Washington Legislature in 2016, administered by the WSDOT and supported by the Federal Transportation Administration, British Columbia provincial government and Oregon Department of Transportation. The program is official titled “The Cascadia High-Speed Rail and I-5 Program”, which aims to address the future transportation needs of the Cascadia megaregion, according to WSDOT, “to look holistically at highway, rail, air travel, and other travel options.”…