date: March 28th, 5:00pm
presenter: Russell Holter, President of PNRA
location: Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive
FREE
Amtrak Cascades is one of eleven region-specific corridors within the national passenger rail network. Visionaries designed these intercity corridors to accommodate short to medium-distance travel between large metropolitan centers with fast and reliable service. Since its inception in 1999, Amtrak Cascades has provided frequent rail service, with Seattle as its hub. From Seattle, train riders can access the communities of Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, Salem, and Eugene to the south. The northern tier services the population centers of Edmonds, Everett, Bellingham, and Vancouver, B.C. These regional corridors have greatly improved customer impressions of rail travel in America. However, it was not always that way. This discussion will look at the history of the Northwest corridor and evaluate the effects caused by the Amtrak 501 crash.