In another sign of the rebound in travel, Amtrak and the state transportation departments of Oregon and Washington announced plans to restore a good chunk of the passenger train service that was curtailed due to low ridership in the pandemic.Read More
Three years ago on December 18, a speeding Amtrak Cascades train bound for Portland derailed near DuPont, Washington, and tumbled onto Interstate 5. The crash killed three passengers and injured scores of others. An Olympia woman marked the anniversary Friday by going back to her local blood donation center to achieve a related, but happier milestone.Read More
The Washington Legislature commissioned the $250,000 study last year to see if it would be feasible to restart passenger service on the Stampede Pass line. The route crosses the Cascade Mountains from Seattle to Ellensburg, then stretches onward through the Yakima Valley to Pasco and Spokane.Read More
A holiday wish of many Pacific Northwest rail fans is more roundtrips on the Amtrak Cascades schedule with greater speed and reliability. But in order to beef up train service between Seattle and Portland, a bypass route south of Tacoma needs to be reopened. There is still no fixed date to return Amtrak trains to those tracks where a deadly derailment happened just over Read More
An eight-member federal court jury on Wednesday ordered Amtrak to pay Madeleine Garza of Maple Valley, Washington, $4.5 million for pain, suffering and possible future disabilities. Garza received spinal injuries and broke her pelvis during the derailment of the speeding Amtrak Cascades train, which was traveling from Seattle to Portland.Read More
The crash on Dec. 18, 2017, killed three passengers and injured 65 others, including people on board the speeding train and motorists on adjacent Interstate 5. Amtrak asserted the only question the jury would need to wrestle with is "what is fair and reasonable compensation."Read More
The National Transportation Safety Board published its final report Monday on a deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington in 2017, with the agency’s vice chairman blasting what he described as a “Titanic-like complacency” among those charged with ensuring train operations were safe.Read More
A 36-hour ordeal that saw 183 Amtrak passengers languishing on a stalled train in Oakridge, Ore., appeared to be coming to an end Tuesday morning, after a rescue train began pulling them toward Eugene located about 45 miles away, officials said.Read More
It's been almost one year since an Amtrak Cascades train derailed near DuPont, Washington. The crash killed three passengers and injured more than 60, including drivers on adjacent Interstate 5. One year later, some of the seriously injured are still healing. The courts are just beginning to deal with the lawsuits stemming from the crash. Read More