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Washington Rail News February/March 2010 www.AllAboardWashington.org Publication of All Aboard Washington A Not-for-profit Consumer Organization “Moving forward...On Rail." Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor receives $598 WSDOT Secretary Hammond addresses AAWA meeting million federal high speed rail grants WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond On January 28, President Barack cient for commuters, make shipping spoke at the December 5 All Aboard Obama and Vice President Joe Biden faster for businesses, and will have Washington meeting and auction, held formally announced the distribution of clear environmental and energy bene- at Olympia-Lacey’s Centennial Station. $8 billion in federal ARRA (stimulus) fits. Anybody who travels the I-5 corri- Hammond was introduced by Lloyd high speed rail grants at a town hall dor in our state knows that we need to Flem, who noted the good relationship meeting in Florida. The state of Wash- find new, efficient options to get com- All Aboard Washington has had with ington received $590 million. The state muters and commerce moving. And DOT for well over two decades. had requested $1.3 billion. Considering anybody interested in boosting our Hammond thanked Flem, saying, that USDOT received requests totaling state’s economy knows that now is a “Lloyd has been a steadfast pusher over $54 billion for an $8 billion pot of great time to take action. Thankfully, and praiser of the DOT.” She stated money, Washington did well. Oregon Washington state and Oregon have al- that Governor Chris Gregoire is a received only $8 million, mostly for re- ready been working since the early strong supporter of high speed rail. pairs to Portland Union Station. 1990s to study and build faster rail ser- Hammond was the only state DOT Political leaders like governors and vice along the Cascade Corridor. This leader at a December 3 jobs summit at senators were notified of the grants funding is the opportunity we’ve been the White House. She said she pushed before President Obama’s state of the waiting for to help make these the president to finish the selection of union address on Wednesday evening improvements a reality.” the high speed rail projects (see adja- January 27. The public learned of the Governor Chris Gregoire (D) held a cent article). WSDOT wants to add two grants when the information was news conference Thursday morning more Seattle-Portland Cascades posted to the White House website January 28, attended by All Aboard roundtrips once the needed infrastruc- Washington President Loren ture improvements are completed and Herrigstad. The governor said, we need the federal partnership to do “These funds will offer great that. returns: We will put people to She laid out the long fight to get the work and improve a transit second train extended from Bellingham service on which more and to Vancouver, BC. First, it was getting more Washingtonians rely. a commitment from the British Colum- Thanks to these investments, bia and Canadian governments to fund we will move more people, the requires track improvements north move them more efficiently of the border. Then, once that finally Amtrak Cascades train 501 arrives Centralia on and move them more reliably. happened, the Canadian Border Ser- This work represents a big vices Agency suddenly appeared to Jan. 18, 2009. Two additional Seattle-Portland st Cascades roundtrips are planned once additional step in building our 21 demand $1500 a day to provide immi- infrastructure improvements are made with the century train system.” gration and customs service for the federal grant money. Photo by Jim Hamre Many of the projects that train. This despite the fact that an anal- will be built with the federal ysis showed the two daily roundtrips during the president’s speech. Thanks funding are ready or nearly would have a $48 million a year posi- to NARP’s Ross Capon forwarding out ready to start construction. “The grant tive economic impact on Vancouver the information to the NARP council of announcement is great news. With and British Columbia. CBSA relented representatives, All Aboard Washing- these investments, we will greatly and said it would service the trains ton was among the first to break the improve our on-time reliability and without the fee through the Vancouver news publicly in our state. travel choice for passengers between Olympics and, if ridership was strong “This is a big win for Washington on Seattle and Portland,” said WSDOT enough, would consider permanently a number of levels,” said Senator Patty Secretary Paula Hammond. “Our team dropping the fee. We are above the ri- Murray (D), chairwoman of the Senate is ready to get to work building these dership threshold so everyone hopes Transportation Appropriations sub- projects that will have real economic CBSA will live up to its promise. committee. “It’s going to help us to benefits by supporting and creating The Amtrak Cascades are an import- create new jobs, make travel more effi- (See HSR, page 5) (See Hammond, page 5) page 2 Secretary Ray LaHood about four times to “ We did well!” The final statement of From the desk of on the high speed rail ARRA funding, and my ideas to say to legislators (of course, the Executive also to several of our House members as folks were free to customize what they Director well. said) was as follows: “All Aboard Our Legislature, Transportation Washington recognizes funds are limited by Commission and successive governors and this year we are not asking for new Lloyd H. Flem have supported and invested in our state dollars. Your (the legislature’s) past trains. Growing numbers of passengers, commitments to our rail program just paid by the very act of buying tickets and in- off with $590 million in Federal ARRA CELEBRATION!; Transportation creasingly choosing the Amtrak Cas- funds with no state match required! Advocacy Day In Olympia cades for intercity transportation in our Thank you and let us celebrate!” Northwest Corridor, justified these The evening of Wednesday January investments. 27 I first learned, from this newsletter’s And yes, we, Washington’s also na- editor, that our Washington had received An apology to any of you who have tionally-respected rail advocate commu- $590 million in grants from the Obama paid dues to All Aboard Washington, but nity, can justly take a bit of credit, too. Administration’s $8 billion ARRA (“sti- have inadvertently received notices that Some of you contacted our US senators mulus”) monies for High(er) Speed Rail your membership dues are still due. All and representatives. Some of you wrote Corridors, which is over 7% of the na- who handle these issues are deeply letters to newspapers praising our state’s tional total! This was verified committed to AAWA and to total accu- racy in our record keeping, just hours later and I joined in …our Washington received $590 million celebration as our state, but a glitch in attributing your which as much or more than in grants from the Obama payment has occurred in a any other, fulfilled the criteria Administration’s $8 billion ARRA couple of cases.. If such is for qualifying for and de- the case, write, email or served to receive these (“stimulus”) monies for High(er) Speed phone me (contact information on page 5). I’ll grants. Rail Corridors … Now let us celebrate! I fretted a lot these last straighten it out! Thank you. We always appreciate your months that political clout and rail program. Former Secretary of State support in whatever form it takes. big media popularity would totally trump Ralph Munro, who was instrumental in merit when grants were made. Of course working with Spain to get our original politics were involved in the final deci- Talgo trains here, Bruce Agnew of Cas- Cusick, from page 3 sions, but so was merit. Washington, cadia, and your Executive Director tra- services, the Surfliners, the Capitol Cor- Wisconsin and North Carolina, in my veled to DeeCee last fall and met perso- ridor and the San Joaquins. view deserving states, were well nally with all but one of our delegation, Enough equipment to have spares, so represented in the grant totals. carrying the message that our Washing- no originating train is delayed by its com- Some others … let’s say they were ton, based on merit, should receive a plementary arrival train running late, or either electoral giants or large swing significant piece of ARRA rail funding. As needing equipment repairs (e.g. trains 7 states … got big chunks, too. As one who late as early Wednesday morning Mr. and 8 in Seattle). has followed politics since 1948 (age Munro and I each phoned Senator Mur- One thing to keep in mind when de- nine; I was a Stassen man), I recognize ray. Oh yes, and immediately after hear- signing the new cars: DO NOT GIVE UP reality where public policy and funds are ing of our $590 million, I phoned thanks LEGROOM! involved. Illinois had the ultimate political to her people. Let us celebrate! Since the new Leavenworth stop is so clout but also had made good prepara- popular, maybe they deserve a beer car tions and had made prior large state in- shuttling between Spokane and Seattle. vestments. They were very well repre- AAWA was again involved as a spon- If the North Coast Hiawatha service is sented, unsurprisingly. sor of the annual Transportation Advo- returned using Stampede Pass, then Now let us celebrate! cacy Day in Olympia, this year on Janu- Ellensburg would need its own Whiskey The WSDOT Rail Office carefully built ary 28, just hours after the announce- and Sarsaparilla car! and administered for over fifteen years a ment of our $590 million ARRA rail grant.