Washington Rail News December 2009 /January 2020201020 101010 www.AllAboardWashington.org Publication of All Aboard Washington A NotNot----forforforfor----profitprofit Consumer Organization “Moving forward...On Rail ."."." Talgo’s Josh Coran speaks at All Aboard Northwest Senators question Pioneer Study Washington annual meeting By Dan McFarling, All Aboard Washington had its offi- Argentina, to name a few. Assoc. of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates cial annual meeting on Nov. 14 at F.X. To maintain the company’s high According to Assoc. of Oregon Rail McRory’s Steak Chop and Oyster standards for reliability, Talgo now and Transit Advocates Pres. Donald House, just two blocks from King St. maintains or supervises maintenance Leap, Amtrak’s recently released draft Station. The 50 people gathered heard of all of its equipment around the world. Pioneer Route Study is flawed. In an from our featured speaker Josh Coran, In Seattle, Amtrak maintenance per- Oct. 1 letter to US Senator Ron Wyden Talgo’s manager of operations in the sonnel are supervised by Talgo man- (D-OR), Leap states the study “takes a U.S. Coran briefly covered the history agers. Having an on-board service very narrow view of how this route can of the Talgo design. The first versions technician on every trainset also en- be restored.” were light weight and low slung but did hanced reliability. The technician can The study underestimates ridership not have tilting capability to provide often fix a small problem before it be- levels and overstates costs of restoring passenger comfort when traveling come large problem that may result in passenger train service between Port- through curves at higher speeds. the equipment having to go out of ser- land, The Dalles, Pendleton, Baker Testing in the U.S. in the 1950s on the vice. And a passenger that needed to City, Boise and points east. Leap’s let- Rock Island, Boston and Maine, and work or read and can quickly have a ter said AORTA is “excited” about the New Haven Railroads was unsuc- burned out reading light replace is a prospect, but concerned that inflated cessful due to maintenance and rough satisfied customer. costs and pessimistic ridership num- track issues. Talgo designs continued Over ten years after WSDOT and bers could derail the plans. to evolve and improve in Spain. Amtrak bought five trainsets Talgo has “The study dumps nearly every Talgo trainsets now operate in sold two more trains to Wisconsin for possible expense on the Pioneer ,” and many countries around the world in ad- use in the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor. appears designed to dissuade mem- dition to the U.S. and Spain: Germany AAWA hopes more orders will come bers of Congress from restoring the and many other European countries, Talgo’s way as WSDOT has requested service. “As evidence: (1) The cost of Russia, China, Korea, Algeria and (See Coran, page 5) new rolling stock should be a system- wide expense and equipment costs should be separated from operating costs. (2) Infrastructure expenses for new or extended sidings, crossovers, switches, signals, etc. are based on estimates by the host railroad Union Pacific. Costs associated with new passenger train services need to be evaluated by mutually trusted outside sources. Amtrak, the host railroad and Around 500 people attended the dedication and opening of Stanwood’s new Am- the taxpayers need to know that pas- trak station on a blustery November 21 morning. The festivities at the city located senger/freight cost sharing is done between Everett and Mt. Vernon were timed with the arrival of the first Cascades train to stop, number 510, at just after 9:00 a.m. About 140 of the people at the fairly.” event, including Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island), had boarded Colorado Dept. of Transportation’s train 510 in Everett for the short ride to Stanwood. Following the train’s arrival Modal Programs Manager Tom Mauser there was the traditional ribbon cutting ceremony followed by remarks by local points out that Union Pacific’s cost es- and state officials. Speakers included Sen. Haugen, Rep. Judy Clibborn (D- timate in Colorado includes $15 million Mercer Island and chairwomen of the House Transportation Committee), Stan- for track improvements that are not wood Mayor Dianne White and WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond. All four even on the proposed route! Mauser Cascades trains between Seattle and Vancouver, BC now stop in Stanwood. also questioned the projected $470 This is the city’s first intercity passenger rail service since the start of Amtrak on million for capital projects on the Over- May 1, 1971. Pictured on the left is train 510 arriving from Everett. On the right, land Route in Wyoming, an alignment Sen. Haugen (center of photo) speaking to the assembled crowd. that previously accommodated the Left photo by Zack Willhoite, right photo by Jim Hamre (See Pioneer , page 4) page 2 me draft some points for communication From the desk of to our federal elected officials. Will do the Executive same for any and all of you. Do let me Director know if you’d like a bit of assistance! bybyby ☯☯☯☯☯☯☯ Lloyd H. Flem Stanwood has now joined Leaven- worth in inaugurating a new Amtrak stop Our Washington and ARRA Funds; in recent weeks. (See page one article Antonio Perez, Talgo; Bruce Agnew, Stanwood too; College Students On and pictures.) Here I wish to applaud the Cascadia Center; Ralph Munro, former Board?; Thanks, Dedicated AAWA good work of the rail people at WSDOT, Washington secretary of state; and Members! with Kirk Fredricksen in particular having Lloyd Flem discuss passenger rail is- done the heavy lifting on the Stanwood sues with Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen The Federal Rail Administration con- project. But Saturday November 21’s first after the Stanwood station festivities as tinues to say that the $8 billion in ARRA train to Stanwood particularly belonged to other All Aboard Washington members (“stimulus”) grants for High(er) Speed Senator Mary Margaret Haugen (D- look on. Photo by Warren Yee Rail Corridors, of which our Northwest Camano Island). Her dedication to our Corridor is a prime example, will be passenger train program over many hundreds of mostly college students from awarded based upon merit. But I con- years came to fruition as scores of the West Coast gathered to study and to tinue to worry that political clout will people alighted and boarded at the first work for a more environmentally sound trump, to at least some degree, states Amtrak Cascades stop in her legislative future. Several score attended a panel on such as our Washington, High(er) Speed Rail, with long- which has, perhaps more than Several prominent All Aboard time Oregon rail advocate any, fulfilled exactly the estab- Washington members, including your Fred Nussbaum and I as pa- lished criteria for receipt of nelists. What inspired us was such funding. I am not accus- Executive Director, feel this is now our the genuine interest of these ing the FRA of any undo top priority and are continuing a bright, enthusiastic young bending to political power, but people. I urged them to be- simply recognize that such concerted push to help our state get come involved in organized rail power usually enters in when- its deserved [high speed rail] dollars. advocacy. Two students have ever public monies are spread separately asked to work with around. And since the initial district on that chilly late fall day. us. All too many current pas- grants, supposedly to have been an- senger train activists are old guys like nounced weeks ago, have been delayed A number of All Aboard Washington members were present and were pleased me! We really need people under age 30, until “winter,” my unease grows. (Editor: even under age 40, with the skills and a Wisconsin DOT official has said that when Senator Haugen acknowledged our years of advocacy for the state’s rail pro- contacts many of us who remember the the high speed rail grants will be an- Kennedy, and even Eisenhower and nounced as part of the January 2010 gram. We were rewarded by the enthu- siastic support for a larger transportation Truman Administrations, don’t tend to State of the Union Address.) have. Evidence: The Association of Ameri- role for passenger trains from speeches by Mary Margaret and from WSDOT Sec- Welcome aboard, Facebook and can railroads, the interest group of the Twitter generation! Class Ones (BNSF, UP, etc) in a recent retary Paula Hammond. The senator also on-line news clip singled out California, offered specific praise for the Talgo-built ☯☯☯☯☯☯☯ trains, which have served so well since Texas and Florida, as well as New York It is very pleasing for me to note in- State, as really pushing for big chunks of the trains began running in our corridor over fifteen years ago. creasing numbers of All Aboard Wash- the ARRA cash. I continue to fear that ington members that are taking on rail the sheer magnitude of electoral clout of Additions of station stops to the Am- trak system are rare, yet Washington, advocacy responsibilities. Some of you those big states may replace states like are doing substantive “in the field” work, Washington, which should receive a res- with Leavenworth opening in September, has added two in just a couple of months, others putting in lots of time and effort on pectable portion of the rail “stimulus” re- AAWA events and activities, and still oth- quested by WSDOT. (WSDOT’s rail sti- developed and funded totally within our state. (This should also help convince the ers lending expertise to the structure, mulus requests can be viewed at economic and “housekeeping” details an www.wsdot.wa.gov/Funding/stimulus/ feds that we Washingtonians have and will continue to be willing to make rail in- active organization must deal with.