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CHOO CHOO? – Can Humans Opt Out of Cars Honoring Other Options?
Chapter 22 of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, begins as follows:
“Good morning,” said the little prince.
“Good morning,” said the railway switchman.
“What is it that you do here?” asked the little prince.
“I sort the travellers into bundles of a thousand,” the switchman said. “I dispatch the trains that carry them, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left.”
And a brightly lit express train, roaring like thunder, shook the switchman’s cabin.
“What a hurry they’re in,” said the little prince. “What are they looking for?”
“Not even the engineer on the locomotive knows,” the switchman said.
And another brightly lit express train thundered by in the opposite direction.
“Are they coming back already?” asked the little prince.
“It’s not the same ones,” the switchman said. “It’s an exchange.”
“They weren’t satisfied, where they were?” asked the little prince.
“No one is ever satisfied where he is,” the switchman said.
And a third brightly lit express train thundered past.
It’s obvious that, like the inhabitants of the universe of the Little Prince, we are a nation on the move. We need to be somewhere other than where we are. And to get to those places, we rely overwhelmingly upon our personal vehicles, mostly ignoring thoughts of the harmful climate effects of carbon emissions. In our immediate area, simply observe the traffic delays and bottlenecks along I-5, which largely confirms this. On the other hand, take in the recent news about Brightlline, a high-speed electric express rail service under construction from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, just in time for the 2028 Olympic games. And then, closer to home, consider the Amtrak Cascade rail service, which was touted by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) a couple of decades ago as a reasonable alternative to alleviate the traffic congestion along the I-5 corridor, as well as providing a welcome option for travel to accommodate people with disabilities.
From 1991 to 2019, WSDOT supposedly promised faster train service between Seattle and Portland with a travel time of two hours, 30 minutes and traveling between Seattle-Vancouver, BC in two hours, 37 minutes. Of course, the pandemic threw a wrench into these plans. Still, my Interfaith Climate Action group and I want these goals met for efficient travel times now more than ever! We call on WSDOT to recommit to these faster travel times and plan to achieve it within 10 years, if not sooner. We respectfully request that the powers that be work to have Cascades fulfill its purpose of making train travel comfortably competitive with driving.
I often take the Amtrak Cascades or Coast Starlight express. I am retired, share one car with my spouse (which means I walk or take transit most of the time), and I can choose to accommodate the extra time it takes to travel via bus/rail from my home in Edmonds to my family living in Tacoma and Eugene, Oregon. (I say bus because Amtrak often must offer bus transport as part of certain trip options to reach scheduled destinations due to competition for railway usage by freight trains. This is not convenient for folks who wish to have a seamless train travel experience.) I do this to eliminate another vehicle on the highway and to mitigate my carbon footprint. I enjoy the train’s comfortable seats, the restroom accessibility (no pit stops necessary) and the food options in either the dining car or the café or even to bring my own bagged meal to eat at my seat. The baggage service is convenient, easy and cost-free – how wonderful is that!
I really would like to see train service that offers an energy-efficient, lower-carbon option for traveling the Pacific Northwest without being stuck in traffic. Train service needs to appeal to a wider pool of people, particularly young families with children. Children love trains (thank you Thomas and friends). Our region deserves effective, timely rail options that are competitive with driving and flying. In a USA TODAY article entitled “Amtrak’s new train fleet promises all the bells, whistles” by Tom Krisher, Associated Press, 7/14/21, Amtrak CEO William Flynn was quoted as being “…excited about the environmental and sustainable considerations here. Riding a train per seat mile is 83% more fuel-efficient in some cases than driving and less environmentally impactful than flying.”
We need these options as soon as possible. I offer an example of my recent experience to attend a grandchild’s noon-time baseball game in Tacoma.
– On Saturday, 4/13/2024, during the Revive I-5 northbound repairs that recommended travel via other routes, I left my home (near Highway 99 and 220th St) at 7 a.m. to walk to the Edmonds Station, and board an Amtrak-sponsored bus (departing at 8:35 a.m.), to Seattle’s King Street Station
– At King Street, I took a 9:50 a.m. Coast Starlight train with arrival in Tacoma at 10:45 a.m. (it was late – stopped to remove debris from the track). I was able to take the nearby Tacoma T-line to connect with grandchild to make it to the baseball field (adjacent to the Rainier’s Cheney Stadium) for the coach’s 11:30 a.m. pre-game gathering. The game concluded at 3 p.m..
– I caught a bus to the T-line to the Tacoma Dome Train Station to make the Cascade train departing at 4:50 p.m. I arrived in Edmonds at 6:30 p.m., hopped on the Community Transit 102 bus departing at 6:44 p.m. and arrived home at 7:10 p.m.
That added up to a 12-hour adventure for a three-hour baseball game – nearly nine hours involved travel/wait time (lots of reading accomplished). The average person is not going to use this option.
WSDOT should take action as soon as possible to make train travel faster and viable for the masses, just as it is in Europe. Perhaps we might learn from that example to minimize re-inventing the wheel. Choo-choo!
Thank you for your time and attention.
— By Barbara Steller
Author Barbara Steller lives in Edmonds.
Thank you, Barbara, for a very informative and entertaining article! I was especially impressed by the thought and energy you put into your trip to visit your grandson’s baseball game. It shouldn’t be that difficult. WSDOT – are you listening?
Thanks for making this visible! There is an awful chicken-and-egg problem with things like this. Everyone will appreciate clean and safe electric train travel, where you can read your book or watch a movie and pick up a something to eat or drink in the lounge car. But the current situation discourages travelers from joining in. Officials look at the low ridership and don’t invest in making things better, not understanding that they created the low ridership in the first place by not investing in electric trains.
A great organization working on this is Solutionary Rail: https://www.solutionaryrail.org/
Barbara, I totally agree! The only drawback to train travel is time. But if you can afford the extra time and effort, it’s almost like being in Europe when I sit back on a train in the US.
From your mouth to God’s ears, but as long as Burlington Northern Santa Fe owns the tracks, train travel will never become efficient for personal travel on the west coast. BNSF will always prioritize commercial travel over public transit. It’s maddening that you can drive to Vancouver BC in half the time of a typical train ride due to all the delays caused by commercial right of way. I’m not sure what WSDOT or Amtrak can legally do about it, they are at the mercy of BNSF and their motivation is 100% about money and profit.
Barbara, thank you very much! And being from Europe where trains are easy to take and affordable, I support your narrative fully.
Next week, I will take Amtrak from Edmonds all the way to New York to continue towards Europe (by plane). A Roommette will make the travel more enjoyable. A great way to explore the US and indulge in amazing views and good food, I have learned. Yes, the train takes 3 days from Edmonds to New York, but I am retired and have time.
And I like to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible.
Cheers, Chris
Just as an FYI for those unaware, BNSF is the actual owner of the rail line and the property the tracks sit on from Vancouver down to Portland (and well beyond). Anything WSDOT would like to do is an ask of a private owner – in this case BNSF – and I believe in the past when this was discussed, there was not agreement on how to accomplish higher speed rail without severely impacting freight travel. And, freight really should be the priority in this case, because the alternative is thousands of semis back on I5… not to mention it is BNSF’s property and they don’t have to agree to do anything if they don’t want. If you have ever taken Amtrak and been stuck on a siding for a very long time if it leaves late, it is because the freight traffic always has priority. All that to say is, it is not as simple as WSDOT actually just wanting to do this; there needs to be a private/public partnership to accomplish this.
I think BNSF has a pretty powerful union too. I believe these trains bring our food and much much more to the West Coast. I think it would be great to have public transit on trains. Maybe someday they will build more tracks and then there could be both. It is fun to travel a long distance on a passenger train. I have done this and its quite comfy if ya have your own berth to hang out and sleep. The food car is always fun too. I have even ridden in the caboose haha when it was still there at the end of the train. I had to jump on outside the depot up the tracks a bit and then travel about 150 miles it would be by car and then get let out of the caboose where my ride was waiting. Ah the good old days. No cameras no squealers.
If you go for some or all of the amenities on Amtrak, the travel is much more expensive than travel by air not to mention way way slower. If you have lots of time and don’t need much pampering or special treatment, travel by Amtrak Coach is usually way way cheaper than travel by air. Amtrak also inserts lots of buses in their various routes which defeats the purpose and ambiance of going by train (experienced on my last trip to Tucson). In terms of travel over land, a good high speed diesel/electric passenger train system would make way more sense than all the crammed full jet fuel guzzling airplanes we are so in love with and makes lots of our climate saving talk pretty hypocritical in reality . The fuel cost and volume of it just to get a heavier than air machine into the air is astronomical and quite a large source of our air pollution.
Thank you, Barb, for the very interesting and first-hand description of what it’s like to do your best keeping your carbon footprint small. You are a model for us all. My understand is that the US government between 1850 and 1872 gave the land without cost to the railroad companies to encourage them to build railroads. So they own the land, but they did not purchase it.
And, while it is partially true that it is faster to take a plane, most of the time, we also need to count the time it takes to get to the airiport, how much earlier we have to be there these days in order to make our flight, and the time it takes to leave the airport at the other end of the flight and then travel to our destination. Plus the actual flight. Not as fast as it might seem. And definitely with faster, more direct trains, as Ms Steller suggests, the comparisons would be much closer.
Barbara, My first job in High School was working on the Alaska RR as a Junior Tour Guide three days a week from Anchorage to Denali Park. Answer questions, point out sights of interest, and generally welcome tourists to Alaska.
You made a good case of rail travel. More relaxing, more climate friendly, and more efficient. There has been a lot of talk about a Houston to Dallas light rail to be funded with private money. The main issues delaying them are right away issues on private lands and of course push back by Southwest Airlines.
If you would like to know more about modern rail transit, both passenger lines and freight lines, please visit the Houston Electric Vehicle Association Facebook page below. Type in trains or rail in the search engine and it will give you all the articles uploaded to date of electric rail transportation.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/houstontxeva
Thank you, Barbara. You make a compelling case for investment into transportation!
Now is the time to provide input into the Edmonds Comp Plan Transportation Survey, see https://myedmondsnews.com/2024/05/city-invites-public-to-complete-transportation-survey/?mc_cid=2a6c64183c&mc_eid=1389aa7554