State House Approves Bill Mapping Out Amtrak Cascades Upgrades
Legislation to enhance Amtrak Cascades service is one step closer to being law. On Wednesday, the Washington House of Representatives passed House Bill 1837, sponsored by Rep. Julia Reed (D-36th, Seattle), an hour before a deadline to get bills out of their house of origin. The bill garnered substantial bipartisan support, with almost a dozen Republicans joining all Democrats present, to pass it on a 68-29 vote.
“This bill is all about strengthening our existing passenger rail service by setting ambitious goals in the upcoming Service Development Plan that [the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)] is working on in partnership with the Federal Railroad Administration and the state of Washington,” Rep. Reed said during Wednesday’s floor debate. “It’s often said that you can’t do anything if you can’t measure it. And with Amtrak Cascades, our on-time performance, trip times, and reliability have been really challenged over the past few years. So the focus of this bill is to set measurable goals for the Amtrak Cascade service and to ask WSDOT to work with the legislature on sharing with us the challenges in meeting those goals so that we can be a better partner.”
With passage from the House, the bill moves onto the Senate where it has some support. A companion bill was introduced into the Senate with seven co-sponsors and made it as far as a public hearing late last month in the Senate Transportation Committee. The House bill will have until April 8 to get out of committee in the Senate, and if it does it will have some time to be passed before the legislative ends on April 27.
For most Democrats, endorsing Amtrak improvements appears to be a ‘yes and’ approach with advancing high-speed rail, which was a priority under Governor Jay Inslee. However, Republican supporters seem to view it as a replacement for more costly high-speed rail investments.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/03/14/state-house-approves-bill-mapping-out-amtrak-cascades-upgrades/