US government announces funding for Vancouver-Seattle high-speed rail

US federal government announces funding for high-speed rail proposal linking Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland

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Proponents of building a high-speed rail (HSR) service linking British Columbia with the states of Washington and Oregon will take one small step toward realizing the project with the help of the United States federal government.

Today, President Joe Biden’s administration announced over US$8.2 billion (C$11.2 billion) in investments towards new and improved intercity passenger rail services across the US, including funding to help support design and planning efforts for the high-speed rail proposal between Portland, Seattle, and the Canadian city of Vancouver — also known as Cascadia High-Speed Rail.

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Dozens of projects across America will receive various levels of funding from multiple federal grants for the planning of brand-new railway infrastructure or the capital costs of new or upgraded construction.

David Hoff, the chair of the BC Business Coalition for the Cascadia HSR, told Daily Hive Urbanized the specific total dollar amount for Cascadia HSR’s planning is expected in a future project-specific announcement by US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee.

But it has been determined that Cascadia HSR will receive up to US$500,000 (C$680,000) from the Corridor Identification and Development Program for future passenger rail expansion, which is a program that has identified 69 projects across 44 states.

Furthermore, up to US$500,000 in federal funding will also be provided to the Washington State Department of Transportation to upgrade the existing Amtrak Cascades service between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, including reliability and frequency improvements.

This Administration is building out passenger rail projects across the country. Today, @POTUS will announce new funding to several corridors, including:

🚆Scranton to New York
🚄Colorado Front Range
🚅The Northern Lights Express
🚄Cascadia High-Speed Rail
🚆Charlotte to Atlanta

— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) December 8, 2023

Washington State Government, which is leading the Cascadia HSR planning process, with contributions from the British Columbia government and Oregon government, applied for US$198 million (C$267 million) in federal funding. State legislators in Washington state have already set aside up to US$150 million (C$202 million) for the forthcoming scope of planning work.

The goal is to establish a high-speed rail service with travel speeds of up to 400 km/hr (250 mph) and travel times of about one hour for each of the segments between Vancouver and Seattle and between Seattle and Portland. A future phase beyond the current project could also bring the HSR route further south to reach Eugene, Oregon.

Highly preliminary estimates made in pre-pandemic 2019 by WSHDOT put the total cost of detailed planning, final engineering and design, and full construction between US$24 billion (C$32 billion) and US$42 billion (C$57 billion), based on construction occurring from 2027 to 2034, with the service opening in 2035.

As many as 30 roundtrips could be made daily, depending on the scenario, using 260-seat trains. It would see 2.1 million annual riders upon opening, with ridership growing to 3.3 million annually by 2055. It is assumed this rail service would replace many existing flight trips between Vancouver and Seattle; prior to the pandemic, the direct flight route reaching Vancouver International Airport was Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s busiest international route.

The largest funding allocations announced today went to two high-speed rail projects in California, including US$3.07 billion (C$4.17 billion) for the beleaguered state-led public high-speed rail project between Merced and Bakersfield, and US$3 billion (US$4.08) to Brightline West for their privately spearheaded high-speed rail project between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which is expected to begin construction in 2024 for an opening in 2028.

Brightline West is expected to become the first true high-speed rail service in North America.

“With this funding, we’ll deliver America’s first high-speed rail on a route between southern California and Las Vegas, complete major upgrades for riders in Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maine, Montana, and Alaska, and announce a comprehensive plan that makes it easier to expand passenger rail lines in 44 states,” said Buttigieg in a statement.

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