The Cascadia High-Speed Rail project, which would connect major Pacific Northwest major cities with HSR service operating up to 250 mph, in late December 2024 received $49.7 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding from the Federal Railroad Administration for planning. The project will also receive $5.5 million in matching funds from the Washington State Legislature, for a total of $55.2 million.
The funding will go toward route planning, capital projects identification, technical work and community and partner engagement to examine market and potential ridership, route options and environmental considerations. This is the second FRA Corridor Identification and Development grant program award for Cascadia High-Speed Rail, part of the federal funding pipeline for passenger rail development.
The Cascadia Corridor, a 345-mile route roughly following I-5 from Portland through Seattle, Bellingham, Blaine and into Vancouver, B.C., is home to approximately 10 million people and is expected to grow by 3-4 million before 2050, according to the Washington State Transportation Commission. According to a U.S. Census Bureau study, single-occupancy vehicles in the Cascadia Corridor annually emit 4.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. About 900,000 people used Amtrak’s Cascades service in 2024, rebounding strongly following the COVID-19 pandemic, when service was severely curtailed.
The Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor (PNWRC) is one of 11 federally designated U.S. HSR corridors. HSR “is not intended to replace the Amtrak Cascades intercity passenger rail system funded by WSDOT and ODOT (Oregon DOT),” officials note. “It would be an additional travel option and would serve to promote ridership through connections to other travel modes. Amtrak Cascades trains might connect smaller cities to the high-speed system, and they might even share the same new tracks. Because Amtrak Cascades trains currently share tracks with [BNSF] freight trains, it is likely not possible to offer ultra-high-speed service on most of the current Amtrak Cascades routes. Amtrak Cascades trains travel at 79 mph and serve 18 cities in Canada, Washington and Oregon, more than an ultra-high-speed option would serve.”
The 2023 Cascadia UHSGT (Ultra High-Speed Ground Transportation) status report (download below) to the Washington State Legislature provides an overview on activities that occurred between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
