Amtrak Seattle/Vancouver the latest

[LeftcoastBC]

Taken from the Vancouver Province newspaper 22 AUG 2010. Note CBSA did not respond.

 

• 22 Aug 2010
  
• The Province
  
• by Frank Luba staff reporter fluba@theprovince.com twitter.com/frankluba
  

Amtrak keen to add trips to Vancouver

 

 

Amtrak’s long-range plans for trains into Vancouver could mean four trips a day instead of the current two.

The two trains — which were expanded for the 2010 Winter Olympics from a single daily trip — are only running now because the Canadian government extended through September a pilot project providing border-clearance service to the American carrier. It’s been a hit. The second train attracted a record of nearly 25,000 passengers in July, and the second-quarter total of 214,641 passengers was an increase of 12 per cent over the second quarter of 2009.

Total ridership on the service, which runs all the way to Portland, was 398,414 through to June 30 — a 17.3-percent increase over 2009.

Andrew Wood of the Washington state Department of Transport, which helps run the Amtrak service to Canada, said a decision on the pilot project is imminent.

“[The B.C. government] have notified us that a decision has been reached. They will be notifying us shortly,” Wood said Friday.

 

“The B.C. government is very enthusiastic about the train being on and they have been working with us on this,” he said.

“It’s our intention for this to remain permanent and, building on our long-range plan, we would like to have more service.” Wood indicated those plans are for four trips each way. A spokeswoman for the Canadian Border Service Agency, which deals with the border-clearance project, declined to answer queries about the situation Friday.

The B.C. Ministry of Intergovernmental Relations, which has been working with Washington on Amtrak, failed to respond to a request for an interview.

Whatever happens, travelers to Vancouver from the U.S. can get some good deals if they purchase a trip by Sept. 27 for travel though Sept. 30.

In addition to a 25-per-cent reduction on the price of the train ticket, passengers can get a downtown Vancouver hotel from $107 US through Tourism Vancouver and a brochure of reduced fees to a variety of local attractions.

[Putterdude]

That's great information, thanks for the post....now we will just all keep our fingers crossed.