Only 4 Cascade extras this Thanksgiving

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

From Facebook

All Aboard Washington
There will be only 4 extra Seattle-Portland Amtrak runs this year for the Thanksgiving holiday, instead of the 11 extra trips we have seen the last several years. There is one added roundtrip on Wednesday the 27th and one on Sunday the 1st. This is all WSDOT is willing and able to fund now that the state is responsible for all the costs of operating the Vancouver, BC to Seattle to Portland segment of the Cascades. Many trains on these two days are already sold out. If you are planning to use the service book soon.


I looked up the schedule the extras are on 4 hour 15 minute run times, so I guess the new talgos won't be used.

 

[fairviewroad]

The extra runs are a s/b departing SEA at 12:30 p.m. on 11/27 and a n/b departing PDX at 5:45 p.m. on 11/27.

The same pattern is repeated on Sunday, 12/1.

So, this means no "red-eye" run from Seattle to Portland on Thanksgiving Eve.

And yeah, there's no BC or checked baggage offered on the holiday extras, so definitely not the new Talgos.

Those aren't even in regular revenue service yet, so I doubt they'd commit to using them less than a month from

now during a peak travel period. I'm not sure what the extra service will be. I believe in the past they've used

Amfleets but it's hard to imagine they'd bring in an extra set of equipment just to do two round-trips. But maybe

so.

I wonder if they'll use Sounder equipment. Given that they used Sounder equipment for the short-lived extra

SEA-Bellingham run during the I-5 bridge issue earlier this year, they might be able to do that again.

 

[fairviewroad]

On a related note, there doesn't seem to be any extra Thruway service between PDX and EUG during

this holiday period, either. I don't think there were ever any Holiday Extra trains on the south leg of the

Cascades, but usually they threw in a few extra Thruway bus runs on Wed/Thu/Sun. Those either won't

be repeated or haven't been loaded into the schedule yet. (I wonder if they figure the introduction of

BoltBus service between PDX and EUG will eat into the bus loads).

At this point, I suppose they won't be publishing a Cascades Holiday Timetable this year. Doesn't seem

to be much point with so little additional service.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

I wonder if they'll use Sounder equipment. Given that they used Sounder equipment for the short-lived extra

SEA-Bellingham run during the I-5 bridge issue earlier this year, they might be able to do that again.

When you do a test booking, a cafe is listed as an amenity so no.

 

[fairviewroad]

I wonder if they'll use Sounder equipment. Given that they used Sounder equipment for the short-lived extra

SEA-Bellingham run during the I-5 bridge issue earlier this year, they might be able to do that again.

When you do a test booking, a cafe is listed as an amenity so no.

Good catch.

 

[gn2276]

More then likely it will be Amfleet cars.

 

[fairviewroad]

For what it's worth, ODOT has added its usual convoy of extra Thruway service between PDX and EUG

after all. When combined with the existing service, it's almost hourly departures from both PDX and EUG

on 11/27 and 12/1, with a couple of extra departures on Thanksgiving day itself.