Interesting. Obviously they’d need to find the money, a lot of money, and figure out the entire route and everything, but this could be good.
Also maybe a connection to CHSR somewhere around 2060? (I’ll be in my 50s, yikes.)
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A report will be submitted to the Governor and Legislature by June 30, 2023. Roughly a year from now.
“A stronger, better connected economic megaregion — stretching from greater Vancouver, British Columbia to metro Seattle, Washington to Portland, Oregon — has the potential to thrive in the global marketplace”
Vancouver to Portland. That’s good…
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The train will still make a stop at the border for customs.
I don’t think that’s true. The pre-pandemic train between Seattle and Vancouver had all its border/customs formalities handled at Vancouver station, not at the border.
Good to know. Last time I took that route was 18 years ago.
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Just had a quick look at the beginning. To answer the question of suburban vs downtown station location, it’s downtown obviously.
Vancouver train station is very far from downtown, and up a steep hill.
The Pacific Central Station, which is Vancouver’s intercity railway station, is very close to downtown, only two stops away on the SkyTrain.
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This is not unexpected. I lived in Eugene for almost 2 years and know Portland well.
The Willamette river valley (in which both cities and the capital Salem lie) is the political, economic and population heart of Oregon.
If the terminus of high speed rail was Portland, the benefit to most Oregonians would be limited.
Eugene is the largest city on I5 south of Portland until you hit Sacramento (nearly 500 miles south of Eugene).
That’s not exactly true.
2020 Census shows Eugene population at 174,753, while Salem has 175,432.
July 2021 Census estimate shows a slightly wider gap - Eugene is 175,096, Salem is 177,723.
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Well, I meant south of Eugene there’s no city Eugene’s size until Sacramento. Portland is almost 600 miles north of Sacramento. My wording could’ve been more precise, but yes Salem and Eugene are about the same size, although Eugene has a significant-sized twin city in Springfield (61K) next door.
If you connect Vancouver to Eugene
Then connect San Diego to San Francisco
Its inevitable that they will eventually connect Eugene with Sacramento.
Portland to Eugene adds 110 miles of track maybe costs a few Billion to connect the population spine of Oregon. South of Eugene and North of Sacramento is a 450 mile stretch of low population density. Maybe in the distant future it might be possible to connect those 2 rail state rail networks but considering PNW rail hasn’t even started now I imagine that’s 30 years from being realistic.
Oh yeah, I’m talking way into the future. But I do think that some day, far far away, you will be able to take a high speed train from Vancouver all the way down to San Diego.
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