The Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT's) Rail, Freight and Ports Division is responsible for the state's passenger rail program and develops the state passenger rail plan.  The WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) sponsor the Amtrak Cascades intercity passenger rail service, which operates from Eugene, Oregon (OR) to Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) on tracks primarily owned by BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad.  For this service, Amtrak currently operates six daily roundtrips between Seattle and Portland, two between Seattle, Washington (WA) and Vancouver, BC, and two between Portland, OR, and Eugene, OR.  

In 1993 the Legislature established the following program goals for high-speed ground transportation:

• to achieve a maximum travel time of 2 hours and 30 minutes between Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, by 2000;
• to achieve a maximum travel time of 2 hours between Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, by 2010;
• to implement service with top speeds over 150 miles per hour (mph) between Everett, WA, and Portland, OR, by 2020;
• to implement service with top speeds over 150 mph between Everett, WA, and Vancouver, BC, by 2025; and
• to implement service with top speeds over 150 mph between Seattle, WA, and Spokane, WA, by 2030.

In October 2013 the federal government eliminated federal operating funding for state-supported regional train lines, which led to an increased need for state support for these lines.  In the 2023-25 biennium, biennial state expenditures for Amtrak Cascades service were estimated to be between $69 million and $73 million.

In 2019 a federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant was awarded to the WSDOT to fund development of a Service Development Plan (SDP) to identify operational strategies and capital investment options to improve reliability, safety, and competitiveness on Amtrak Cascades service between Vancouver, BC, and Portland, OR.  Funds were appropriated for this work in 2019 and again in 2021.  In June of 2024, the WSDOT published the Amtrak Cascades 2024 Preliminary Service Development Plan (Preliminary SDP), which provides a summary of possible alternatives to improve the Amtrak Cascades service. 

In 2023 the WSDOT and the ODOT were awarded a federal Corridor Identification and Development (CID) Program grant for Amtrak Cascades service.  The CID Program is a framework for identifying and developing new or improved intercity passenger rail services.  The Federal Railroad Administration partners with corridors selected for the program to prepare, or update, an SDP.  The CID Program spans the development stages for projects, including project planning and development.

The CID Program award will fund the integration of WSDOT and ODOT SDPs to create a corridor plan for investments over the next 20 years.  The award advances work identified in the WSDOT's Preliminary SDP.  The Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant (FSP) Program, which draws on other federal funding, could contribute to final design and construction of CID-identified projects.

The WSDOT is required to prioritize the following target goals for the Amtrak Cascades service, with a goal of meeting them by 2035:

1. Service reliability:  achieve a minimum trip reliability of 88 percent on-time performance.
2. Service frequencies:  provide a minimum of 14 roundtrips per day between Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, and a minimum of 5 roundtrips per day between Seattle, WA, and Vancouver, BC.
3. Improvements to first- and last-mile connections:  create improved multimodal transportation connectivity.
4. Emission reductions:  reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with state law.

The Legislature recognizes that voluntary investments by the government of Canada, crown corporations, provincial entities, and Oregon state entities will be required to achieve these target goals outside of Washington state borders.

The WSDOT must engage with host railroads and infrastructure owners on increasing speeds beyond current maximum operating speeds, and if necessary, identify additional infrastructure that would be needed to reach trip-time target goals.

The WSDOT is required to prioritize these target goals as it conducts project development work, including for the federal CID Program and the FSP Program.  Project development work performed by the WSDOT must include infrastructure investments and coordination with host railroads and other service partners as necessary to achieve these targets.

The WSDOT must provide an annual report, due by December 1 of each year, to the Transportation Committees of the Legislature and to the Joint Transportation Committee that includes analyses conducted and progress made to achieve target goals, and that reports on the following:

• any obstacles that would need to be addressed by the Legislature or another entity to meet the target goals; and
• whether the WSDOT recommends modification of a target goal because the WSDOT does not find it possible to address an obstacle that is expected to prevent the target goal from being achieved.

The Joint Transportation Committee is required to conduct an independent review of the Amtrak Cascades 2024 Preliminary Service Development Plan and any documents related to it that are released by December 31, 2026.  The review must analyze technical aspects of the plan, the public engagement strategies used to develop the plan, and the effectiveness of communication within plan documents.  To the extent possible, the review must also include a cost-benefit analysis of travel time reductions to be achieved through improvements made.  A final report is required to be provided by June 1, 2027, to the WSDOT, the transportation committees of the Legislature, and the Office of Financial Management.

The stated legislative intent of establishing the target goals is to reemphasize the need to prioritize the improvement of intercity passenger rail through data-driven analyses as project development work is conducted by the WSDOT, including as part of the federal corridor identification and development program.