A second daily Cascades service train between Seattle and Vancouver, B. C. could be in the offing and as early as summer. The Seattle Times has the story.
“It’s the first real step forward in getting the second train situation ironed out,” Vickie Sheehan, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT), said of the meeting that will be held in the next few weeks.
A second train would be popular among business and leisure travelers, particularly with the Winter Olympics coming up in February 2010 in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.
Filed under: Amtrak, Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy, Regional USA Passenger Rail
Trains For America 
We need this train now, so all the bugs of the new schedule, including border crossing issues can be worked out before the Olympics. December will be too late.
This article was published a month ago, I wonder if the talks are underway? Has anyone heard? We need a second train, one with some decent arrival and departure times.
If and when the second train happens, it’ll be an extension of trains #513 southward, and #516 northward; an early morning departure from Vancouver, BC with the train running through to Portland, and a late evening arrival in Vancouver, BC through from Portland. Just the opposite of the current schedule. Ideally, of course, sometime in 201X, there’ll be a mid-day train in each direction, from #500 and to #509, connecting Eugene and Vancouver.