With all the talk about the idea of extending Portland’s light rail system over the Columbia River someday, it was inevitable somebody would ask about the rail link that’s been there for 111 years.
After all, there’s been regular railroad traffic between Vancouver and Portland since nine years before the Interstate 5 Bridge opened, over the prosaically named BNSF Railway Bridge 9.6.
That connection was front of mind for an anonymous reader who submitted the following question to Clark Asks, The Columbian’s reader-guided reporting project: “Why doesn’t Amtrak offer train service from the station in Vancouver into downtown Portland during normal commute hours?”
The question received 52 percent of the vote in a recent voting round, which means it’s won top priority among the three questions offered up for review in October. Our transportation reporter, Jeffrey Mize, has already started working on the story for publication later this month.
