BELLINGHAM — The Washington State Department of Transportation and Amtrak rolled out their first sustainable electric buses on Wednesday that will make daily round trips from Seattle to Bellingham on the Amtrak Cascades route.
According to an Amtrak press release, this is the first electric vehicle in the Amtrak National Network and is one of two buses that will make the trips. The roll out of the electric buses, owned and operated by MTRWestern, helps advance Amtrak’s goal of meeting their pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2024.
The electric buses can make the nearly 200 mile travel on a single charge.
“At Amtrak, we strive to give our passengers reliable, comfortable, and sustainable travel options. By incorporating environmental considerations into our current operations and as we work with our partners to reach more of America, we continue to make Amtrak an even ‘greener’ mode of transportation,” Amtrak Sustainability Director Kara Oldhouser said in the release.
According to WSDOT, the southbound Amtrak buses leave Bellingham from the Fairhaven Village at 10:45 am and 3:00 pm. The northbound buses leave Seattle at 12:15 pm and 4:00 pm. The trip is two hours and each bus holds about 50 passengers.
