Amtrak Cascades is adding two new round trips between Seattle and Portland, beginning Dec. 11, for a total of six total in time to accommodate increased demand over the holidays.
Both Seattle and Portland will tack on two additional departures to their schedules — one from each city in the morning and one from each in the evening.
Under the current schedule, the earliest trains leave Seattle at 7:22 a.m. and Portland at 8:20 a.m. The new schedule will add a 5:52 a.m. from Seattle and a 6:40 a.m. from Portland. The 7:22 a.m. from Seattle will move up slightly to 7:08 a.m.
In the evening, the last train currently leaves Seattle at 6:10 p.m. and Portland at 7:25 p.m. The new schedule adds a 7:50 p.m. from Seattle — while moving the 6:10 p.m. up by half an hour — and a 5:55 p.m. from Portland as a second to last trip.
In total, 12 Amtrak Cascades trains will leave from the two cities all day, a 50% increase from the eight that leave under the current schedule. The trains stop in Tukwila, Tacoma, Olympia/Lacey, Centralia, Kelso/Longview and Vancouver, Washington.
Additionally, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train has one departure from Seattle and one from Portland each day.
In the period between October 2022 and September 2023, the Amtrak Cascades saw a 71% increase compared to the same stretch of time last year.
“As we increase options for our Pacific Northwest customers, we are thrilled to expand scheduled service to meet customers’ rising demand for train travel,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris.
Amtrak fully restored service between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, in March. The daily trips were canceled during the height of the pandemic when the borders between the U.S. and Canada closed. Their return was waylaid by staff shortages.
Before the start of the pandemic, the Cascades line between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C., carried around 750,000 people a year.
“This significantly increases capacity for riders traveling between the two busiest stops on the Amtrak Cascades route every morning and evening,” Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell said in a statement Wednesday. “These cities along the [Interstate 5] corridor are interconnected, and growing fast — together, Portland and Seattle added nearly a million residents and 700,000 new jobs over the last decade.”
