High Speed Rail Moves Forward!

Port Townsend, today. Wow! What a day in the evolution of High Speed Rail! The Lake Stevens Journal announced hours ago the release of $590M (USD) to Washington State for HSR, which officially arrived today.

In a separate, but related initiative, Amtrak, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and the Washington State Department of Transportation signed an agreement that establishes performance improvements for the Amtrak "Cascades" service.

These include how rail investments will be made based on service outcomes and passenger rail performance improvements on rail shared by freight and passenger, including on-time performance, faster travel times, and frequency of service.

And, if today's news was not exciting enough - an unexpected windfall! The State of Washington will receive an additional $161.5M (USD) in high-speed rail funds. These are the monies rejected by Republican Gov. Scott "Union Buster" Walker of Wisconsin and Republican Gov. John "Union Buster" Kasich of Ohio, who are gloating over their decision to reject the Obama Administration's offer for High Speed Rail (HSR) development.

(I must say, I have a real problem when one person can make a decision like that, which has such far reaching effects on millions of people.)

Furthermore, Washington also will make a bid for some of the $2.4 billion in high-speed rail funds that Republican Gov. Rick Scott of Florida turned down.

Amtrak's "Cascades" rail ridership along the I-5 corridor has been steadily increasing over the past few years, and will probably continue as the State inexorably inches toward the $5 (USD) gallon gasoline.