Amtrak restarted direct trips between Portland and Vancouver, B.C., marking full restoration of daily service on its popular Cascades route.
The return, effective Monday, provides Amtrak Cascades customers with multiple daily roundtrips between Seattle and Canada. It’s the first time direct service will operate between Portland and stations north of Seattle since 2020.
About 159,000 people per year took direct trips between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., before the pandemic. Overall, including trips with stops along the way, about 290,000 passengers rode the train between the two large cities.
Passenger trains to Vancouver, B.C. were discontinued in 2020 when Canada closed the border. The border reopened in August 2021 for vaccinated travelers, but service did not immediately resume.
One daily trip was restored between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., in September 2022, northbound in the morning and southbound in the evening.
Now, in addition to that trip, customers traveling north can depart Portland at 3:05 p.m. for an 11 p.m. arrival in Vancouver, B.C. The train stops in Seattle at 7 p.m. The southbound train leaves Vancouver, B.C. at 6:35 a.m. for an 11 a.m. stop in Seattle and a 2:55 p.m. Portland arrival.
“With more people now traveling, we are thrilled to double the daily roundtrips between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “By adding staffing and equipment to the region, we can once again offer customers a direct connection between Portland and Canada.”
Amtrak previously blamed staffing for lingering service disruptions, which Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, rejected as an excuse as she urged the company to restore full service between Vancouver and Washington.
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