Amtrak Cascades Questions

[DET63]

Trains 507 and 509 go from Seattle to Eugene. Train 500 goes from Eugene to Seattle. Train 504 goes from Eugene to Portland. Passengers wishing to continue on to Vancouver (WA), Seattle, and points in-between must wait 40 minutes in Portland and then board Train 506. Why is this? Is the same trainset used for both 504 and 506? Or does the set used for Train 501, which arrives in Portland at 11:00 am, become 506?

 

[the_traveler]

It doesn't make sense, but they are the same trainset! I arrived from OLW to PDX, and some seat checks were for beyond PDX - and they did not get off in PDX!

 

[EB_OBS]

Trains 507 and 509 go from Seattle to Eugene. Train 500 goes from Eugene to Seattle. Train 504 goes from Eugene to Portland. Passengers wishing to continue on to Vancouver (WA), Seattle, and points in-between must wait 40 minutes in Portland and then board Train 506. Why is this? Is the same trainset used for both 504 and 506? Or does the set used for Train 501, which arrives in Portland at 11:00 am, become 506?

Currently, the trainset that is south bound train 501 does become the north bound train 506 and returns to Seattle. The north bound train 504 arrives into PDX at 11:35am and departs at 2:50pm as train 516 to SEA and on to BEL.

 

[EB_OBS]

It doesn't make sense, but they are the same trainset! I arrived from OLW to PDX, and some seat checks were for beyond PDX - and they did not get off in PDX!

I'm not sure why there would be seat checks for destinations south of PDX. Train 501 terminates in PDX. Any passengers on-board destined for further south transfer to Thruway buses. The 501 trainset becomes north bound train 506 and departs PDX at 12:15pm.

 

[the_traveler]

My mistake!

I was on 509 - which is a thru train! I knew there was one that had different numbers - but that was not it. Sorry!

 

[Trogdor]

The reason for that odd-looking connection is because of the equipment rotation necessary to get each trainset to overnight at the maintenance base in Seattle every four days. If they didn't do it that way, then one of the trains would never spend the night in Seattle, and therefore, never receive maintenance (and therefore, would be more likely to break down, requiring cancellations and an expensive shuttle to get the maintenance folks to the train, wherever it happens to be).

 

[gswager]

Perhaps the Oregon train is being funded by Oregon while the Washington funded Cascades north of PDX. So that's probably one of several reasons for that.

 

[EB_OBS]

Perhaps the Oregon train is being funded by Oregon while the Washington funded Cascades north of PDX. So that's probably one of several reasons for that.

Both WSDOT and ODOT provide funding for Amtrak Cascades service. Washington state actually owns three of the five Talgo trainsets. The trains run in a cycle which, as rmadisonwi pointed out, allows for each set to overnight in Seattle every fourth day. Here's the current cycle for four trainsets;

day 1 - 501/506/509

day 2 - 500/507

day 3 - 504/516

day 4 - 513/508

The fifth trainset, the Canadian train #510, currently returns to Seattle nightly as train #517.

 

[DET63]

Assuming that the routine servicing and maintenance issue is behind the decision to force northbound passengers to change trains at Portland, is this practice also still in effect when Superliners are used instead of Talgos?

 

[AlanB]

Assuming that the routine servicing and maintenance issue is behind the decision to force northbound passengers to change trains at Portland, is this practice also still in effect when Superliners are used instead of Talgos?

Generally Superliners are not used on the Talgo routes, it was only during the Talgo refurbishment program which saw one Talgo set taken out of service at a time, that a Superliner set was used as a substitute. And that Superliner set was used only on the Seattle to Vancouver run, as the trainset used for that run does not make any other runs.