All aboard: Amtrak adds train to Portland

A fourth Amtrak train will be added to service between Seattle and Portland.

The new train, which adds an 11:20 a.m. departure from Seattle, begins service July 1. The train was funded last year by the Legislature, which appropriated $2.75 million for improved Amtrak service.

The new train is being added because of steadily increasing ridership and is part of the state's long-range plan to increase ridership and service, said Fred Chang, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

Under the existing schedule, a passenger who boards the train in Bellingham would have an hour layover in Seattle to board a southbound train. The new service will cut that wait to 25 minutes. Northbound, the wait will be reduced from 90 minutes to 20 minutes.

The additional train will leave Portland at 2:50 p.m.

According to the DOT, the 2005 total for Seattle-Portland round trips on the state-funded trains was 421,000 riders, nearly a 6 percent increase from 2004. That number has more than doubled since the state began the service in 1994. At the time, there was just one daily trip between Seattle and Portland.

As of July 1, the state will fund five daily round trips on Amtrak: three from Seattle to Portland; one from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C.; and one from Seattle to Bellingham. Amtrak funds one daily round trip from Seattle to Portland.

The last time the state added a train to Amtrak service was in 1999, when it added the Bellingham trip.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com