U.S. state rail company Amtrak will not operate its passenger trains in the Cascades between Vancouver and Seattle until possibly December due to staff shortages.
The company canceled services in Canada in March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Since then, no passenger trains have run between British Columbia and Washington State, while travel is almost freely done by car or plane.
The service was supposed to resume this summer or even in late spring, said Janet Makin, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation, but has now been delayed.
This delay comes as the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan allocates substantial funding to Amtrak, specifically to strengthen its sustainability and expand its network.
According to Ray Lang, a vice president at Amtrak, the company lacks drivers, mechanics and flight attendants. However, he explained in a letter to railroad managers in Washington and Oregon, new drivers are being trained.
Before the pandemic, about 159,000 people traveled between Vancouver and Seattle, said Janet Makin, spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation. The cost of running the Cascades service is funded by two-thirds of the passengers and the rest is by the State of Washington.
This year, Washington state lawmakers approved $ 150 million for a study of a high-speed train that would run between British Columbia, Washington state and Oregon. Such work is worth at least 42 billion dollars.
Source: Radio-Canada
