The Pacific Northwest is set to be the first home for one of Amtrak’s next-generation trains starting in 2026, Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner confirmed at the agency’s annual board meeting in Seattle last week. First reported in Trains Magazine, Gardner told board members that the first set of what will eventually be 83 initial trainsets rolling out nationwide are set to be deployed to the Amtrak Cascades route between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C. Their manufacture schedule remains on track.
The Urbanist first reported on the new “Airo” trainsets, being manufactured by Siemens Mobility, in 2022 when Amtrak first revealed images and initial details on the new trainsets’ features. The biggest changes riders will notice inside the new cars are ergonomically designed seats, touchless fixtures in the restrooms, updated display screens in all cars, and a revamped cafe car.
Late last week, following the board meeting, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which oversees the operation of Amtrak Cascades along with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), released an update confirming the production schedule.
“Eight new Amtrak Cascades trainsets and two new locomotives are currently being constructed in Sacramento, California. WSDOT is closely monitoring the production schedule and is in regular communication with the Amtrak national procurement team,” the report noted. “These trainsets and locomotives will be the first delivered to a state-supported route, with the other 75 trainsets that are part of the Page procurement going to routes along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.”
Karyn Criswell, Amtrak’s AVP of Major Programs, told the board that the agency has an option to purchase another 103 trainsets at the same price as the first 83.
“We have pricing locked in on those options,” Criswell said. “That’s a huge benefit to us and our state partners.”
Ridership on Amtrak Cascades has been booming following the restoration of two additional daily round-trips between Seattle and Portland last December, with 739,000 passengers using the service between January and September of this year — a 36% increase year over year. Since this May, fares on Amtrak Cascades have been free for riders under 18, matching the rest of Washington’s public transit agencies along with Washington State Ferries. So far, 15,000 kids had utilized those free tickets through September.
One thing that new trainsets won’t help with is speed and reliability on Amtrak Cascades, with the new Airo trainsets not expected to significantly differ from the existing Talgo trainsets in terms of average travel speed. Through October, fewer than half (48.2%) of Amtrak Cascades trips arrived at their destination within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, well short of Amtrak’s goal of 88%. That’s largely due to freight train interference from host railroads — primarily BNSF — along with speed restrictions imposed by those host railroads.
WSDOT’s newest Amtrak progress report details some projects in the pipeline that could cut down on delays, particularly along the Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. segment. The biggest gain is set to come from the modification of the border inspection area at Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station, a change that will eliminate the 10 minutes spent at the US/Canada border on every trip. Such an improvement has been in the works since at least 2019, but looks poised to finally happen.
“In 2024, station owner VIA Rail Canada and Amtrak completed final designs to modify the joint U.S./Canada border agencies’ passenger inspection area, with construction scheduled to commence in January 2025,” the report noted. “Once completed in early summer 2025, Amtrak Cascades trains returning to the U.S. will no longer stop at the international border for secondary inspections by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers.”
There’s also an additional push happening south of the border for upgrades that would benefit how Amtrak Cascades performs inside Canada.
“In 2024, WSDOT and Amtrak began providing information and educational materials to Canadian public agencies and others regarding Washington State and U.S. federal funding constraints for railroad-related capital projects in British Columbia that could support Amtrak Cascades service,” the report said. In early 2025, a new Cascades Gateway Bi-National Rail Working Group is set to start meeting, to agree on both short and longer-term upgrades that will benefit train performance and rider experience, including badly needed accessibility upgrades at Pacific Central Station.
Significant Amtrak-related projects are happening in Seattle as well, with a groundbreaking this month for the nearly $300 million overhaul of the Amtrak maintenance yard south of King Street Station. Not as passenger-facing as the changes happening in Vancouver, the expansion will set Amtrak up to be able to operate more trains to and from Seattle over the long term. Next year, construction is also set to start on an overhaul of the BNSF bridge over Salmon Bay near Ballard, a rehabilitation that will allow the bridge to continue operating until well into the future. According to WSDOT, the existing system that opens and closes the drawbridge was starting to fail, and the $110 million project will keep it open for the 35 trains a day that use it.
The arrival of the new Airo trains will be hotly anticipated by Amtrak riders in the Pacific Northwest, with bragging rights for being the first regional corridor to see the new trains. And the improvements represent just one aspect of the $66 billion in rail investments that were included in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, an amount that surpasses the amount of federal funding awarded to the agency over its first 50 years of operation.
Ryan Packer lives in the Summit Slope neighborhood of Capitol Hill and has been writing for the The Urbanist since 2015. They report on multimodal transportation issues, #VisionZero, preservation, and local politics. They believe in using Seattle's history to help attain the vibrant, diverse city that we all wish to inhabit. Ryan's writing has appeared in Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Bike Portland, and Seattle Bike Blog, where they also did a four-month stint as temporary editor.