T6.1 Olympia-Seattle rail
Support a commuter rail connection between Olympia and Seattle
Intercity Transit tried to develop express bus service from Olympia to Seattle. It offered the 592 as a commuter service, with three trips north and three south, morning and evening. The 609 ran during the rest of the day, with ten trips north and eleven south. (80% of the service was funded by a grant.) The 592 averaged 6.3 riders a trip, and the 609 averaged 4.6, so the service died for lack of passengers after three and a half years, when the grant ran out.
Currently Amtrak operates a train from Seattle to Olympia 5 times a day, but it’s definitely not a commuter train. (The first run in the morning leaves Olympia at 10:13 AM; the last train leaves at 9:13 PM. The first southbound train leaves Seattle at 7:15 AM; the last one leaves at 6:10 PM – these take 1h 18m.) Tickets cost $18 – $36 and the trip takes 1h 37m.)
As far as light rail goes, Senator Hunt was quoted a few years ago as saying that “Geography and the way rail track is built in the South Sound leaves the prospect of a train ‘eons away’.” If Sound Transit’s plan to extend light rail from Sea-Tac to Tacoma holds up, it might reach there by 2031. Furthermore, light rail extensions are an extremely expensive way to reduce emissions. (According to Sound Transit’s estimates, if all of the extensions funded by the Sound Transit 3 expansion were completed, it would reduce 2040 emissions in the region by 0.5%. The plan includes some bus rapid transit and a Sounder train extension, but light rail is most of the costs. The expected annual reduction of 130,000 metric tons of CO2e would cost $54 billion in 2041 dollars, or $13,800/tonne over 30 years of reductions, not counting operating expenses.)
Some rail enthusiasts maintain that light rail could reach Olympia much sooner, or have developed their own visionary proposals for high-speed rail along the corridor…