Amtrak Cascades

The Amtrak Cascades intercity passenger rail system is a service funded by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). As sponsors and good stewards of state funds, WSDOT is committed to monitoring and reporting on Amtrak Cascades' performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant changes to Amtrak Cascades beginning in March 2020 and continuing through 2022. The number of daily trains between Seattle and Portland was reduced from four daily roundtrips in 2019 to one daily roundtrip at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and returning to three daily trips beginning in May 2021. The reduction in service was due to lower demand for train travel, which was the result of state directives restricting non-essential travel. All Amtrak Cascades service between Seattle and Vancouver, BC was suspended due to the closure of the Canadian border beginning in 2020 and continuing through September, 2022. Comparison of 2019 data to 2022 data provides a clearer indication of trends pre- and post-pandemic, while comparison of 2021 data to 2022 offers a glimpse of changes coming out of the pandemic. Utilization is up compared to the pre-pandemic level, but the number of services and ridership are still down compared to the pre-pandemic level.

This dashboard provides Amtrak Cascades performance measures including ridership, capacity utilization, annual passenger miles traveled and on-time performance on the segments of the Amtrak Cascades system operating in Washington state (between Portland, OR and Vancouver, B.C.).