Amtrak Cascades records surge in ridership among Oregonians

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — Thirty years since it launched, Amtrak Cascades is seeing some of its highest ridership levels ever recorded.

The Oregon Department of Transportation and Washington State Department of Transportation first joined forces for passenger rail service in April 1994, with only one daily round trip between Portland and Seattle.

The departments currently offer six round trips between the two destinations every day. ODOT spokesperson Shelley Snow explained that leaders added new routes last December to meet the demand for travel from Oregon’s largest city to Washington’s largest city.

Since then, the popularity of trains just in Amtrak Cascades’ Oregon portion — with stops in Portland, Oregon City, Salem, Albany and Eugene — has increased as well.

“We’re seeing high ridership on the entire corridor, but particularly high for Oregon, because we don’t have that same population base, of course, that you have in the Portland and Seattle area,” Snow told KOIN 6. “So while that’s been nice, steady growth between Portland and Seattle, where we’ve really seen significant growth is between Portland and Eugene.”

The spokesperson reported that June was the busiest month on record for Oregon stops. Amtrak Cascades recorded more than 15,000 riders for that portion of the route alone — about a 36% increase from the riders in June 2023.

Snow is still awaiting data on July ridership, but she estimates it was another busy month for rail service. Amtrak Cascades regularly sees growth in March, April and November due to spring break and Thanksgiving celebrations.

Outside of school breaks and holidays, Snow said the company sees other increases in ridership when there are increases in gas prices.

She also noted that some travelers may purchase a train ticket to avoid the congestion that often comes with city highways — like Portland’s Interstate 5. The northbound corridor of I-5, from I-405 to the Washington border, was recently named one of the busiest corridors nationwide .

“People can realize that they can hop on the train and enjoy a comfort level… . There’s no hassles with the traffic, of course, or in the end, when you’re parking on having to pay for parking, you don’t have to worry about all that,” she added, later citing the ease that comes with using Amtrak to visit a destination like Vancouver, B.C.

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