Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
I'm not sure where you see the $35 figure. That's the price for a bus ticket. A train is $47 each way. But of course the bus is 3h30m while the train is 4h20m... which is a big reason this whole thing is somewhat of a joke.
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If I'm not mistaken, bus tickets are $35 to the last empty seat.
Train tickets are variable pricing,
starting at $35 and going up to $41 and $47 as the train fills. I just checked tomorrow's train, and yes, it's $47.
If you book about a month in advance you'll get the $35 tix. Since it's %100 refundable, there's really no risk in booking early if you know in advance.
My guess is you need to have the cheaper seat for the whole journey, so you're competing with Seattle - Everett/Mount Vernon/Bellingham passengers as well.
And as mentioned before, if you book it
as a multi-city trip via Mount Vernon it's $32.
You are on the same train, but I don't know if you have to change seats.
edit:
As for the 4h20 time, it's worth noting that the scheduled time was billed as 3:55 in 2003. My guess is they had a hard time keeping that schedule, so they had to change the schedule. They've also been using older trainsets while the Talgos were out of service for a mid-life. They're coming back into service soon. I hope that we can see 3h25 in the near term. 3h25 is the goal for WSDOT in the midpoint between 2003 and 2023. Initially, this mid-point was envisioned for 2008, but in the actual plan was determined as unrealistic given the status of funding was uncertain. At the midpoint, there would be a morning afternoon and evening train between Vancouver and Seattle ( 6 trips ).
Here's a list of what is needed (according to WSDOT) to get trains down to the sub-180 minute area:
- Vancouver Terminal Control System Installation of new traffic control system/$6.9 million
- Still Creek to CN Junction New siding/$12.9 million
- Sperling-Willingdon Junction Siding New siding/$11.4 million
- Willingdon Junction Grade separation/$16 million
- Brunette-Piper Siding New siding/$28.6 million
- Fraser River Bridge Replace or improve existing bridge/$575 million
- Colebrook to Brownsville High speed track, continuation of White Rock bypass/$91.8 million
- Colebrook Siding New siding/$11.4 million
- White Rock Bypass High speed rail bypass/$312.7 million
*estimated in 2006 U.S. dollars.
source
The White Rock Bypass and Colebrook High-speed tracks shave the most time off ( almost an hour )