Goals for 2011

Our Priorities:
What’s important in 2011
by Loren Herrigstad, President

Although economists tell us America’s latest recession is over, Washington State still faces the worst state budget conditions since the Great Depression. Fortunately, the state Transportation Budget is in far better shape than the state General Fund Budget, but revenues are declining some and there are practically no moneys for major new transportation projects or initiatives. Plus, as of this writing, the US Federal Railroad Administration has yet to release over $700 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding pledged for passenger rail development in our state, and the US Republican House looks to be adopting a “Pay-Cut” rule as well as possibly conduct “reviews” of all unspent stimulus funding and infrastructure plans.

The good news is that the political leadership in Washington State remains soundly committed to our state’s passenger rail program. While your board at All Aboard Washington has decided with regret not to push to make the 2011-13 state budget biennium a period of aggressive growth for our trains as we had originally wanted to, we will still press for improvements in the Legislature that will produce results without costing much. One key area will be bank stabilization… and we’re not talking about the type that makes loans. You probably have heard a number of times now about continuing Sounder and Amtrak train cancellations due to another mudslide in our region, usually north of Seattle. Every time one of these happens, hundreds of millions of dollars in state investment in passenger rail is brought to a standstill, usually for several days. Both revenues and riders are lost, all for lack of fairly basic hillside protections that even the most minor of two lane state highways usually enjoy. So we will be asking Washington State, along with the BNSF Railway, and even Amtrak and Sound Transit to work together to start reducing both the number of slides, and their impacts and delays, perhaps with just little fixes here and there that might not cost much.

We also want to encourage the state to take a look at spreading the reach and convenience of our successful and popular Amtrak Cascades service, as well as other Amtrak services in our state, with better bus connections and service. You may know about the US and Canadian buses that connect the Cascades trains from the south that terminate in Seattle with Bellingham and Vancouver BC, but did you know that there’s also a state sponsored bus service between Seattle and Port Angeles? Or between Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Omak? Or Walla Walla to the Tri Cities?

WSDOT’s Travel Washington Intercity Bus Program coordinates four different routes in our state, all of which serve Amtrak stations. Locals who use these buses know about them, but do the rest of us, or tourists? We think this program could be better integrated and easily expanded to make train and bus travel better for everyone in our state. We would also like state and local agencies to improve bus services, like developing an express bus between the Olympia-Lacey station, the Capitol Campus, and downtown Olympia, at least when the Legislature is in session.

But in this coming state budget biennium, many state agencies, programs and services will be cut. Some will even be eliminated. You can bet supporters of education, health care, senior services, and even emergency services will be contacting their legislators, urging them to reduce or reverse cuts in those areas. The governor is even proposing to offload Washington State Ferries to the counties that rely on them. So nothing is really safe or should be taken for granted. If you care about rail, I urge you to let your local legislators know, politely and positively (believe me, it will be a refreshing change from much of the other messages and mail they’ll be receiving), that you ride the trains our state funds, and that you just want to see them continue to run. We realize we can’t ask for much more in terms of state rail investment than we have in this climate, but let’s you and I work together to at least keep the trains we use now, while making them at least a little better.