The Amtrak Cascades is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. It runs from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada to Eugene, Oregon, stopping along the way at Bellingham, Mount Vernon/Burlington, Everett, Edmonds, Seattle (King Street Station), Tukwila, Tacoma, Olympia/Lacey, Centralia, Kelso/Longview, and Vancouver in Washington and Portland, Oregon City, Salem, and Albany in Oregon.

Service on the line was started in 1993. Its ridership was nearly 600,000 in 2003.

Equipment

The Amtrak Cascades is a unique train that is painted in a special paint scheme. The train is operated in a push-pull configuration with an EMD F59PHI at one end, and a de-motored locomotive called a Non-Powered Control Unit (NPCU) on the other end. The engine compartment on the NPCU has been converted into baggage storage, giving them the nickname cabbage, a combination of "cab" and "baggage". The passenger cars themselves are an articulated set produced by Talgo, the only cars by that company in operation in the United States. These cars are designed to tilt into curves, allowing the train to pass through them at higher speeds.

External links

• Amtrak's website for the Amtrak Cascades