WSDOT shares update on high-speed rail planning

Published 3:28 pm Wednesday, September 23, 2026

EVERETT — State transportation officials are continuing planning work on a massive high-speed rail project set to connect Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia, that could include a station in or around the city of Everett.

The ambitious project is still in its very early stages. The Washington State Department of Transportation, working alongside transportation agencies in Oregon and British Columbia, is now about two years away from completing what’s known as a service development plan, officials said during a virtual meeting Monday. That service development plan will outline a range of possible options for routes, station areas and funding methods for the project.

Once that document is complete, the project would need to go through even more extensive planning to determine a final route and station locations.

A 2019 report by the Washington State Department of Transportation stated that Everett could serve as a potential stop along the high-speed rail network, and a WSDOT spokesperson previously said that a station somewhere in Snohomish County is likely, though no decisions on a route or station locations have been made.

WSDOT got about $50 million through a federal grant near the end of 2024 to begin work on the service development plan, as well as a long range plan laying out how to prioritize improvements to I-5 over the coming decades. The state Legislature also chipped in about $5.5 million in Climate Commitment Act funds.

Ben Tripousis, the program administrator of both the Cascade High-Speed Rail project and the long range plan for I-5, said during Monday’s meeting that the department is working to address higher levels of traffic along I-5 while offering more ways for people to get from city to city.

“The level of congestion on I-5 has to be addressed by expanding the travel options that the traveling public has to move throughout the Cascadia region,” said Ben Tripousis, the program administrator of both the Cascade High-Speed Rail project and the long range plan for I-5.

The department also doesn’t have an estimate on how long it might take to complete the project, as design is in such an early stage, Tripousis said. But planning early is crucial, he said especially as population in the Cascadia mega-region, encompassing the metro areas of Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, is expected to grow significantly over the next 25 years.

“Trying to accommodate that level of growth is an effort we have to begin well in advance of the demand that’s going to place on it,” Tripousis said.

Building the high-speed rail network won’t be cheap. An initial estimate from WSDOT said the cost of construction could be between $24 billion to $42 billion. That estimate, however, was made in 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic and years of high inflation for major construction projects that followed.

WSDOT doesn’t yet know how the rest of the project, including future planning stages, might be paid for.

“Part of the service development plan will be to put together a funding and financing approach to deliver high-speed rail all the way through planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance,” said Adam Leuin, a high-speed rail planner. “We’re just starting that work, so by the end of 2028, we should have a better idea on what the options are for future funding.”

It also won’t be a simple process. The two states and a Canadian province funding the project will need to come up with a way to govern the network, as well as find ways to get around the challenges of building high-speed rail along a route with difficult topography.

Officials say they are doing their best to learn from experts in other countries, visiting nations like Germany that have built extensive high-speed rail networks connecting dozens of population centers.

“We’re doing our best to ensure that we’re incorporating the latest on existing high-speed technologies and finding ways to deliver these systems more efficiently and effectively in a more timely manner,” Tripousis said.

If the high-speed rail network is built, train trips to Portland or Vancouver, B.C. from Seattle would take less than an hour, traveling at about 220 miles per hour, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The department estimates that between 12 to 20 percent of intercity trips would be replaced by the high-speed rail service, rather than driving or flying.

The Department of Transportation also estimates that the rail system would bring in between $160 million to $250 million per year in direct revenue, along with about $355 billion in economic growth and 200,000 new jobs. Early planning for the high-speed rail system estimated that the service could carry between 1.7 million to 3.1 million riders per year after it opens.

Even as planning remains in the very early stages, officials say they hope to get feedback from those who live along the corridor. People can weigh in and share their priorities for the system by sending an email to cascadiaprogram@wsdot.wa.gov. The department also plans to host a survey and online open house beginning in October.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.