High Performance Rail

What is High Performance Rail?

High Performance Rail accelerates partnerships between our region’s Class I (BNSF and UP) and short line railroads, Amtrak, Tribal nations, state DOTs, local communities, ports, shippers and logistics companies for joint investment. The partnerships will help eliminate bottlenecks, enhance inter and multi-modal transfers and connections and increase reliability.

By reducing conflicts with freight trains and with major new funding for Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the Northwest has an opportunity to expand and enhance freight and passenger rail in these corridors:

Amtrak Cascades | Vancouver, BC to Eugene, OR
Amtrak Empire Builder | Seattle & Portland to Chicago via northern Montana
Big Sky North Coast Corridor | Seattle & Portland to Chicago via southern Montana
Pioneer Line | Seattle to Denver via Boise and Salt Lake City
Amtrak Coast Starlight | Seattle to Los Angeles

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is bringing an unprecedented amount of funding to our region’s highways, bridges, transit, airports, and railroads. Rail is a critical component of the BIL’s mission, and its legislation has brought capital investments and carbon reduction to our supply chains, increased community safety and passenger rail services, and expedited the transfer of commodities to ports and global markets with lower costs and fewer emissions.

The ABCs of High Performance Rail

High Performance Rail encompasses a comprehensive vision for enhancing our region’s freight and passenger rail network. This concept is built on 10 core tenets, each representing a critical aspect of achieving a shared rail network that meets modern demands and future growth while prioritizing economic growth, environmental sustainability and community equity.

Accelerating Economic Growth

Optimize NW supply chains by reducing friction and delays in rail corridors through capital investment and technological advances
Expand employment opportunities for tribal nations, rural communities, and manufacturing and tourism centers connected by rail
Enhance truck/rail/barge transload terminals and intermodal facilities for agriculture and other commodity exports
Modernize short line and port access to mainline rail corridors through joint public private investment and tax credits

Benefiting the Environment

Reduce emissions and congestion on highways and near our seaports by transporting more freight by rail rather than by trucks (1 train = 280 trucks)
Accelerate the transition to clean energy by investing in technological advances in low emission locomotives, rail yard electrification, and hydrogen propulsion for trains
Restore fish and wildlife habitat through railroad culvert rehabilitation and separated crossings

Connecting More Communities

Provide weather-resilient travel and shipping options for rural residents and Tribal nations so they can access healthcare, higher education centers, airports, jobs centers, and reliable shipping corridors
Restore communities impacted by railroad tracks by eliminating highway-rail gate crossings, resulting in reduced emergency response time, reduced train noise, and increased safety for community members
Stimulate new housing, retail and commercial development through train station construction and/or restoration

High Performance Rail Projects & Initiatives

Cascades Corridor Rail & Port Investment Strategy

A major part of the Washington and Oregon-sponsored Amtrak Cascades service includes trains operating between Seattle and Portland, OR. An initiative underway by the PNWER RIA is to identify, evaluate and pursue multiple projects that, when bundled, will significantly reduce passenger train delays and improve freight train velocity along three sections of the major corridor:

Seattle to Blaine, WA
Seattle to Portland Union Station
Portland Union Station to Eugene, OR

Analysis completed by the PNWER RIA rail team revealed a suite of potential improvements that, when bundled, would improve performance on the Cascades corridor for freight and passenger rail. Proposed projects include, but are not limited to:

Signal improvements
Upgraded switches
Extended siding
Improved track geometry and turnouts

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) was awarded a $500,000 grant through the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Corridor ID program to scope an updated Amtrak Cascades service development plan, which will serve as a guide to improve the Amtrak Cascades service over the next 20 years. More information on this work is available here. The proposed projects identified by the PNWER RIA are independent of WSDOT’s work but have been recommended to the WSDOT service development plan team.

The PNWER RIA will work with local ports along the lower Columbia river to identify state and federal financing mechanisms to support investment in an enhanced rail network that more effectively moves products to global markets. Additionally, the RIA will work with local communities along the corridor to identify opportunities and financing solutions for passenger train station improvements.

Small Parcel Delivery Study

Before its suspension in 2020, Amtrak offered “Amtrak Express” shipping services on their passenger trains, which would allow riders to transport small packages and less-than-truckload shipments on Amtrak trains between 100 cities. Although Amtrak offered this service to a large network, it was deemed to be economically unviable and thus was suspended for the foreseeable future.

The PNWER RIA, with its partners at Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, will perform a feasibility analysis of resuming small parcel delivery on passenger trains in Montana to understand the economic benefit and feasibility of offering the service between Montana’s rural communities. This study will evaluate the economic impact of restoring small parcel delivery by rail to rural and remote Montana communities, including the projected benefit to small businesses across Montana.

Rural Railroad Community Outreach

The PNWER RIA will support Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) in performing outreach throughout Montana to understand the relationships between rural and Tribal communities and the passenger and freight rail system. These outreach events will further strengthen BSPRA’s understanding of hyper-local rail concerns and opportunities as they move towards scoping a service development plan as part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor ID program.

Regional Railroad Working Group

Currently, there is no formal cooperation across the Pacific Northwest states to address opportunities for joint corridor investments. In the interim, before a formal group is established, the PNWER RIA will serve as the convening body for this effort. State departments of transportation, Tribal nations, rail authorities, Class Is, short lines, ports, communities and other partners will convene quarterly to share information and address challenges and opportunities for our region’s freight and passenger rail network.

Boise Cut-Off Feasibility Analysis

Valley Regional Transit (VRT) serves the rapidly-growing Treasure Valley in and around Boise, Idaho, and is looking for innovative ways to meet the transportation needs of an expanding region. The 25-mile Boise Cut-off runs from Nampa to just southeast of Boise, ID, and is part of the larger Boise Valley Railroad serviced by Union Pacific. The Boise Cut-off might be key to providing fast, reliable transportation between jobs and residential areas within Treasure Valley. PNWER RIA project partner VRT identified this cut-off as a potential candidate for Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) funding to enhance its performance and increase capacity for the customers it serves.

The PNWER RIA will support VRT in analyzing the project for RRIF eligibility, and will provide technical assistance to the project if needed.

Project Partners

Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority

A Montana-based rail authority and passenger rail advocate for the reestablishment of safe, reliable and sustainable passenger rail service across southern Montana that increases opportunities and contributes to the health and well-being of the people across the state and beyond.

About BSPRA

Valley Regional Transit

Treasure Valley’s regional public transportation authority, responsible for the management of public bus transit, specialized van services, paratransit and more.

About VRT

Examples of High Performance Rail

In 2022, the PNWER RIA provided technical assistance to the City of Spokane Valley, WA during its 2022 RAISE grant application to funding the replacement of an existing highway-rail at-grade crossing of Pines Road (SR 27) and the BNSF Railway tracks. The crossing was identified by the city as a freight corridor bottleneck and safety risk to the surrounding community.
The RIA helped the City of Spokane Valley contextualize the number and speed of trains that utilize the crossing in the RAISE grant application, which ultimately led to the U.S. Department of Transportation awarding the city a $22 million grant for the project.
After several years of unsuccessful grant applications, this RAISE grant was a major success for the City of Spokane Valley, and will have widespread positive impacts on the local community and national supply chain.
Learn more here.
Sandpoint, Idaho, is the home of a significant amount of transcontinental freight rail traffic. BNSF’s mainline track in Sandpoint merges with the former Montana Rail Link before spanning the lake as a single track, which often creates bottlenecks for the approximately 60 freight trains that cross the lake each day.
To reduce the congestion and promote efficient movement of train traffic, BNSF built a second track through the bottleneck area.
Learn more here.
The project involves final design and construction activities for track, bridge, signal, and other rail infrastructure improvements on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway’s (BNSF) tracks, on which the Amtrak Empire Builder long-distance service operates, in the Malta, MT area and at the Amtrak Malta station. The project will also improve safety and reliability.
Learn more here.