Expect a lot more buses on Portland roads and freeways as Amtrak grapples with an unexpected service disruption. The operator of the Amtrak Cascades line between Oregon and Washington announced Wednesday they’ve removed all but one of their trainsets because a routine inspection revealed a high level of corrosion.
The corrosion is related to the age of the Horizon trainsets and has resulted in a total of 70 cars across the country being taken out of service. 26 of those are on the Amtrak Cascades line. “This leaves just one non-Horizon trainset in service on Amtrak Cascades,” reads a statement posted by Amtrak. “This affects nearly all trips on Amtrak Cascades daily service to 18 stations between Vancouver, British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon.”
Buses will be used in the short-term through March 30th for all trips except those served by train numbers 503 and 508 between Seattle and Eugene (providing only one remaining daily roundtrip). Amtrak is working with bus providers for longer-term service but that’s still up in the air.
The aging Horizon trains will need to be replaced and Amtrak says they’ll try to redistribute trains from its nationwide fleet to fill the gap until new trains come online. They’ve already got an order for a new fleet of trains, but those are expected to arrive until 2026. According to the latest update provided by ODOT, four new “Amfleet” cars (two coaches and two dinette cars) are on the way to Seattle and are expected to begin operations on the Cascade line the first week of April.
This is really bad news for Amtrak’s service along the I-5 corridor. And it comes as the Cascades line has shown a strong increase in ridership and amid growing political momentum in Oregon for rail travel. Amtrak set an all-time ridership record last year and launched two new daily trips on the Cascades line, bringing the number of daily roundtrips between Seattle and Portland to seven.
The Oregon Legislature passed a bill in 2024 calling on Metro to study the use of existing heavy rail assets for passenger rail in the Portland metro area. A bill in the legislature this session (SB 753/HB 3233) directs the Oregon Department of Transportation to work with transportation agencies in Washington and British Columbia to develop plans to operate and fun rail transportation. A bill in the Oregon Senate (SB 689) seeks to create a new agency, the Oregon Rail Department, to take over rail operations from ODOT. Other bills seek to expand TriMet’s WES service and create a task force on high speed rail.
But now all hands are on deck to solve this current service crisis. Amtrak says they are meeting with ODOT and WSDOT officials twice a day as they work to restore service and fully understand the cost and operational impacts of this disruption.
