STANWOOD — Connie and Ralph Mennie rode the Amtrak Cascades train from Stanwood to Portland, Ore., on Thursday as part of their 27th wedding anniversary celebration.
Stanwood is the newest Amtrak station on the Cascades route, and Portland is one of its most popular destinations.
“It’s pretty cool,” Connie Mennie said. “The train is a good way to travel.”
With two northbound and two southbound trains each day, more than 800 people rode the train getting on and off in Stanwood in the last weeks of 2009. Stanwood Station’s official grand opening was celebrated Nov. 21.
“We had 269 boardings in Stanwood in December alone. This is over the top. We’re very pleased,” said Mayor Dianne White, who enjoys watching the trains from her home up the hill from the railroad tracks.
The Amtrak Cascades route, which runs between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., recently wrapped up its 10th anniversary year. In 2009, more than 760,000 people took an Amtrak Cascades train. Ridership was about the same as in 2008, but was up nearly 13 percent over 2007, according to a report released recently by the state Department of Transportation.
Amtrak Cascades ridership in January grew by nearly 12,000 passengers compared with a year ago, said transportation department spokeswoman Vickie Sheehan.
In Stanwood on Thursday morning, six others waiting for the southbound Amtrak joined the Mennies on the Stanwood train platform, and three people had just boarded the Cascades train headed for Canada.
“That’s pretty good for a weekday,” Connie Mennie said. “We’ll see what it’s like a year from now.”
City officials hope the Amtrak service will encourage economic development and more business in the area of the station.
To do that, though, Stanwood needs a hotel and ground transportation that caters to train passengers, Ralph Mennie said.
Great Northern Railroad passenger train service at Stanwood was discontinued in 1971.
The civic group Design Stanwood lobbied state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, to get a train station for the city. In 2006, the Legislature allocated $5 million for the 600-foot platform, with ramps, railings, shelters, seating, lighting and landscaping.
The completion date was delayed several times, mostly because of problems with the station design, negotiations over the use of the railroad tracks and the discovery that the construction site was contaminated by lead.
The Stanwood City Council now is considering how to manage use of the city’s parking lot across the street from the train station, city administrator Joyce Papke said.
And then there’s the need for a public restroom, she said.
Stanwood Station is unstaffed, and passengers must buy tickets online or over the phone and then board the train with reservation information in hand.
“You would think for $5 million that we could get a small building with a ticket counter and a restroom,” Ralph Mennie said.
Despite the drawbacks, the Mennies said Thursday they were happy to be able to get on the train in their hometown.
“We’re glad the train comes to Stanwood,” Connie Mennie said.
Want to ride?
Stanwood Station is at 271st Street NW in downtown Stanwood. Amtrak schedule, reservation and fare information is available at www.amtrakcascades.com or by calling 800-USA-RAIL.
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