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originally uploaded by russ.

Ride Amtrak between Portland and Seattle?

Or even between Portland and places in between, such as Kelso-Longview, Chehalis, Olympia-Lacey or Tacoma.

Well, on July 1, Amtrak is adding another daily train, and adjusting the schedule of other trains to create balance and convenience.

That’s the new sked at the top of this post.

Now there will be four daily Amtrak Cascades trains between Portland and Seattle. There’s also the LA-Seattle Coast Starlight, but that train has been running so chronically late due to trackwork that the Portland-Seattle leg isn’t even listed on the Amtrak Web site.

But since the Starlight originates in Seattle, the Seattle-Portland leg is bookable- creating five handy options back home. The Starlight is slower, though- more boardings with time-consuming baggage loading, as well as older train equipment not quite able to negotiate the route’s occasional curves as well as the newer Spanish-made Talgo Amtrak Cascade trains can.

But still a good ride. And be sure to try and get a seat on the “water side”- left going north, right going south. Nice run along the Columbia just south of Kelso, and a great run right next to Puget Sound from just north of Olympia-Lacey up untill just south of Tacoma.