The Pacific Northwest is dreaming of a high-speed rail link of its own, possibly linking Portland, Oregon to Vancouver in under three hours, far faster than today's trains and tieing the average time for flights.
The proposal, by the Washington State Department of Transportation, argues that traffic along the so-called Cascadia Corridor will continue to grow, and air and rail will not be able to keep up with it, and that building a high-speed rail line is more effective than more airports and wider roads.
The report's authors say a dedicated line could be built for about $24 to $42 billion, while adding a lane each way to Interstate 5 would cost four times as much. They believe the new line could capture 20% of the corridor traffic and generate hundreds of millions in revenue.
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