February 28, 2025

AAWA News, February 2025

Washington State Rail Advocates Expand Board Representation

The Board of passenger rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington (AAWA) elected new board members at its annual meeting on January 11.

  • John McIntosh, Treasurer -- Kennewick
    John McIntosh is a native Tri-Citian who has been supporting passenger rail for years and advocates for, among other issues, the reinstatement of the North Coast-Hiawatha rail service over Stampede Pass.
  • Larry Yok -- Seattle
    Larry Yok has worked in the public transportation industry for 18 years. He was the first manager of Intercity Transit in Olympia and director of finance, budget, and administration of Pierce Transit. As a consultant, he proposed the first route maps for what became the transit systems in Longview-Kelso and Centralia-Chehalis. He also represented or advised C-Trans, Pacific Transit, Clallam Transit, Community Urban Bus System (now RiverCities Transit) and Valley Transit in their labor relations. Most recently he was on Sound Transit's stakeholders committee for the Federal Way extension and the West Seattle/Ballard citizens advisory committee.

The Board also re-elected:

  • Harvey Bowen
  • James S. McIntosh
  • Rocky Shay

The full list of board members is available on the AAWA website. Thanks to everyone for serving the cause of improved rail service in our region.

FRA Long-Distance Study Submitted January 20

The Federal Railroad Administration's Long-Distance Service Study Report to Congress includes 15 additional routes, several in the Greater Northwest. Now it will be up to us to tell Congress to implement these recommendations. The full report is available at https://fralongdistancerailstudy.org/final-report/ 

AAWA Presents to Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI)

AAWA Government Affairs Director Luis Moscoso reports: AAWA, AORTA & PNWER appointed me liaison with Tribal Nations to initiate contact regarding organizing for the next Summit.  My initial effort connected us to the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI https://atnitribes.org/) and led to our presentation at their Winter Convention in Portland in January.  We are working with them to get a Resolution to support our work and have been invited to a Health Committee meeting later this spring.

Followup from February 27: We met with ATNI staff in Portland today.  A great exchange about how Rail Advocates can help Tribal Nations collaborate on transportation issues.  We talked about getting Tribal contacts for this work and our "Transportation for Medical Care" project we mentioned at their Winter Convention last month.

AAWA Presents to Yakima Sunrise Rotary

AAWA VP Gary Wirt reports: “I had some nice thank-you comments following my presentation early Wednesday morning [February 5] to about 40 Rotary Club members.… The 20 minutes allowed for my presentation turned into about 40 minutes given the amount of questions.  As usual there is significant interest in restoring service through the valley.”

AAWA Testifies in Favor of Washington HB 1921

AAWA VP Gary Wirt testified in support of HB 1921 Road Usage Charge before the WA House Transportation Committee on 2/13/25.

AAWA Testifies Before the Washington State Transportation Commission

AAWA Government Affairs Director Luis Moscoso, and our coalition partner Dr. Breck Lebegue, representing Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, provided comments to the Washington State Transportation Commission in Olympia on February 20. The recording is available at
ttps://tvw.org/video/washington-state-transportation-commission-2025021047/?eventID=2025021047

Upcoming Events

See our website for the full calendar of events

Passenger Groups Oppose Firings at Rail Agency

AAWA has joined with rail advocacy groups nationwide to sign on to a letter to Secretary of Transportation Duffy. The Rail Passengers Association writes that the letter seeks ”to defend the Federal Railroad Administration from another round of firings that would further delay work on several rail projects of national significance, threatening the 2025 construction season at a time of increased economic fragility in the U.S.”

Transportation Books Available at a Discount

If you haven't purchased the excellent book "When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency" by Anna Zivarts yet, here's a great opportunity. Sale ends this Sunday, March 2. https://islandpress.org/best-selling-ebooks-just-499

Charlie Hamilton
Co-Executive Director
All Aboard Washington