May 17, 2024

AAWA News, May 2024

Join Us Tomorrow! May AAWA Meeting and Auction

Saturday, May 18 at noon (Setup begins at 11:00 am)

River’s Edge Restaurant
4611 Tumwater Valley Dr SE
Tumwater, WA
This event will not be available on Zoom.

"All Aboard Washington and Forty Years of Passenger Rail Expansion"
A Presentation from Jeff Schultz, Senior Transit and Rail Planner, David Evans and Associates, and a Longtime AAWA member

Jeffrey T. Schultz, PMP is a Senior Transit and Rail Planner with David Evans and Associates. He has an extensive background in rail freight and passenger operations, train scheduling and simulation modeling, rail and public transportation policy, project management, grant development, management, and administration. He is currently assisting with the development of the Oregon Cascades Service Development Plan-implementation plan for ODOT as well as the update for the Oregon State Rail Plan. Recently he led DEA’s team that has won approximately $25M in Federal Grant funding for several clients in Washington State. His experience also includes managing the development of the WA State Grade Crossing Action Plan and the WA State Inventory of Rail Safety Oversight for the UTC.

Prior to joining DEA, Jeff led the service planning team on the successful New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail project and was one of the key Washington State DOT staff that developed the innovative Amtrak Cascades rail service.  He’s authored numerous rail articles published in Passenger Train Journal and Trains magazines and has ridden trains on 5 continents.  He also serves as chair of TRB Committee AR030 Railroad Operating Technologies, is a member of AREMA Committee 17, and is also a Washington Operation Lifesaver volunteer.  He was recently appointed to the University of Washington Tacoma School of Civil Engineering Advisory Board.  Jeff is married, has 3 amazing daughters, and lives in Olympia, WA.

Silent Auction

Longtime AAWA Executive Director Lloyd Flem and others are donating a large collection of rail-related materials to be auctioned in benefit of AAWA. Photos of some sample items are available on the AAWA website. Please bring items you wish to donate.

Arrival by train

  • AMTK 11 southbound, arr OLW 11:19 am
  •  AMTK 502 northbound, arr OLW 10:15 am

Return

  • AMTK 518 northbound, lv OLW 4:05 pm
  • AMTK 507 southbound, lv OLW 3:41 pm

AAWA Joins the No on I-2117 Coalition

AAWA’s Board of Directors has voted for AAWA to join the No on I-2117 Coalition. If passed, this initiative would repeal the Climate Commitment Act. Repealing the CCA would repeal more than $5 billion in sustainable transportation investments, including billions for transit and free transit for youth in Washington. There are many other reasons to support the No campaign. See https://no2117.com/ for more information.

Working to Improve the National Network

AAWA will participate in the fourth and final meeting of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study, to be held June 6 in Missoula, Montana. We understand that the meeting will finalize the fifteen routes being proposed. 

Of particular interest to the Northwest are the Seattle-Denver (“Pioneer”) and Seattle-Chicago (“North Coast Hiawatha”) routes.

AAWA will also attend the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority’s 2024 Annual Conference on June 7. We’ll report on these meetings at the next AAWA General Meeting on Saturday, June 15.

Save These Dates!

Please put these dates on your calendar. 

6/15/24

AAWA General Meeting

TBD

7/13/24

AAWA Board Meeting

Zoom

8/10/24

Picnic

Lacey

9/14/24

AAWA Board Meeting

Zoom

10/8-9/24

Third Annual Greater Northwest Rail Summit

Spokane Central Library

10/12/24

AAWA General Meeting

TBD

11/9/24

AAWA Board Meeting

Zoom

12/14/24

Winter Gathering

TBD

 

We Rely On Your Support

As always, we wish you safe travels, and we thank you for your support! Your help makes our work to improve rail service throughout the state of Washington possible. Please make a recurring or one-time donation online at https://www.aawa.us/donate or by mail to:

All Aboard Washington
P.O. Box 70381
Seattle, WA 98127-0381