(The Associated Press circulated the following on November 18.)
ONTARIO, Ore. — The Amtrak appropriations bill in Congress calls for a study of restoring its Pioneer Route, which traveled through the Columbia Gorge and Eastern Oregon until it was shut down in 1997.
The Pioneer originally ran between Seattle and Salt Lake City, and for a time was coupled to the California Zephyr there to continue the trip to Chicago.
The Pioneer was later rerouted through Wyoming for the trip between Seattle and Denver, and the connection with the California Zephyr was made at Denver.
The $11 billion Amtrak bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey calls on Amtrak to “conduct a one-time evaluation of the Pioneer Route … to determine whether a level of passenger demand exists that would warrant consideration of reinstating the entire Pioneer Route Service or segments of the service.”