(The Associated Press circulated the following on December 6.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Amtrak service trains are now running between Portland and Seattle, giving travelers another option to get between the two cities while crews work to reopen Interstate 5 near Chehalis.
The Northwest storm caused severe weather and the train has not run from the Portland to Washington since Monday. Horizon Airlines has been picking up some slack by using larger planes and hourly flights between Portland and Seattle, but some passengers were still stranded until Thursday.
On Thursday, officials said they were going to try to partially open I-5 to semi trucks and then to cars when repairs allowed it, but a but a bottleneck was still expected.
The train usually takes about about 2 1/2 hours to get to Seattle. An Amtrak agent said Thursday that it was running late by about an hour.
But since Interstate 5 remained closed Thursday, the train and plane options still beat the roughly seven-hour detour through Yakima that WSDOT has set up around the I-5 closure.