Western Railroad Discussion > Daily train count thru Cascade Tunnel?

Thx in advance...in 2012 it was 23 between Everett and Wenatchee per Trains Mag...18 between Wenatchee and Spokane...Stevie

the_expediter Wrote:
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> Thx in advance...in 2012 it was 23 between Everett
> and Wenatchee per Trains Mag...18 between
> Wenatchee and Spokane...Stevie

The same trains run east of Wenatchee as west, so that number is the same.  My estimate would be 18-20 trains in a 24 hour period, some days busier than others.

From memory, there can be no more than 24 eastbound trains per 24 hours, due to the procedure of ventilating the Cascade Tunnel after every eastbound, which takes about an hour total.

Think its 22 because of the 1/2 blows. Amtrak only requires 15 mins

I kept track of this for every day of the month of September last year, via the Skykomish Webcam.  The busiest single day had 23 trains in a 24 hour period.  The average over the month was 20 trains in a 24 hour period.

One thing that was consistent though was there was definitely an imbalance of eastbounds versus westbounds.  This was caused by all of the empty oil and coal trains returning east.

BoostedFridge Wrote:
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> I kept track of this for every day of the month of
> September last year, via the Skykomish Webcam. 
> The busiest single day had 23 trains in a 24 hour
> period.  The average over the month was 20 trains
> in a 24 hour period.
>
That's amazing that it was such a narrow range of number of trains per day!  If that's the maximum Cascade Tunnel can handle, that's what we see.

mapboy

WAF Wrote:
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> Think its 22 because of the 1/2 blows. Amtrak only
> requires 15 mins

30 Min Sky-Scenic &v; 30 min Scenic-Berne &v, theoretical capacity 2 trains per hour, 48 per day. Practical capacity typical 50% of theoretical capacity, can get as high as 75% occasionally and reliably if well managed. Practical capacity 24-30 trains per day-24 reliably.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1669967,1670321#msg-1670321 Date: 05/13/08 19:13 Re: New Cascade Tunnel Washington Author: TAW

That there are more east than west or that there is not a west at Berne ready to meet the east is a matter of capacity management, not capacity.

TAW