Nostalgia & History > UP Direct To Seattle

Did the Union Pacific ever consider building their own line directly to Seattle, either from Portland to the north or northwest of Pasco, WA along the Yakima River parallel with the Northern Pacific's line?   

Northern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Did the Union Pacific ever consider building their
> own line directly to Seattle, either from Portland
> to the north or northwest of Pasco, WA along the
> Yakima River parallel with the Northern Pacific's
> line?   

Nope, at least not that I know of. Their route was Portland - Seattle (and beyond). NP thpought they were bluffing, then they started building railroad. The current BNSF Columbia Raiver Bridge started as the UP (OWRRN) bridge. They dug a tunnel near the NP Ostrander tunnel, one under Tacoma, and started one under Seattle (which became incorporated into the bus tunnel that will now be the light rail tunnel). NP caved in and made them a good deal on sharing the NP tracks.

TAW

GN controlled NP at that time and GN got traffic rights at the same time also.
Dick Eisfeller

I read an article in the TNT (Tacoma News Tribune) some 30 years or so ago, that said the tunnel under Tacoma still exists. According to the piece, when the UP secured operating rights over the NP, they filled it full of cordwood and dynamited the portals. (That would be some seriously seasoned firewood for whoever can find it!). I've searched and have found no clue as to it's location. Having lived in the area for 40 some years, I'm pretty familiar with its geography, and I have a hard time speculating where a logical route for the UP into Tacoma (or all the way from Portland for that matter) might be. Maybe it's just another urban legend, this one particular to T-Town.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/20 22:13 by alally8444.

Why did Union Pacific never make any serious effort to compete for Chicago - Seattle passenger business?  As far as I know, they only ran a single Pullman that connected from the City of Portland to one of the pool trains.  Perhaps the agreement with NP limited them?  Timings would have been pretty competitive with the NP, GN and Milwaukee.

Dave

Using Aug of 1952 as a guide, the UP didn't really have a time advantage to Seattle
Olympian Hiawatha and Empire Builder were both scheduled at 43 hours.
North Coast Limited was 56 1/2 hours
UP's City of Portland connection to #457 through sleeper was 43 1/2 hours.  This is with 30 minutes at Portland to switch out the through sleeper, so even if you made it a run through train it still would be slightly slower than the Milwaukee and Great Northern.

I'm guessing if it had been a City of Seattle instead of City of Portland, it would have required at least one more train set.

There is a long online article that is very detailed about the UP's attempt to enter Tacoma. It sounds like the one mentioned here.

https://groupssa.com/ssa/tacomatunnel.html

Only partially dug but eventually filled in.

Bob