AANW Testifies Before the Oregon Legislature in Favor of Improved Rail
Testimony on HB 3233
February 4, 2025
Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of HB 3233. I am Charles Hamilton, speaking on behalf of All Aboard Northwest, the passenger rail working group serving the Greater Northwest.
The Federal Railroad Administration has recently completed a study that recommended re-starting passenger rail services to communities along fifteen routes not currently served, including a Denver-Salt Lake City-Boise-Portland-Seattle route, and a Chicago-St. Paul-Billings-Pasco-Vancouver (WA)-Portland route.
The cooperative efforts proposed by HB 3233 will be central to making this service happen. We testified in favor of similar efforts under HB 4109, which passed last year.
In addition, the FRA has been directed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund interstate rail compacts to coordinate regional passenger and freight planning efforts. Therefore, we strongly support the creation of a working group including stakeholders in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Washington and the other states of the Greater Northwest that will lay the groundwork for a regional rail compact.
Throughout the world, passenger and freight rail is successfully bringing significant economic, environmental and equity benefits to citizens and communities of all sizes.
We need transportation that provides safe, reliable, frequent, competitive, and convenient passenger rail services that meet the needs of everyone in the region, including low-income, tribal, and rural communities, people with disabilities, locations where transportation alternatives are limited, and the thirty percent of the population that does not drive.
Let’s build a rail system serving the whole state and the entire region.
Thank you for your consideration.