Executive Summary
Leavenworth, Washington - Washington State's Bavarian Village at the foot of Icicle Canyon annually hosts more than 1.8 million visitors, who come from around the world for noted local festivals, nearby camping and skiing, shopping, and business. While Leavenworth welcomes and depends on visitors, automobile congestion increasingly makes the city less attractive to guests, reduces local quality of life, creates environmental problems, and adds to maintenance and public safety costs. Leavenworth therefore proposes to create the "Icicle Run": a new daily stop in Leavenworth on Amtrak's Empire Builder, which already passes through town.
Potential Ridership
- Three out of five market survey respondentsT in the Puget Sound region would ride Amtrak to Leavenworth rather than drive.
- Leavenworth and its Chamber will promote the Icicle Run statewide, throughout the Pacific Northwest, and all along the Empire Builder corridor, as well as encourage local residents to use it for in-state getaways and business trips.
- Stevens Pass has an interest in potential Icicle Run skiing excursion packages.
- The Icicle Run could offer add-on train excursions for cruise ship passengers before and after Seattle-based cruises.
- Environmentally conscious travelers could begin camping, hiking, and rock-climbing adventures by train, rather than by car.
Benefits
- To travelers: A travel alternative that avoids rising gas costs, no driving hazards in winter weather, less traffic stress and fewer accidents; more opportunity to appreciate the beauty of our state.
- To Amtrak: A revenue increase (projected conservatively at $215,000, assuming 4,000 adult round-trips at an estimated $54 fare) at little marginal cost for a projected five-minute station stop; during ski season, new ridership during the slow first quarter.
- To Washington State: Enhanced opportunity to promote in-state tourism, protect the state's environment, and - through reduced wear-and-tear-hold down the cost of public services and infrastructure around Stevens Pass.
- To local residents and businesses: Continued and enhanced economic opportunity; increased ease of travel, in-state and beyond; better quality of life (through reduced congestion); reduced wear on local roads; a new Icicle Station to extend the charm of the Bavarian Village.
Costs: Anticipated at less than $750,000 (pending formal estimates), to be raised through local effort with little state/federal support required.
All Aboard:
- Endorsements to date: Local residents, businesses, and civic leaders; the City of Leavenworth; Leavenworth Chamber; Stevens Pass Ski Area; local architects and attorneys (including pro bono assistance); Port of Chelan; planner/builder Rich DeGarmo (Olympia Depot consultant)
- Contact made: Amtrak (Kurt Laird, General Manager, Pacific Northwest Corridor); WashARP; Bullitt Foundation; Cascade Foothills Wine Association; the Honorable Patty Murray, U.S. Senate; the Honorable Doc Hastings, U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Linda Evans Parlette, Washington State Senate; Princess Cruise Lines; National Audubon Society; AAA
- Contact planned: BNSF; National Forest Service; Link Transit; Columbia Cascade Wine Association; Cascade Loop Association; Transportation Choices Coalition; others to be determined