Washington legislators passed Move Ahead Washington, a transportation funding package which dedicates $150 MILLION for high speed rail in the Pacific Northwest. This investment will allow the state to compete for up to a $700 MILLION federal funding match, for a total of $850 MILLION. For the last five years, WSDOT has studied the benefits of fast trains along the I-5 corridor, which includes $355 billion in economic growth, creation of 200,000 construction jobs, and reducing carbon emissions by 6 million metric tons. With speeds of 250mph+ (402kmh), high speed rail can provide one hour journey times between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, and one hour journey times between Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. These journey times will provide game-changing transportation choices competitive with air travel. (Currently, automobile travel and intercity rail service between Seattle-Portland takes 3.5 hours and Seattle-Vancouver takes 4.5 hours.) Preliminary estimates for high speed rail construc...