In the News

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The effort to bring a high-speed rail line to western Washington continues with the state readying itself for more possible grant opportunities. The state was recently awarded $500,000 in grant funding to help cover the cost of planning. Next week, the state will meet with federal rail officials about applying for $250 million in grants to eventually begin development, according to Ron Pate, the director of rail, freight and ports for the Washington State Department of Transportation. The $250 ...

Communities near Paine Field in Everett suffer from some of the worst air quality in the state. Sen. Marko Liias grew up nearby in a neighborhood overburdened by pollution. This experience was, in part, the motivation behind the 21st District Democrat’s sponsorship of Senate Bill 6114, which cleared the Senate Transportation Committee Monday. According to a news release from Liias’ office, the bill requires airport operators to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blends available to noncommercial, private jet owners with the ...

Public schools must integrate instruction about the contributions and perspectives of LGBTQ+ people into their curricula under legislation the Washington state Senate approved on Wednesday. Senate Bill 5462 passed on a mostly party-line vote following a brief floor debate in which Democrats said LGBTQ+ students need to know of trailblazing LGBTQ+ individuals. Republicans countered that the goal can be achieved without a state mandate. “We need to tell the stories of the people that have led the way in the progress we ...

It’s not a good sign when drivers in the state are logging fewer miles on roads but suffering more traffic fatalities than in recent years past. Even as drivers traveled about 3 percent fewer miles between 2019 and 2022, traffic deaths — among drivers, passengers, motorcycle riders, cyclists and pedestrians — increased a total of 18 percent during the same period, according to an analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A ...

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers visited the Interstate 5 Bridge on their final leg of a three-day tour of Southwest Washington bridges.

In a few decades, high-speed rail could be making its way through Everett at 250 mph, linking major metropolitan areas along the upper West Coast, under a “visionary proposal” for funding signed by 10 U.S. legislators in August.

Replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River has been a top priority of communities in Washington and Oregon for years.

Washington state has charted a bipartisan course to overhaul its ferry procurement plans. Officials will now broaden their scope when seeking builders for the state's new ships. When the jumbo ferry M/V Walla Walla lost power and went aground at south Bainbridge Island over the weekend, it once again highlighted the need to upgrade Washington's aging ferry fleet.