Article content

Governments on the so-called Cascadia corridor have committed US$1.5 million to the next step in figuring out if a high-speed rail link between its key cities is a practical reality or just a distant dream.

Building it could be a US$24-billion to US$42-billion prospect, according to the first, high-level thoughts in a 2017 analysis, but one task of the followup business case approved Thursday is to come up with more definite costs.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Governments commit US$1.5-million for further study of Cascadia high-speed train Back to video

“This is definitely, hopefully, going to narrow that down a great deal and give us more realistic numbers in terms of what kind of costs and what kind of investments it might need,” said Janet Matkin, spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Transportation.

Washington and Oregon departments of transportation, along with B.C. and corporate donor Microsoft, confirmed a US$1.5-million commitment to that further business-case study.

High-speed rail on the corridor has been discussed for more than a decade, but the latest push to at least advance the idea comes from the annual Cascadia Innovation Corridor conferences, which ponders a 400-km/h train linking Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.