Dinner Train From Tacoma! (13. June 2007, 11:45 by Derek Young) ~ Announcement
The Spirit of Washington Dinner Train revealed today that they will use Tacoma as a new base for train excursions.
Deputy Mayor Rick Talbert Councilman Bill Evans and Spirit of Washington Dinner Train Owner Eric Temple announced that the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train will begin running trains to Lake Kapowsin as early as August 3.
Trains will run seven days a week. The program will run for 10 months and—if successful—there’s a possibility to extend it another 20 years.
This will be an interesting test of the viability of runnings sight-seeing, vacation excursions from Tacoma. All aboard!
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Double “WOW!”...you bet Tacoma gets an opportunity to SHINE and IT WILL ! Referrals will be plentiful from this DESK at #1320 .
Thank you Councilman Talbert
3 | Posted by Bell Capt. | Jun 13, 12:12 PM
I took the dinner train with my wife and we had a great time! I hope they have a cool destination point.
6 | Posted by Jason | Jun 13, 12:42 PM
I hear its expensive to ride, is it worth the ticket price? (whatever it is)
7 | Posted by Tacoma (A)roma | Jun 13, 12:45 PM
Komo4news.com is saying it will start at the T-dome:
http://www.komotv.com/news/local/7980707.html
By Keith Eldridge
TACOMA, Wash. — City officials and operators of the Spirit of Washington Dinner train said Wednesday that the train run will live on in Tacoma.
The dinner train had been planning to shut down on July 31 when the train’s current route will disrupted to make way for revisions to I-405, causing a break in the tracks near Bellevue.
The new service will be on tracks owned by Tacoma Rail, and the train will run from the Tacoma Dome to Lake Kapowsin.
The train has served 1.4 million guests over the past 15 years .
Cool news. But I wonder how the folks with Golden Pacific Railroad are feeling about the sudden competition… Maybe they’ve got their own niche with the whole steam train thing, but still…
9 | Posted by jamie from thriceallamerican | Jun 13, 12:53 PM
The website is:
http://www.spiritofwashingtondinnertrain.com/
I surprised my fiance with a dinner train for his birthday last month, and we enjoyed it. The food was good, but not exceptional. Make sure to factor in the cost of wine and tip when looking at the price.
One thing to note is that there have been a lot of problems with the tracks lately. Our train didn’t make it to the winery— just went out of town an hour and a half at 10mph, then turned around and came back. A little anticlimactic, so I would call on the day of your reservation to make sure that the trip is running as scheduled.
11 | Posted by Megan | Jun 13, 12:58 PM
Good times so long as the price isn’t too steep. Tourists are one thing but local yocals should be able to enjoy as well.
Great new though! Now we just need to fix up the Kalakala and get some classy tours from here of the Sound.
12 | Posted by KevinFreitas | Jun 13, 02:20 PM
I still wonder the status of the GPRR, if anyone knows. I have to do some more checking, but the railfan sites I checked recently weren’t very optimistic (“It tanked already?” one person asked), and the GPRR phone number is disconnected. I read that while there is a dedicated and knowledgeable owner, there were new partners last year and more bugs to work out still. Not to mention enough paying customers. But the arrival of the dinner/mystery train is great news for George Francis Train’s “City of Destiny.” On a related note, how nice it would be to see that #7 Shay housed at Camp 6, restored and running again. It just needs money. (The front end of the shed is usually open for viewing, and there’s currently an interesting logging artwork exhibit in one of the Camp 6 camp-cars.)
And ditto Kevin re the Kalakala.
13 | Posted by Dave L. | Jun 13, 02:30 PM
Bill Evans and Spirit of Washington Dinner Train Owner Eric Temple announced that the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train
Evans is really coming through on the last of his term. Big shoes to fill. Let’s hope he can help the council follow through on other issues such as the billboard removal as well.
You know I hate billboards, boy do I hate billboards. But I love the classic old advertising painted on the sides of some of Tacoma’s buildings. Kind of billboards on brick, but really it is the same thing. So why do I find the brick billboards so appealing and the standard billboards so unappealing. I’m thinking it was because the ones on the buildings were painted by artists, they may be advertising but they are also art. Maybe we can keep the standard billboards but insist they be hand painted by local artists. Just my two cents, but it gives me food for thought.
15 | Posted by Crenshaw Sepulveda | Jun 13, 03:16 PM
Great news, will boost tourism and resturant attendance in Tacoma across the board!
17 | Posted by Andrew | Jun 13, 08:42 PM
From the Seattle Times:
“The new Tacoma route will run from Freighthouse Square to Eatonville, a 3 ½-hour round trip heading south to Lake Kapowsin”. Hope they have something fun to do once the train gets to Eatonville.
18 | Posted by Amy | Jun 14, 09:11 AM
NWTrek anyone? Take the train to Eatonville, see a moose, come home.
19 | Posted by Erik Hanberg | Jun 14, 09:20 AM
I’m trying to figure out how the Dinner Train will work with the scheduled track replacement. (to be complete in 2008)
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Rail/Freight/TrainToMountain/QPR/Mar2007.htm
If we can get the Train to Mountain link going, it can make Tacoma the jumping off point for excursions to Mt. Rainier – especially if the reduce car traffic in the National Park.
I was glad to see the Train to Mountain mentioned in the TNT article: http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/86821.html
21 | Posted by DavidS | Jun 14, 10:22 AM
As a resident of Renton, the Spirit of Washington’s current starting point, I’m sad to see it going away. I’m delighted to hear, though, that it’s found a new home nearby. I’ve been on the train three times, planning on another excursion later this week. Each occasion has been very enjoyable. The menu is limited, but the quality of the food is quite good. It is admittedly a little pricey — recent reservation for lunch for two totaled $117.59. This includes the meal and train ride, but not drinks or gratuity. Dinners are a bit more expensive, iirc. Nevertheless, it’s worth the price, and makes for a fun outing.
22 | Posted by vee | Jun 19, 07:36 PM
“Great news, will boost tourism and resturant attendance in Tacoma across the board!”
er, it is a “dinner train” I’m not sure it will increase restaurant attendance all that much in Tacoma. If the food is not good on the train it might increase the sales of Tums and Pepto in Tacoma. 100 bucks for lunch is a bit steep for me, even if it does include a trip to Eatonville.
23 | Posted by Crenshaw Sepulveda | Jun 20, 12:20 AM
I wonder if they could do a test run on the line and view some of the graffiti along the McKinnley Gultch, as well as, a few overpasses along the way? Tacoma rail has refused to clean this up and is certain to be either a turn on or a turn off depending on which way you view it? As far as the rail line we don’t have any wineries along the way, only residential, and lots of industrial crap and a top speed of 10 mph. The other train (GPRR) tried the same run and took them over 2 hours to get to Fredrickson..with a diesel helper…I almost thought about the trip, but when i saw yellow window glass, in the coaches, I was somewhat turned off, by the thought of yellow photos…sort of like having a yellow shooting glass condom for your camera! On a positive note IKEA is building a Huge Distribution center in Fredrickson, close to the track..maybe they could turn this into a discount shopping excursion? I say save the overtime for the Tacoma Rail and focus on track improvement and clean-up first and maybe try to rid Kapowsin Lake destination of the illeagal keg parties and ATV’s that run rampant near the tracks..just a thought?
24 | Posted by Gordon Swetland | Jun 20, 11:30 AM
I did notice that the the grafitti was painted over recently in the Eastern Gulch but it of course had a new layer of graffiti on top of the paint. They also changed the fencing. You can now see whats going on there. Before the fence had the brown plastic in it blocking the view of the tracks.
There’s a lot of discussion and speculation over at the Railroad Forums page about this and other Tacoma railroad issues we’ve been talking about. Much of it sounds very well-infomed. There is some presumtion that this Tacoma route is stop-gap, until a future Woodinville run can be set-up. After having the fortune to be invited to tag along to the 50th anniversary picnic of Snoqualmie’s Northwest Railroad Museum organization (where they showed plans for a huge new Railway History center) it was clear that in some places there is a lot of passion and political support for railroad-related tourist operations, and I’ve been hoping against hope that given our own railroad heritage, Tacoma has what it takes to support and keep such opportunities. Although the same website did lead me to the Tacoma Railcar Preservation Society, which I didn’t know about – THS is a sponsor.
Oh, on a related note and I’ll go, the same session let me in on the news that the GPRR’s 2100 just arrived in the Tri-Cities to stretch its legs indefinitely . I hope it’s still in Tacoma’s future.
26 | Posted by Dave L. | Jun 20, 12:50 PM
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