Amtrak Resumes Service on Point Defiance Bypass Three Years After Deadly Derailment

(Seattle, WA) -- Nearly four years after a deadly train derailment, Amtrak Cascades is resuming service along the Point Defiance bypass. A train derailed between Seattle and Portland in December of 2017, killing three people and injuring dozens more. The National Transportation Safety Board later ruled that that inadequate planning, insufficient crew training, excessive speed and human error were to blame.

Amtrak says it has since added multiple safety measures and has implemented a majority of the NTSB's recommendations, with plans to implement the rest of the recommendations later. A total of eight trains are scheduled to use the bypass daily.