Tacoma Rail is a publicly owned Class III

shortline railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

. It is owned by the city of

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

and operated as a

public utility A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...

. It is one of three operating divisions of the municipally-owned Tacoma Public Utilities service, but unlike other city services, the railroad is self-supported and generates revenue for the City of Tacoma and Washington State. Tacoma Rail provides freight switching services, serving the Port of Tacoma and customers in Tacoma, south Pierce County and formerly parts of Thurston County. It operates 16

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s, more than 100 employees, and about of track, many of which are former

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...

and

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

lines around Western Washington.

Operating divisions

Tacoma Rail operates two distinct divisions:

Tidelands division

The Tidelands division serves the area around the Port of Tacoma, including all four intermodal terminals and interchanging with both the

and the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

. The division serves 40 customers, and handles the majority of Tacoma Rail’s traffic. The division was established in 1914 as a streetcar line to move port workers but has been freight-only since 1937. In the past, the division was called the Tacoma Municipal Belt Line.

Lakewood division

The Lakewood division runs between Tacoma and

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

. The operation of the division was acquired from BNSF Railway in November 2004. The division serves 11 customers, mostly in the Lakewood area.

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Se ...

also owns tracks and has trackage rights between Tacoma and Lakewood to operate its Sounder commuter rail. WSDOT has paid to improve the line in recent years with plans to reroute the

Amtrak Cascades The Amtrak ''Cascades'' is a passenger train route in the Pacific Northwest, operated by Amtrak in partnership with the U.S. states of Washington (state), Washington and Oregon. It is named after the Cascade Range, Cascade mountain range that ...

and

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland, Oregon, Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, ...

to the tracks planned for 2019.

Former divisions

Mountain division

The Mountain division ran between Tacoma and Frederickson, where it splits into two branches, one serving McKenna, the other serving Eatonville and Morton. The 97 miles of track were owned directly by the City of Tacoma and are operated by Tacoma Rail under contract. It was considered a separate railroad and was operated using its own TRMW

reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equip ...

. This segment of track was originally built by the Milwaukee Road and later used by the 2nd Chehalis Western Railroad and was purchased by the city on August 12, 1994. The division served as many as 14 customers at one time, mostly in the Frederickson area. The Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad leased the portion of track from Eatonville to Morton for passenger excursion service. MRSR ceased operating, but is soft reopening in late 2023 or early 2024. Due to dwindling customer base (one as of 2023), Tacoma Rail sold the Mountain Division to WRL, which is now Rainier Rail, with RNIR reporting marks. However, the City will retain ownership of the portion of the Tacoma to Fredrickson line within the city limits, about six miles of track and structure, minus a one-mile stretch sold to Sound Transit for use by passenger and commuter trains as part of Sound Transit’s Lakewood Subdivision. This leaves just under five miles of track, for which Tacoma Rail will file for abandonment. This section is the costliest to maintain and includes the steepest part of the line, a 3.75% grade, a bridge over the BNSF/UP lines and a bridge and trestle over the Puyallup River, both of which are former Milwaukee Road structures built in 1917. WRL/Rainier Rail plans to use its portion of the north end of the Mountain Division (north of Frederickson) for car storage. There are four sidings, but two of them will require some significant work to be put back in service. The line is severed by derailers at 72nd and McKinley, which is effectively the city limits. Most crossing markers south of this location have had electrical equipment removed and is completely idle as of November 2023.

Locomotive fleet

;Locomotive fleet (as of March 2021)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tacoma Rail Washington (state) railroads Switching and terminal railroads Tacoma Public Utilities Transportation in Tacoma, Washington American companies established in 1994