Yellow Pages
STANWOOD — The first train to stop at the Amtrak Cascades’ newly christened Stanwood station was brimming with eager passengers Saturday morning.
Riders filing off the packed train from Everett said they’d had trouble finding seats, but that it was well worth it to be part of the inaugural trip.
“It was so smooth,” said Helen Saunders of Camano Island, who, with her husband and friend, donned vintage outfits for the occasion.
The fur muffs, stoles and dresses the ladies wore came from Vicki Tanner’s vintage clothing store, Bright Shiny Things, in Stanwood.
“The women used to dress so extravagantly when they rode the train. It was a big deal,” Tanner said as she huddled against the cold wind with a group of local merchants.
She said they’re all hoping the train will bring more business to their Stanwood shops.
Pearl Schaar, president of Design Stanwood, a grassroots community group that helped bring the station to town, said the station itself has added a certain pizzazz to Stanwood.
“It’s completely dressed up this end of town,” said Schaar, who also owns an architectural firm in town. “And at night, it just twinkles.”
Old-fashioned light posts lining the track stood out against the backdrop of the chilly sky Saturday morning. Schaar said the sheltered benches along the tracks were designed to mimic the roofs of old barns that are part of the scenery on the ride to Stanwood.
Though Schaar said Design Stanwood’s members would still like to see a visitor’s information center and restroom built near the station, she’s amazed at how quickly the idea of a train station became a reality.
“For it to happen in six years, we feel like it was a miracle,” Schaar said.
And she gives a large part of the credit to state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who originally authorized the $5 million, state-funded station in 2006 and has been pushing for it ever since.
Haugen would catch the train in Stanwood as a high school student before the original station was discontinued in 1971.
“This has been a long time coming, and it’s going to make a huge difference for so many people in so many ways,” she said in a statement.
Haugen also rode the first northbound train into the station, which arrived at 9:25 a.m., or 22 minutes late. The train was behind schedule because it waited on each of the 140 passengers to load in Everett.
The Stanwood train station will offer morning and evening rides heading both north and south during the week. The rates will range from $9 for a trip to Mount Vernon to $31 for the ride to Portland.
Michele Steiner of Camano Island said her husband plans to take the train to work in Everett each day.
Her son Christian, an 8-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 46, which presented the flag salute at the event, said he wants to take the train to Arizona.
The Amtrak Cascades line, part of a nationwide network of train lines, stretches from Eugene, Ore. to Vancouver, B.C., with 18 total stops.
