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Amtrak passenger trains from Seattle could some day stop in Surrey instead of Vancouver, U.S. studies suggest.
Moving the terminal from downtown's Pacific Central Station east to a "Greater Vancouver Terminal" beside Surrey's Scott Road SkyTrain station is one option that has been studied to achieve a potential major increase in cross-border rail service.
The existing single daily Amtrak round trip to Vancouver is now planned to increase to two daily by 2008, thanks to an agreement unveiled last week between the province, Washington State and the BNSF Railway.
B.C. will contribute $4.5 million to help build a siding in Delta so trains can pass.
But longer-range hopes to expand further to three or four daily Amtrak trains depend on much costlier rail line upgrades - including an estimated $675 million to replace the century-old rail bridge across the Fraser River between Surrey and New Westminster.
Because the costs are so high to address congestion...