Tacoma Rail is a publicly owned Class III

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

. 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, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

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 r ...

. It is one of three operating divisions of the municipally-owned

Tacoma Public Utilities Tacoma Public Utilities is the public utility service for the city of Tacoma, Washington. It was formed in 1893 when the citizens of Tacoma voted to buy the privately owned Tacoma Light & Water Company. It is the largest department in Tacoma City ...

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 The Port of Tacoma is an independent seaport located in Tacoma, Washington. The port was created by a vote of Pierce County citizens on November 5, 1918. The ''Edmore'' was the first ship to call at the port in 1921. The port's marine cargo opera ...

and customers in Tacoma, south Pierce County and parts of Thurston County. It operates 16

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

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), often referred to 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 fr ...

and

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

lines around Western Washington.

Operating divisions

Tacoma Rail operates three distinct divisions:

Tidelands division

The Tidelands division serves the area around the

, including all four

intermodal terminal Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more mode of transport, modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths (and offset the weaknesses) of va ...

s and interchanging with both the

and the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. 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 de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

. 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. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

also owns tracks has trackage rights between Tacoma and Lakewood to operate its

Sounder commuter rail Sounder commuter rail is a commuter rail service operated by BNSF on behalf of Sound Transit. Service operates Monday through Friday during peak hours from Seattle, Washington, north to Everett and south to Lakewood. In , the system had a ride ...

. WSDOT has paid to improve the line in recent years with plans to reroute the

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

and

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's format ...

to the tracks by 2019.

Mountain division

The Mountain division runs between Tacoma and Frederickson, where it splits into two branches, one serving McKenna, the other serving

Eatonville Eatonville may refer to: * Eatonville, Florida, United States * Eatonville, Minnesota, United States, an alternative name for the former Dakota village Ḣeyate Otuŋwe * Eatonville, Mississippi, United States * Eatonville, Ontario, a neighbourhood ...

and

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...

. The 97 miles of track are owned directly by the City of Tacoma and are operated by Tacoma Rail under contract. It is considered a separate railroad and is 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 serves 14 customers, mostly in the Frederickson area. The

Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad The Mt. Rainier Railroad and Logging Museum or MRRR, formerly the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad (MRSR), is a steam-powered heritage railroad operating in the U.S. state of Washington between Elbe and Mineral. The railroad travels on trackage that ...

leases the portion of track from Eatonville to Morton for passenger excursion service.

Locomotive fleet

;Locomotive fleet (as of March 2021)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tacoma Rail Washington (state) railroads Switching and terminal railroads Companies operating former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad lines Companies operating former Northern Pacific Railway lines Tacoma Public Utilities Transportation in Tacoma, Washington American companies established in 1994