Metro Vancouverites heading south to catch a Seahawks, Kraken or Mariners game are finally able to visit Seattle by rail again.
After a break of more than two years, Amtrak resumed its Cascades service between Vancouver and Seattle on Monday.
The service is restarting with a single daily round trip, departing Seattle at 7:45 a.m. and departing Vancouver at 5:45 p.m.
Over the course of its approximately four-hour journey, the train also stops at Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Standwood, Everett and Edmonds.
Amtrak said it plans to add a second daily trip in the future when equipment and staffing allow.
The Vancouver to Seattle service was initially suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials had hoped to have it back up and running by late spring or early summer, but plans were derailed by a lack of personnel.
For the first few days of service, passengers will remain beholden to Canada’s travel-related COVID-19 restrictions.
That includes mandatory masking aboard trains, using the ArriveCAN app when travelling from the U.S. into Canada, providing proof of vaccination or testing and isolating upon arriving in Canada.
Federal officials confirmed those restrictions will be lifted on Oct. 1.
Travellers headed into the U.S. will still need to be fully immunized with a U.S. FDA or WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccine.