 Olympia-Lacey, WA | Amtrak Cascades | Tukwila, WA  |
| Coast Starlight | Seattle, WA |
Today's Tacoma Dome Sounder Station is located alongside Freighthouse Square. Freighthouse Square is the historic Milwaukee Railroad's westernmost freight terminal but has been turned into a shopping center. The little branch into this station that rises off the main BNSF line onto a wooden trestle was the only place on Sounder where trains use new trackage until the extension to Lakewood opened on October 8, 2012, that wasn't shared with Amtrakc Cascades.
Beyond the station the tracks go across a modern concrete ROW with some grade crossings and some underpasses. The Sounder stop itself consists of a single platform that serves the north one of two tracks which is directly along the southside of the Freighthouse Square Building (opened in 1909 as the westernmost freight terminus of the Milwaukee Road), now a collection of eclectic businesses.
The platform has a few modern glass canopies and some modern metal lampposts. The platform is accessed via either the grade crossing from East D Street at the southern end of the platform or through the Freighthouse Square Building itself. This is Sounders only enclosed waiting area and has ticket machines along with entrances at both ends, one out to the platform and the other out to 25th Street across this street from the Tacoma Link Station the two massive parking garages (2,283 spaces in total) that serve the station, and a Transit Center, a hub for Pierce Transit.
The station underwent signifigant renovations in preperation for the Point Defiance Bypass project. This project rerouted Amtrak Cascades trains away from a bottleneck (including a very scenic ride along Pudget Sound) with a single track tunnel through Point Defiance. The rerouted route follows the same corridor as Sounder Trains to Lakewood and continuing before rejoining the regular Amtrak Cascades Route in DuPont.
The major renovations to the station (the SubwayNut really wants to revisit Tacoma on a future trip to the Seattle area, and ride the re-routed Amtrak Cascades plus update this photo set) included Amtrak rebuiling a portion Freighthouse Square (to the chargin of displaced vendors) and become a new Amtrak train station with a ticket office and waiting area, next to the very small Sounder waiting area. This project also included adding a second side platform along the southern side of the second track through the station to allow for additional trains to stop here.
Amtrak was supposed to be rerouted to Tacome Dome and begin using the Point Defiance Bypass on December 18, 2017. The first train (train #501) made Amtrak's only passenger stop at that station that Monday morning before derailing in DuPont on the new trackage with the train falling off a bridge and onto Interstate 5 while traveling 78 mph in an area where the train should have been going only 30 mph. There were unforchunately 3 fatalities and lots of injuries. The line hadn't been equipped with Passive Train Control and Amtrak Cascades trains immediately ran via the old Point Defiance Route while PTC was installed and under the guise of additional driver training. This also led to the (in my opinion premature) retirement of the Type 7 Talgo trains that created the passenger rail rennasance in the Pacific Northwest. Amtrak trains (both Amtrak Cascades and the Coast Starlight) finally began stopping at the Tacoma Dome Station, allowing the old 1980s station on Pulluyup Avenue to finally close on November 19, 2021.
Photos 1-2 taken on 12 July, 2006, 3-13 taken on 14 October, 2011, 14-38: 11 April, 2014;
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