High-speed Amtrak route still stalled in Pierce County. But in a pandemic, who cares?

Sorry to disappoint all you high-speed travel fans eager for a more reliable, 5-to10-minute shorter train ride from Tacoma to Portland. But you’ll have to keep waiting (and enjoying the scenic shoreline route) for the foreseeable future.

There’s no timeline for putting trains back on the Point Defiance Bypass, Sound Transit representatives told Lakewood city officials this week. That means Amtrak Cascades passengers won’t be diverted onto the long-planned $180 million shortcut through South Tacoma, Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont before reconnecting with the usual route in Thurston County.

Another case of COVID-19 causing society to grind to a halt? Nope. The cautious approach to launching 79-mph trains through the heart of South Pierce County is the result of a deadly local Amtrak derailment nearly three years ago.

That a major safety reckoning is happening now, during a pandemic, is merely a coincidence — and perhaps a good one.

Strange as it sounds, the coronavirus shutdown may be one of the best things to restore public confidence in the South Sound’s rail corridor. Mistrust and bad memories are still raw among some residents and local leaders from Dec. 18, 2017, the morning of Amtrak’s ill-fated maiden run on the Point Defiance Bypass.

A southbound train carrying 77 people rocketed around a sharp curve near DuPont at 80 mph, more than double the 30-mph speed that section of track is engineered for. Three people were killed, dozens were injured and Interstate 5 was closed for two days. Juries have been awarding multi-million-dollar verdicts ever since.

Fortunately, there’s no rush now to reopen the bypass.

Nationally, Amtrak ridership is down 95 percent during the pandemic. Amtrak has proposed cutting long-distance routes from seven to three days a week next year. And politicians, including Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, are focused on the long-term viability of Amtrak routes, including the two that operate in our state — the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder.

In the grand scheme of things, who really cares anymore whether Amtrak attains its high-speed holy grail, shaving 10 minutes from a 3-hour, 20-minute trip from Seattle to Portland?

The COVID-19 shutdown creates breathing room for the tangled web of railway operators, track owners and government regulators who need to fix a broken safety culture. A scathing federal review last year determined the derailment was caused by a perfect storm of human error and lax bureaucratic oversight.

If they get their act together, they just might improve public peace of mind, convincing us we’ll be spared another train wreck here.

But we’re a long way from that happy place, judging by the presentation Sound Transit officials gave to the Lakewood City Council Monday evening.

Sound Transit, which owns the Point Defiance Bypass tracks, is going through a methodical safety shakedown; among other tasks, it has yet to replace the safety chief who was fired last year.

Agency officials pledged that a thorough hazard analysis of all track on the bypass, including a half dozen crossings in Lakewood, will be done from scratch. An automated system called Positive Train Control, which slows trains when human operators fail to, has been installed on the Amtrak route after years of inexcusable delays.

But Sound Transit representatives faced a skeptical audience in Lakewood.

“What I’d like to see in discussions going forward, besides the technology and engineering and four-layered bureaucracy, is some common sense,” said City Council member John Simpson. “Maybe if the train were to go through Lakewood at 30 mph like it goes through the (DuPont) curve at 30 mph, then some of us who actually live in the city and speak to the citizens of this city might feel a little bit better about this track bifurcating our city.”

Clearly some folks aren’t ready for faster trains slashing through their communities. And who can blame them after what happened three Christmases ago?

The pandemic of 2020 creates an opportunity to address the legitimate safety concerns of South Sound residents. Ultimately, that’s more important than making sure the trains run on time, or 10 minutes faster.