Olympia-area rail riders who have struggled to book seats on the Amtrak Cascades line will get relief Sept. 30, when Amtrak launches its new Airo fleet on the corridor.

The Siemens-built trainsets carry 300 passengers each, a significant increase over the aging coaches they replace, the Washington State Standard reported. Some of those older cars date to the 1970s. The Cascades route runs 467 miles from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Eugene, Oregon, stopping in Olympia along with 17 other cities.

The capacity boost matters locally. Existing trains are regularly sold out, particularly on Fridays and Sundays, according to Charles Hamilton, executive director of the passenger rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington.

The line has operated with reduced seating since March 2025, when dozens of 1980s-era Horizon rail cars were pulled due to corrosion problems. Ridership fell in 2025, the Standard reported, after hitting a record high of nearly 1 million riders in 2024.

"This will give us more capacity to have more folks riding," Hamilton said Sept. 18. "That's going to be a big deal."

Two Airo trainsets will enter service Sept. 30 with two roundtrips, according to KOMO News. Train 503 departs Seattle southbound for Eugene at 7:10 a.m., and Train 508 runs northbound from Eugene to Seattle at 4:30 p.m.

Train 516 heads north from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., at 8:30 a.m., and Train 519 returns south at 4:45 p.m. Olympia is a stop on the Seattle-Eugene segment, though specific local station times were not listed.

The new trains will not add trips to the schedule. Each Airo trainset replaces an older one on the same route and timetable. A Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) spokesperson said the current schedule will continue "for the foreseeable future."

Amtrak Cascades is the first service in the country to receive the next-generation railcars from a nationwide fleet order Amtrak placed with Siemens in 2021. Eight trainsets, two diesel locomotives and a spare cab car are headed to the Northwest.

The line will run a mixed fleet through fall and winter, with a full switchover expected by early 2027.

Washington Secretary of Transportation Julie Meredith said in a Sept. 18 news release that the Airo trains represent a major upgrade for Pacific Northwest rail travel. Washington and Oregon co-manage the Cascades route and contract with Amtrak to operate it. Passenger fares cover slightly more than half of annual operating costs, with taxpayers funding the rest.

Onboard, riders will find ergonomic seats with moveable headrests, individual power outlets, improved Wi-Fi, bigger windows, digital information displays and six restrooms with touchless controls. The cafe car will serve regional food and drinks.

The trains will not be faster. The freight-dominated corridor caps speeds at 79 mph due to track conditions.

Oregon and Washington transportation officials are in the early stages of updating the Cascades long-range Service Development Plan to study what it would take to add trips at higher speeds. That work could require track improvements, siding extensions, signal upgrades and tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funding.

A new $300 million federally funded maintenance facility near downtown Seattle is nearing completion to service the Airo fleet.