Washington state dinner train halts service after short restart
Oct., 2007-- Three months after moving from Renton, Wash., to Tacoma, a planned 10-month experiment with the Spirit of Washington Dinner train has ended with a shutdown of the service.
Dinner train owner Eric Temple told the Associated Press that higher-than-anticipated costs coupled with lower-than-projected ticket sales doomed the train's run in Pierce County.
The shutdown means about 50 employees will be laid off.
The city of Tacoma had a 10-month contract with the dinner train for use of the city-owned tracks.
The train operated successfully for 15 years from Renton to Woodinville along Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks along the east side of Lake Washington before a planned freeway expansion cut off the southern part of the rail route.
The dinner train moved to Tacoma Rail tracks in early August, 2007.