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Seattle to Vancouver in an hour: Leaders push for cross-border high speed rail

Political leaders on both side of the border pitched an idea to build trains that would travel between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, in under an hour, GeekWire reports.

According to GeekWire reporter Nat Levy, King County Executive Dow Constantine and former member of the Legislative Assembly Kevin Falcon argued the idea is less of a fantasy than most would think, though the proposed plan does not appear fully baked.  

"The future is coming whether you like it or not," Constantine said. "The growth is coming, and we're either going to allow it to overwhelm us, or we are going to face it squarely."

But the plan faces competition from other groups proposing fast travel options. Local high-tech experts are proposing a plan to one day make the stretch of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Canada be strictly reserved for self-driving vehicles.

Executives who worked at companies like Amazon and Microsoft say they know not everyone will think the plan is a good idea, but they say that overall, self-driving vehicles are safer, will ease congestion and are less expensive than a high-speed railway system.