Transportation

Contract negotiations between 22,000 workers at 29 West Coast ports and representatives of shipping companies will begin next week with automation and its impact on jobs emerging as a major point of contention amid supply chain issues. Talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will take place against the backdrop of pandemic safety issues, surging imports that left backlogs of ships anchored offshore, and declining exports.

San Francisco Bay area company Sila Nanotechnologies purchased a vacant factory in Moses Lake, Washington, and announced plans Tuesday to open a big operation there to produce advanced battery materials to power electric cars.

Eviation Aircraft, an Arlington company that has built a fully electric commuter airplane, got a hefty boost this week when one of the nation’s largest commuter airlines, Cape Air, signed a letter of intent to buy 75 of the Eviation Alice model. The nine-passenger airplane produces no carbon emissions. It's expected to take a maiden flight this year.

Alaska Airlines says masks will be immediately optional on their flights — after a federal judge voided the national COVID-19-related mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation. Alaska Airlines said in a statement on their website Monday afternoon that because of the judicial decision that guests and employees would have the option to wear a mask while traveling in the U.S. and at work.

After initially stating that masks would continue to be required on buses and trains in the Seattle area, a group of regional transit authorities announced that masks are now optional. The latest policy, announced on Tuesday morning, follows a ruling from a federal judge in Florida striking down the mandate on airlines and public transportation. Washington State Ferries previously announced late Monday that masks are no longer required on vessels or inside terminals.

The Columbia River has long divided the two halves of Washington's cross-state Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. Now, a rebuilt rail trestle over the river south of Vantage connects the two sides making it easier for cyclists, horse riders and hikers to undertake a spectacular east-west journey.

Democratic-led states on the West Coast are setting ambitious timelines to phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The Washington Legislature just approved a goal that all new cars sold in the state beginning with model year 2030 be electric. Oregon and California have 2035 as their target. Some of these dates are aspirational, but one has teeth.

A federal jury in Tacoma has awarded $8 million in damages to a woman hurt in the 2017 Amtrak train derailment that spilled passenger cars onto Interstate 5 and killed three people.

While the agency has lifted its travel health notice two years after putting it in place, officials say it's up to travelers to determine their own health risks before going aboard a ship.

For more than five years, Washington state, Oregon and British Columbia have collaborated on studies of a possible Cascadia bullet train to run between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. This winter, the Washington Legislature approved money for yet more studies. But state lawmakers also set aside a much bigger sum to attract federal support that could advance the bullet train dream toward being shovel-ready.