We need to get to Vancouver from Seattle. Our flight get in around 12.30pm and would like to get to Vancouver as quickly as possible as we will have been on a long flight from Australia.
Would appreciate some info on transport by bus and train. I believe Amtrak has a bus also but cant seem to find the costing.
Thanks

Hate to tell you, but your long journey from Australia is going to be a bit longer once you get to Seattle. You can certainly get to Vancouver via train or bus, however the journey will take a few hours, and is also dependent on what time the bus/train leaves Seattle.

You can take Quick Shuttle from SeaTac airport to a variety of locations in Vancouver (www.quickshuttle.com) and the trip will take approx. 4 hours. The fare is around $60US one way, and the time that would be available to you would be 4:00pm, given that you are arriving into Seattle at 12:30 pm.

A second option is Amtrak (www.amtrak.com). You would have to get from SeaTac to the train station, and depending on availability, a one way ticket is around $45US or so. The trip itself by train is around 3 1/2 hours, and don't forget to add in time to get from the airport to the train station.

The fastest way to Vancouver from Seattle is to fly there. The trip takes about one hour, however the cost, as you can imagine, will be significantly higher than the train or bus.

Another option is to rent a car and drive, but you could face traffic delays at the border between the U.S. and Canada.

Whatever you decide, safe travels to you!

There isn't much to add except that from time to time mud slides cover the railroad tracks between Seattle and Vancouver, and the train stops running.

HTtY

Here are the options:

Quick Shuttle bus*
Greyhound bus*
Bolt Bus*
Amtrak Cascades*
Air Canada, Delta, Alaska Airlines
Rental car - most allow one way international rentals.

*Note - a Fodor's glitch is preventing me from including web urls for the above, so use the Google.

Of the buses, only Quick Shuttle picks up at the airport; for Greyhound and Bolt you'd need to make it to downtown Seattle, a nuisance with luggage.

Amtrak has two trains daily, in the very early morning and around 6 PM. The trip takes 4 hours. On the Amtrak schedule you can see when service is provided by buses; you'd still need to get to the train station in downtown Seattle.

Obviously the airlines are the fastest and most convenient.

A rental car will cost anywhere from $100 to $150 for a 24 hour period. The drive takes around 3 1/2 hours from Seatac to downtown Vancouver depending on border delays.

The trains and buses take around 4 hours; it's a 30 min. flight but you need to clear Canadian border controls at YVR which can be fast or slow depending on how many other flights have arrived.

The midslides mentioned by HttY mainly occur in the winter. When are you coming?

And an obvious question, what's preventing you from flying straight to Vancouver?

This is an answer to only one piece of your questions
Seatac to Amtrak station is easy via Light Rail..
Walking from baggage claim to Light rail station equals 2-3 city blocks along side if parking structure. Purchase tickets in a machine (easy to use --cash, credit card)
I have never timed the trip but will guess--20 -30 min.
Light Rail stops @ Amtrak Station.-stops are posted above the train doors
My only comment about Amtrak..notorious for be "late"
IF you can possibly afford it...I would fly.
Good luck

Your 3 Amtrak options: Bus 8900 leaves Amtrak King St. station at 1:45PM which would be fine if your plane is on time and there is no baggage delay.
Bus 8906 leaves @ 4:45PM Fare for either bus is $40US per adult.
Amtrak Cascades train 516 leaves King St. station @ 6:50PM
Each option takes 4 hours unless there is a delay at the border. Anyone who is denied entry to Canada gets on the next bus back to Seattle. Amtrak does collect your passport numbers when you buy your tickets. amtrak.com
The train tickets are $42 or more per person but hope you can get to Vancouver before 10:45PM Pacific time.
If you don't want to spend any time in beautiful Seattle, why not fly directly to Vancouver?
The only place I ever rented a car in Canada was in Jasper to see the Canadian Rockies

If you've already purchased airline tickets Oz to Seattle it may be too late, but it's worth a try: sometimes one can add a short hop (like from Seattle to Vancouver) onto a long transcontinental ticket at much lower cost than buying a separate ticket for the short hop.

Thank you everyone for you advice. I had already booked the air tickets to Seattle with points and didnt realize it would take as long or that the departures were so varied.
Anyway from the info you have all given me I am sure we will get there by the end of the day. Thanks again I really appreciate it. Will check the flights.

Thanks everyone got onto Qantas and they added a flight to Vancouver with points so all good to go now.

Hmmm, curious itinerary
If you are flying Quantas, doesn't that fly into Los Angeles (LAX)? There are lots of flights directly from LAX into Vancouver. That seems simpler than taking a flight from LAX to Seattle to change planes to Vancouver.

There's no "u" in Qantas, and they also fly into SFO now. We don't know if Qantas added a SEA-YVR flight or swapped an existing LAX/SFO-SEA itinerary for one that goes LAX/SFO-YVR.

I think Bolt Bus is worth a look.