TriMet/Metro Southwest Corridor Planning (Portland to Bridgeport Village)

[PDXDENSITY]

Originally Posted by babs

In the suburbs only?
Let's see our gov got kicked to the curb for because his girlfriend couldn't turn away anyone with money. The entire Portland City Council (except Amanda) are in the pockets of Greg Goodman and the rest of the old school money donors who fund their campaigns. Most politicians are corrupt. Why point fingers at the suburbs??? There probably is way less dirty money thrown at those guys as compared to big city politicos.

Yeah, but this thread is about the SW corridor... so, that's irrelevant here, really. But I agree with you (but not that they're necessarily more corrupt here or there, i think it's on par with the suburbs being tea bagger leaning and the city being moderate republican leaning), we need better representatives. Farther left, more willing to encourage density and transit and bike/ped infrastructure. We've been given representatives that don't even bother to pander anymore.

[hat]

Originally Posted by babs

I don't know how this garbage happened but Trimet is the agency that built it and their name is on the side of every rail car. Heck, they even bought out the railcar manufacturer. So unless guns were pulled, they could have stopped it.



The billion dollar infrastructure of MAX can get you downtown. Running an extension of the Red Line down the WES corridor is going to cost WAY less than the planned spending of the billions on SW light rail. Fix what you got, before building more.

This argument is compelling. I don't know enough about the WES, nor rely on it enough, to say it is entirely useless. The SW Corridor, should it reach Tigard as a MAX, seems like a good occasion to revisit the WES idea. If most passengers transfer at Beaverton TC presently, then having a system where the WES and MAX travel from Tigard to Beaverton TC seems redundant.

Perhaps Trimet can consider a phase-out approach where the WES ends at Tigard TC, and two MAX lines continue on, one to Beaverton-Ptld and the other to Ptld. A couple more stops could be incorporated into the new line from Tigard-Beaverton-Ptld (certainly one at Scholls-Fry). How much money would be saved by shortening the line, but spent by requiring overhead wires?

[colganc]

Where are the ridership numbers by bus route? WES is easy enough to find.

Long term it doesn't make sense to have everything run through downtown Portland. Routing through downtown slows down and makes it not worth the trip. 1.5 hours to go from Hillsboro to PDX. A big chunk of that time is for winding through downtown Portland.

Wouldn't it make more sense to encourage job growth near where most people live instead of 15 miles away in downtown Portland? Why should people in the suburbs support Trimet when it revolves around keeping jobs focused in downtown Portland?

[dubu]

If it doesn't go to Portland then it will most likely not run often and suck

[AdamNorthwest]

What's so difficult about running a commuter rail from Portland Union Station to Salem? I understand that the route is busy with freight and Amtrak already, but why has that never been discussed? The problem with WES is that it is a suburb to suburb commuter rail. If WES truly wants to be successful, it needs to run to the region's main train station: Union Station. Try naming a successful suburban commuter rail. Almost all of the country's successful commuter rails run from the suburbs to the central city (in reality it's very difficult to call any commuter rails successful when they may average 2500 riders daily). How much traffic has been reduced on 217 since WES went into service? Probably little, if any. Just replace WES with a MAX Red Line extension, and reroute WES to the Amtrak route should we find that worthwhile.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by AdamNorthwest

What's so difficult about running a commuter rail from Portland Union Station to Salem? I understand that the route is busy with freight and Amtrak already, but why has that never been discussed? The problem with WES is that it is a suburb to suburb commuter rail. If WES truly wants to be successful, it needs to run to the region's main train station: Union Station. Try naming a successful suburban commuter rail. Almost all of the country's successful commuter rails run from the suburbs to the central city (in reality it's very difficult to call any commuter rails successful when they may average 2500 riders daily). How much traffic has been reduced on 217 since WES went into service? Probably little, if any. Just replace WES with a MAX Red Line extension, and reroute WES to the Amtrak route should we find that worthwhile.

WES is running on tracks owned by Portland & Western Railroad, the local short line railroad company, not on tracks owned by Union Pacific Railroad. Portland & Western welcomed the track upgrades to their line, the UP didn't. That's why the WES trains are where they are.

Otherwise, I agree with you, it would be better for the commuter train to go to downtown Portland. Your logic of substituting light rail and rerouting the commuter rail falls short in my opinion. It would be better to run a substitute light rail line downtown as well.

[dubu]

It would be cool if the orange line could be like a commuter line and go in a trench somewhere and go to Oregon city.

[cityscapes]

Originally Posted by AdamNorthwest

Just replace WES with a MAX Red Line extension, and reroute WES to the Amtrak route should we find that worthwhile.

The red line is being extended to Hillsboro and the blue line is planned to terminate at Beaverton TC so if and when that were to happen it would be a blue line extension.

[AdamNorthwest]

When is that planned to go into effect? Or is that just a rumor?

[AdamNorthwest]

Originally Posted by dabom

It would be cool if the orange line could be like a commuter line and go in a trench somewhere and go to Oregon city.

I think it would be unlikely for an Orange Line extension to Oregon City to be below-grade, especially since there is little justification for having it in the first place.

[dubu]

If it was below grade then it could be fast and only have one stop between Milwaukee and Oregon city. then have a bus that goes to Salem from Oregon city. Little better then wes

[cityscapes]

Originally Posted by AdamNorthwest

When is that planned to go into effect? Or is that just a rumor?

http://future.trimet.org/west

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by cityscapes

The red line is being extended to Hillsboro and the blue line is planned to terminate at Beaverton TC so if and when that were to happen it would be a blue line extension.

That actually makes sense, who in Hillsboro wants to ride a train to Gresham? I could see someone in Hillsboro wanting to ride the train to the airport without having to transfer trains.

[colganc]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

That actually makes sense, who in Hillsboro wants to ride a train to Gresham? I could see someone in Hillsboro wanting to ride the train to the airport without having to transfer trains.

This is one of the reasons I only occasionally take MAX to the airport. The transfer adds 15 minutes or so. Often waiting in the cold or rain on the way to or from PDX.

It would be cool, but probably not make much sense if they had "express" service to the airport where coming from the west side the MAX train wouldn't stop along the east side until Gateway and past.

[hat]

SW corridor would be better served by frequent service, at least from Tigard to Beaverton. Here are the stats comparing this with last year's ridership. WES is down 10%, while bus and MAX ridership saw a slight increase.

[babs]

Originally Posted by hat

SW corridor would be better served by frequent service, at least from Tigard to Beaverton. Here are the stats comparing this with last year's ridership. WES is down 10%, while bus and MAX ridership saw a slight increase.

Not surprising WES is down for all the reasons cited above. But it also shows what happens if bus service is improved by adding additional service. A good transportation system is the optimal use of both rail and bus service. Neither of which is optimal today in the SW service area.

[babs]

Originally Posted by colganc

This is one of the reasons I only occasionally take MAX to the airport. The transfer adds 15 minutes or so. Often waiting in the cold or rain on the way to or from PDX.

It would be cool, but probably not make much sense if they had "express" service to the airport where coming from the west side the MAX train wouldn't stop along the east side until Gateway and past.

This has been discussed on other posts. MAX to the airport wouldn't be that slow if it could get through the central city faster. The subway would be the best solution but in the meantime, cutting a few stops and fixing the Steel Bridge crawl would make a noticeable difference.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by babs

This has been discussed on other posts. MAX to the airport wouldn't be that slow if it could get through the central city faster. The subway would be the best solution but in the meantime, cutting a few stops and fixing the Steel Bridge crawl would make a noticeable difference.

Eliminating the transfer for Westside residents would make getting to the airport quicker, though I don't see any tunneling in the near future to help shave off a few minutes from the current alignment.

[cityscapes]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Eliminating the transfer for Westside residents would make getting to the airport quicker, though I don't see any tunneling in the near future to help shave off a few minutes from the current alignment.

I agree with you that a tunnel won't happen in the near future but I'm almost positive that it would shave off more than a few minutes. MAX goes painfully slow from the moment it gets off the I-84 alignment until it goes into the tunnel.

[babs]

Originally Posted by cityscapes

I agree with you that a tunnel won't happen in the near future but I'm almost positive that it would shave off more than a few minutes. MAX goes painfully slow from the moment it gets off the I-84 alignment until it goes into the tunnel.

At the very least, get rid of the Goose Hollow station.