High Speed Rail and Amtrak News

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by aquaticko

An issue with Portland Union as a passenger train station--at least one in the 2020's, and not the 1920's--is the ground-level boarding. It should be unacceptable now, with the current level of services; it would be basically unusable if it were to function as a major train station a la anything in a medium-sized European or Asian city.

However, my understanding--gleaned from somewhere, I promise, if not the Prosper Portland pdf I'd thought it was from (still worth a look-through; lots of info)--is that level boarding wouldn't provide the clearance freight trains need. Automated gap-fillers are fairly common in Europe, where mixed platform heights are the norm, but AFAIK don't exist anywhere in the U.S.

The higher frequencies between Portland and Seattle proposed by WSDOT would seem much more feasible and pleasant if people didn't have to climb up into the rail cars as they do now.

I wish the few American cities with modern-ish rail service levels and modernized stations would see rail investment as the major economic breadbasket that it can be. There is no major global city whose physical construction is benefitted by a dominion of highways through their middle; the opposite is pretty obviously true of rail.

To be fair, Amtrak is updating billions of $$ infrastructure in the NE Corridor with recent funding. Which is awesome to see. My train-nerd self clocked my train (gps) between Philly and NYC in the upgraded NJ Raceway section at 128 mph this summer, on the non-Acela. Awesome. But I digress...

Interesting about the platforms. Especially since there are several boarding tracks that are sidings to the mainline freight tracks. I wonder why they couldn't have high platforms on those and just work out an agreement with (UP?) to have those be for Amtrak only. You'd only need one platform at high level, allowing for boarding two train sets at once. Do freight ever use anything aside the mainline tracks in that area?

[colossalorder]

One could hope for something like Denver's Union Station that is just bustling with activity, but I just don't think Portland's location could really support it. Its in such a dead and dirty pocket there.

$250 mil is just a monstrous sum for a building that is lovely from a distance but kind of dismal, cramped and uninspired up close and inside. It really lacks the charm and grandeur of America's other great rail stations like Philly or DC. I'd hate to see the old building go, but you have to wonder at that price tag if its really worth saving.

[RedGlovesRule99]

If we're looking for a way to build HSR or at the least, move away from the slow and seismically obsolete Steel Bridge, would it theoretically be possible to bury the tracks at Union Station underground via cut and cover? Then continue under the Willamette and through the central eastside? We could cut and cover with minimal opposition to the disruption down 3rd Ave and pop up again south of division. This alignment would allow expansion of the capacity limited union station over the tracks, separate passenger ROW through the city center from freight and also make pedestrian/bike connections to Naito easier by removing the barrier currently presented by the tracks.

Problems? If all surface level tracks are removed then the small amount of freight traffic that runs across the steel bridge currently would need to be rerouted somehow, and anything underground would have to contend with a MAX tunnel through the area should that ever get built.

[babs]

Originally Posted by RedGlovesRule99

If we're looking for a way to build HSR or at the least, move away from the slow and seismically obsolete Steel Bridge, would it theoretically be possible to bury the tracks at Union Station underground via cut and cover? Then continue under the Willamette and through the central eastside? We could cut and cover with minimal opposition to the disruption down 3rd Ave and pop up again south of division. This alignment would allow expansion of the capacity limited union station over the tracks, separate passenger ROW through the city center from freight and also make pedestrian/bike connections to Naito easier by removing the barrier currently presented by the tracks.

Problems? If all surface level tracks are removed then the small amount of freight traffic that runs across the steel bridge currently would need to be rerouted somehow, and anything underground would have to contend with a MAX tunnel through the area should that ever get built.

If you are going to go through all this effort, why not put the HSR station on the east side such the Rose Quarter area? We all love Union Station but to cross the rive and then back, there are other places better suited for a HSR rail station.

[AdamNorthwest]

The big pipe runs under SE 3rd Ave to my recollection, so any additional tunneling under 3rd would be a no-go.