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

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dabom

theres already a subway that goes threw the hill just have wes light rail and have the line skip the sunshine tc because that slows it down a lot. maybe just get rid of that tc.

You mean Sunset TC? That would make no sense at all seeing it is a popular park and ride and the garage there is always packed. They actually need to expand that parking garage to handle more cars.

[dubu]

i think apartments are better then parking garages with light rail but cars are always first in the suburbs in us cities

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

That's just meaningless, because anybody who knows ANYTHING about Tigard knows that the city is EXTREMELY pro-light rail. They've been waiting for their turn to hook up to MAX for years, and in fact, they've already identified 7 distinct potential HCT station areas within the city and done a significant amount of planning around those stations. Metro knows this and they could plan a route through Tigard without Tigard's "official" approval, regardless of some idiotic letter the city is coerced into mailing out. I guarantee you, when the time comes for a vote to fund MAX through Tigard, it will pass.

Not only that, but if the state legislature passes another one of those land use final orders, then Tigard will have to approve project elements. That said, I don't think Metro or the region would take it that far without another vote showing popular support.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dabom

i think apartments are better then parking garages with light rail but cars are always first in the suburbs in us cities

Oh I agree, apartments near a light rail stop is much better than parking garages, but Sunset TC is a Transit Center and a Park and Ride, at when I use to commute through Sunset TC, it was always over capacity and remember having to drive into downtown a number of times if I was too late to find a parking spot.

There is actually enough land to expand the Park and Ride garage at Sunset TC as well as building apartments and shops around the stop, which is something I think should be done.

[dubu]

someday if theres a new line that goes along that freeway to tigard it will probably take a shortcut and skip the sunset tc. it would be pretty fast

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dabom

someday if theres a new line that goes along that freeway to tigard it will probably take a shortcut and skip the sunset tc. it would be pretty fast

That makes no sense, why would a light rail line run through Sunset TC to go to Tigard to begin with? A new line down to Tigard from downtown is going to run the 99W route.

[dubu]

two light rail lines would help that area a lot. im thinking too far in the future though

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dabom

two light rail lines would help that area a lot. im thinking too far in the future though

Not sure I understand what you are talking about, which area will be helped a lot by adding two light rail lines? Sunset TC already has two lines running through it, and any light rail expansion to the west will probably add new lines though this station.

Though I still have no idea what Sunset TC has to do with Tigard.

[dubu]

so what i think it will look like in 50 years is there will be two subways going threw the hill (countin the subway there right now) and they go to the tigard tc.

where a comuter train will go to calld wes and it will go to salem

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by dabom

so what i think it will look like in 50 years is there will be two subways going threw the hill (countin the subway there right now) and they go to the tigard tc.

where a comuter train will go to calld wes and it will go to salem

I'm going to take a guess at what you're saying here -

You think there will be a direct rail line from downtown Portland to Tigard via a subway generally following I5.

And you think lightrail will be extended from the Beaverton transit center (so the line will pass through the Sunset TC) to Tigard via a route generally following Hwy 217.

Plus you think Wes service will be extended to Salem.

That layout would be ideal. Hopefully won't take 50 years, however.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by rsbear

I'm going to take a guess at what you're saying here -

You think there will be a direct rail line from downtown Portland to Tigard via a subway generally following I5.

And you think lightrail will be extended from the Beaverton transit center (so the line will pass through the Sunset TC) to Tigard via a route generally following Hwy 217.

Plus you think Wes service will be extended to Salem.

That layout would be ideal. Hopefully won't take 50 years, however.

Okay, that makes more sense, though I don't see there being a huge need to extend light rail to Tigard via Beaverton TC, if there were already something running down I-5 or 99W. I would imagine we would see light rail expanded along R26 and/or running a line along TW Highway.

Also is there enough people who would commute to areas around the Beaverton TC from Salem? That doesn't seem like the best idea for expanding that line, though I could be wrong, just didn't know if there was any real demand for that now or in the near future.

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Okay, that makes more sense, though I don't see there being a huge need to extend light rail to Tigard via Beaverton TC, if there were already something running down I-5 or 99W. I would imagine we would see light rail expanded along R26 and/or running a line along TW Highway.

Also is there enough people who would commute to areas around the Beaverton TC from Salem? That doesn't seem like the best idea for expanding that line, though I could be wrong, just didn't know if there was any real demand for that now or in the near future.

I think the idea is that if Wes went from Salem to Tigard folks could connect to light rail for the trip into Portland (via a new line from Tigard to downtown) plus they could connect at Beverton TC to the rest of Washington County.

Have no idea of the demand. Just trying to translate dabom's post.

[dubu]

theres about 400,000 people in the salem msa. it could keep growing.

maybe there will be high speed rail along i5 some day

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dabom

theres about 400,000 people in the salem msa. it could keep growing.

maybe there will be high speed rail along i5 some day

But how many of them commute from the Salem metro to Beavertron? I would imagine we would get a Sounder like system running between Salem and near downtown Portland before extending the WES to Salem. I will say that I think the WES is good for starting this extended regional rail system even though the ridership numbers for the WES is extremely low.

[dubu]

for commuter rail you could have a tunnle through the west hills and just have one stop at pcc and one at multnoma village. then have amtrack trains go through there too.

thats probably expencive but it would be good since i5 is always slow and there could be more amtrack trains.

[bvpcvm]

Metro releases updated Southwest Corridor maps, showing likely paths through Tigard and Tualatin (photos)

Metro documents released this week show updated maps of possible paths for a light-rail or bus-rapid-transit corridor from Portland to Tualatin, and city and regional officials had them on display Wednesday night in Tigard. Tualatin residents can view the maps tonight at the Tualatin Police Department at 6 p.m.

link to PDF



more details and numerous closeups in the Oregonian article and PDF

[bvpcvm]

I really don't like the idea of going to Tigard. I mean, if we're going to spend so much money on this, make it fast and direct. That huge job to Tigard will probably add 20 minutes - and for what? Leave Tigard to WES for now, and maybe someday upgrade it to LRT along 217. By trying to serve downtown Tigard they're trying to please everyone (uh... recent ballot measures aside) and will end up serving no one. Edit: besides, there's nothing IN "downtown" Tigard to support so much spending. I know, I know - just give it time, right? Look how "giving it time" in the suburbs has worked out in downtown Gresham and Beaverton. Sure, there's some dense housing, but is it really enough to justify the expense of LRT?

[hat]

Originally Posted by bvpcvm

I really don't like the idea of going to Tigard. I mean, if we're going to spend so much money on this, make it fast and direct. That huge job to Tigard will probably add 20 minutes - and for what? Leave Tigard to WES for now, and maybe someday upgrade it to LRT along 217. By trying to serve downtown Tigard they're trying to please everyone (uh... recent ballot measures aside) and will end up serving no one. Edit: besides, there's nothing IN "downtown" Tigard to support so much spending. I know, I know - just give it time, right? Look how "giving it time" in the suburbs has worked out in downtown Gresham and Beaverton. Sure, there's some dense housing, but is it really enough to justify the expense of LRT?

I agree somewhat. It would be much more practical and direct to have a straight run to Tualatin. But why not have two alignments, i.e. Yellow1 and Yellow2, one Portland to Tigard, the other Portland to Tualatin? Tualatin and Tigard are already connected by WES.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/101004...7/10231367446/

[davehogan]

Originally Posted by hat

I agree somewhat. It would be much more practical and direct to have a straight run to Tualatin. But why not have two alignments, i.e. Yellow1 and Yellow2, one Portland to Tigard, the other Portland to Tualatin? Tualatin and Tigard are already connected by WES.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/101004...7/10231367446/

I'd guess it more has to do with paying back Washington County for not complaining they've only gotten the WES since 1998 when the West Side Blue Line (at about $950 million) opened. Since then Portland got the Yellow and Red Lines, as well as stops on the Green Line (which finally made it to the third TriMet County) followed by the soon to open Orange Line (which mostly serves Portland with two stops in Clackamas to help justify getting the state to throw in a bunch of cash.)

The WES was about $165 million.

The Orange Line is estimated at about $1.5 billion. The Green Line was about $575 (cheaper because much of the ROW was purchased for I-205 I think), the Yellow Line was about $350 million. The Red Line was about $125 million.

The SW Corridor won't be cheap, but apparently the Metro area has run out of cheap expansions that can be done?

I'd think they could extend the Yellow Line to Hayden Island or replace the Lloyd Center - MAC areas for cheaper than the SW Corridor, but I guess we've go to try to give everyone MAX before we can upgrade what we have.

[maccoinnich]

OHSU tunnel, please.