Amtrak Gaining Popularity Among Commuters Who Ride Between Portland, Oregon City and Salem | Oregonlive.Com

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Home > Pacific Northwest News Amtrak gaining popularity among commuters who ride between Portland, Oregon City and Salem

Published: Sunday, March 04, 2012, 10:05 PM Updated: Monday, March 05, 2012, 12:39 PM

By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian

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After an especially taxing day at his corporate communications job in downtown Portland, Dan Anderson was looking forward to the evening train commute to Oregon City. More Pacific Northwest News Most Comments Most Recent "It gives me a chance to unwind a little before I get home," Anderson said, Pacific Northwest News stories with the settling into a soft leather seat and most comments in the last 7 days. opening his MacBook. "Free WiFi. I can Proposed Columbia River order a beer. And it sure beats sitting 137 Crossing is a bridge too low, in traffic." Coast Guard says

Kitzhaber's new 10-year Wait. Comfy chairs? Web-surfing? 114 energy plan draft floats big Brewskis on a dining car? Is TriMet ideas to reactivate green running a Hogwarts Express for energy Enlarge Benjamin Brink, The Oregonian Portland area commuters that pulls Amtrak gaining popularity OREGON CITY, OREGON - FEBRUARY 16, 2012 - Daniel Anderson gets to into a secret MAX station? 94 among commuters who ride the Amtrak station in Oregon City early because his wife drops him off. He says there's usually only a couple people who get o n at this location. between Portland, Oregon City He likes the quiet time on his ride into Portland. Benjamin Brink/The Actually, this isn't TriMet. Anderson is and Salem Oregonian part of a small but growing group of Rural Oregon counties Daily commuter takes Amtrak between Oregon City Clackamas County commuters 90 scramble as timber payments and Portland gallery (6 photos) spurning the region's transit agency in dry up, while critics say it's favor of Amtrak for daily trips in and time they paid for services out of the city. Mitt Romney wins presidential 38 straw poll at 2012 Dorchester Last year, daily ridership between Conference Salem and Portland on Amtrak jumped more than 22 percent to 24,146 boardings, making it the rail carrier's fastest growing West Coast corridor. The number of monthly passes on the line, meanwhile, increased by 14 percent.

Every morning, they gather at Oregon City's picturesque station to wait for the 7:24 Amtrak Cascades. The non-stop, 20-minute ride to Portland's Union Station is much faster than any TriMet bus or light-rail route offered. It's also cheaper.

Riders rave about how there's ample parking at the station, where they can leave their vehicles for the day. Becca Bishop said the train conductor in a suit and hat opening the door is a nice little touch from of a more neighborly time. "I love how they still learn everyone's name and greet you in the morning," she said.

But nostalgia isn't the only whistle calling to commuters from Salem and Portland's southern suburbs.

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Gas prices in the Portland area are expected to hit an average of $4.50 a gallon by Memorial Day, according to analysis site Gasbuddy.com. Also, TriMet is stuck in the mud of another budget crisis, creating anxieties about future reliability and schedule cuts.

State transportation officials are certainly gearing up for the possibility of more passengers.

Using $36.6 million in federal stimulus Commuting via Amtrak can be affordable and money, the Oregon Department of convenient Transportation's Rail Division has For commuting to and from downtown Portland, Amtrak can be a purchased two Talgo train sets that are Most Active Users What's this? surprisingly effective solution for some of those who live outside the city expected to arrive this summer. As a limits. Dan Anderson, who takes the train between Oregon City and result, Amtrak should be able to Po rtland, talks abo ut what makes it a go od so lutio n fo r his co mmute. Users We Love expand service along the 466-mile Watch video Cascades route running from Eugene Oregon high school football to Vancouver, B.C. fan, 'chadicus01' OregonLive.com contributor is part of A little extra marketing money to target commuters probably wouldn't hurt, either. "I don't think our vibrant and diverse high school most people are aware that that we have two trains that stop in Oregon City each morning on sports community. their way to Union Station," said Scott Hurd, station agent at the recently remodeled Portland More Users We Love stop. "On the East Coast, people automatically think of Amtrak for commuting. Not here."

A century ago, before the rise of the automobile, scores of daily Connect with OregonLive.com travelers took interurban rail lines such as the Red Electric and the What's this? Oregon Electric Railway, which ran several trains a day on what is now Southwest Multnomah Boulevard and Interstate 5.

But these days, passenger rail is a ghost of those glory days. For the Cascades route, Oregon and Washington contract with Amtrak to run All Facebook & Twitter accounts » the trains on freight tracks. With more than 850,000 Amtrak riders in 2011, the corridor was the seventh most popular in the nation. But with just five train sets running along the corridor, Oregon is limited to two Recommendations daily Cascades round-trips between Portland and Eugene. Login You need to be logged into Facebook to see If you need to get from Salem to Portland, for example, northbound your friends' recommendations. trains depart at 6:42 and 10:12 each morning. The vast majority of commuters catch the first one. The next southbound Cascades train Powerball winner gets $336 million jackpot at age 81 doesn't roll out of Union Station until 6:15 p.m., nearly 12 hours later, 116 people recommend this. followed by one at 9:10 p.m. 'Ghost Adventures': Drops in on Old "It can make for a long day," said Tom Herrett, a Salem resident who Town's haunts recently retired from the U.S. Geological Survey but continues to take 60 people recommend this. View full size the train north to do volunteer work in Portland. "That's the one A drowning man, a selfless act, a life downside." saved 88 people recommend this. Still, Herrett said a little extra time in the city beats the 50-mile slog in Interstate 5 traffic that he drove for 17 years before switching to Amtrak.

"A lot of people do that Salem-to-Portland drive," Herrett said. "I'd see the same cars every day. Facebook social plugin It's like a community going up and down I-5."

The state would love to get some of those Willamette Valley drivers clogging up the highway on From Our Advertisers board Amtrak. But no one is predicting a rail revival anytime soon. • Car Cash Sweepstakes - enter for a In fact, Amtrak still counts on Oregon to subsidize Cascades service with $5 million a year, funded chance to win! by custom vehicle license plate fees. While growing, ridership at the Oregon City station was only Advertise With Us » 9,165 in 2011. (By comparison, some 330,000 riders boarded and alighted TriMet's 16 daily WES commuter rail trains at the Beaverton Transit Center during the same period).

Meanwhile, passenger rail continues to be a political punching bag. President Obama has proposed spending $2.7 billion on high-speed rail in fiscal year 2013, while Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has promised that he would end all federal funding to Amtrak.

But with addition of the new Talgo trains this year, ODOT rail planner Bob Melbo said the state is at least moving toward future expansion, including the Popular Tags What's this? possibility of a morning southbound train out of Portland that would return 2010 pendleton round-up 2012 from Eugene in the early evening. january flooding bank bombing Oregon, which has already been bruce turnidge death penalty awarded $19.7 million from the federal eugene fatal crash gary haugen high-speed intercity rail program,

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wants to eventually offer six round gray wolf joshua turnidge marion trips per day and boost on-time county sheriff's office northwest performance to 95 percent with trains going up to 110 mph. headlines northwest news oregon coast tsunami oregon state "We're hopefully going to do things View full size Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian police pacific northwest pacific that will make trains even more Dan Anderson boards Amtrak in Oregon City for his commute to

Po rtland. He said he likes the friendliness o f the folks with Amtrak. He attractive for Portland-to-Salem northwest news pendleton says they were calling him by name after his first couple of trips. commuters," Melbo said. portland salem seattle the

Anderson, 33, has some serious oregonian news network road-warrior credentials. Unwilling to uproot his family from Mollala, he spent two years driving washington wolf woodburn bombing his SUV to and from an office job with T-Mobile in Bellevue, Wash., daily. When the Dachis Group in Portland hired him last August, he decided to re-examine his commuting ways.

Obviously, he was sick of driving. The cost of a TriMet monthly pass is $92, a bargain compared to what he was spending on gas, but the fastest transit trip downtown –even those incorporating the MAX green Line – would take more than an hour. He was also concerned by TriMet's ongoing schedule cuts.

Then Anderson remembered the Amtrak station signs he had seen in Oregon City.

A book of 10 one-way Amtrak fares between Oregon City and Portland is $21; the same book of tickets for TriMet costs $24. Anderson's monthly pass is $58, still far less than what it could cost to drive and park.

On a recent morning, Anderson's wife dropped him off at the Oregon City station on her way to her KinderCare job in Tualatin. Diesel-powered Train No. 500 pulled into the station, sound like an iron giant letting off a sigh as it braked. Inside, the train was already teeming with commuters from Salem, hunched over laptop computers and cups of coffee from the dining car.

The ride was quiet and smooth, the scenery out the window a blur of warehouses, trees and flashing railroad crossings lights before the downtown skyline appeared. Seventeen minutes after leaving Oregon City, Anderson was off the train, walking through the marble-and-neon-sign grotto of Union Station, on his way to his downtown office on foot.

Believe it or not, Anderson said he has yet to have an unpleasant Amtrak experience. There was one morning when the trains were cut off by a Washington landslide. But Amtrak paid to have a cab take Anderson to Union Station. "Nice customer service move," he said.

– Joseph Rose Related topics: amtrak, trimet

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3 of 7 3/8/2012 12:46 PM Amtrak gaining popularity among commuters who ride between Portland, ... http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/03/am...

Ralph Williams March 04, 2012 at 2:15PM

I wonder do they let you bring your bike on the Amtrak like they do the MAX? If not they should.

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lysenko March 04, 2012 at 2:50PM

The newer Talgo "Cascades" trains have bike racks in the baggage car. You need to reserve in advance and, I believe, pay an extra fare. I'd imagine the train staff would be willing to make allowances for a daily commuter.

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Champs March 04, 2012 at 2:53PM

Last I knew, Amtrak had some very asinine rules about bikes, i.e. needing them in boxes (possibly approved). While that does cover many routes, it appears that Cascades has six spaces per train, reservation required. A far cry from the (busy) bike cars on Caltrain, I know.

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SP Red Electric March 04, 2012 at 8:57PM

Yes, on MOST trains you must box the bike up. Because there are NO facilities to properly stow a bike onboard. However, on Amtrak Cascades, there are bike racks in the baggage cars. You must load and unload the bike yourself, and have a reservation and pay an extra charge...but as long as the bike fits in the rack you're good. (If it doesn't, then into the box it goes.)

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ahblid March 05, 2012 at 10:25AM

Actually the new baggage cars currently on order and under production will have space for carry-on bikes and it will eliminate the need for a box in many cases. These new cars will start entering service in 2013 and continue through 2014.

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ub30 March 04, 2012 at 6:15PM

They do allow bikes but it's not as convenient. I can't figure out why WES doesn't go to Salem though. That would be a better train system to transport commuters to and from Salem and Portland. IMO, WES is a complete bust (having seen the sparse ridership) but a route to Salem could help bolster the number of passengers who don't want to fight traffic on I-5 at rush hour.

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SP Red Electric March 04, 2012 at 9:02PM

I can't figure out why WES doesn't go to Salem though. That would be a better train system to transport commuters to and from Salem and Portland. The number of reasons why WES doesn't go to Salem is longer than the list of reasons why WES should go to Salem. But to just name a few: 1. WES is a TriMet function; TriMet doesn't serve any part of Marion County. Wilsonville must pay TriMet a set amount of money each year to subsidize its share of WES costs.

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2. From Wilsonville to Salem the Oregon Electric Line bypasses all of the valley communities - can you imagine the "Woodburn" station being a good two miles from downtown, in the middle of a field between a grain elevator and a dragstrip? It bypasses Oregon City, Canby, Aurora, Hubbard and Gervais too. But it does serve all of the 650 residents of Donald. 3. Once in Salem, the OE suffers from a route designed for slow speed trolleys - a winding route through a residential neighborhood with an extremely narrow right- of-way and numerous grade crossings; followed by street trackage that is in very poor condition, and then ending up in downtown at a relatively new park - but totally separated from transit access and the bulk of the jobs in Salem. Putting a REAL commuter rail system (i.e. locomotive hauling six bi-level coaches) on the existing Union Pacific mainline from Salem to Portland, via Woodburn (right smack downtown), Canby and Oregon City makes infinitely more sense. Except that the planners at ODOT are afraid to ask Union Pacific and are claiming that it'll cost billions - so instead, they're proposing wiping out much of downtown Tualatin, Lake Oswego and Milwaukie for so-called "high speed rail" that'll not only cost more, but have far greater impacts on neighboring properties than the existing UP that already sees six passenger trains, and numerous freight trains, each and every day, even on Christmas Day.

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zAxis March 04, 2012 at 9:26PM

Damn, you sound exactly like my brother-in-law.

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econoline March 05, 2012 at 1:10AM

I wouldn't say even on christmas, I tried to use amtrak last year around the holidays and the prices were 2-3x normal, if anything more people want to use the train on a holiday.

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merwinwfinzork March 05, 2012 at 7:40AM

Raising prices at times of high demand is smart business. Check what the gas stations do for comparison.

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ub30 March 05, 2012 at 5:27AM

I agree with some of what you are saying but what about these points - 1. Yes, WES is with Tri-Met, but that doesn't mean it can't have some sort of partnership with the transit in Salem?

2. The stop in Woodburn would be near the Woodburn shopping area where there is ample parking. Yes, that's not downtown Woodburn but who cares? Who goes to work from PDX or Salem to downtown Woodburn? It's a stopping point for those in Woodburn working elsewhere.

3. Once in Salem, transit buses or shuttles can take those into the downtown Salem area.

4. I was not aware of the high speed rail project tearing through downtowns of Tualatin and Lake O. I agree that would be a bad idea. An underground rail through those areas could make sense though. Sure, it's more of a financial impact in the short run, but in the long run it won't tear up communities (e.g. like MAX did on the eastside in the Rockwood area - once a decent working class area that is more section 8'er now).

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SP Red Electric March 05, 2012 at 11:37AM

Yes, WES is with Tri-Met, but that doesn't mean it can't have some sort of partnership with the transit in Salem?

5 of 7 3/8/2012 12:46 PM Amtrak gaining popularity among commuters who ride between Portland, ... http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/03/am...

Yes, but Salem doesn't want to pay for service outside of Salem either which would require that Marion County be part of it (and Marion County would have to pay the bulk of the cost of the track upgrades). Marion County has expressed little to no interest in doing this. 2. The stop in Woodburn would be near the Woodburn shopping area where there is ample parking. I suggest you drive out to the Woodburn outlet mall, and walk to the railroad track. And then tell me if you'd be willing to do that every day. It's NOT close. Sure there's plenty of room for parking - by paving over farmland; and that defeats much of the purpose of building transit. Using the UP line through downtown puts the train station near walkable destinations and close to existing transit. Using the OE line would require a new park-and-ride lot, new transit connections, and put more traffic on an already strained Highway 214/219 across an interchange/overpass that is already far over capacity. 3. Once in Salem, transit buses or shuttles can take those into the downtown Salem area. True, but where would the bus stop be? You have the off-ramp from the Center Street Bridge onto Front Street that prevents bus stops on Front Street. You have a new park that prevents bus stops going over there. The current proposal is to site a train station about 1/2 mile north in a warehouse/industrial area - that again defeats the purpose of having walkable destinations. The existing Amtrak station in Salem is a VERY easy walk to Salem Hospital, Willamette University and the Capitol Mall. A station on the OE line will lose all of that. And also remember - Salem's transit system shuts down in the late evening, and doesn't operate at all on weekends. Salem also uses a hub system, so someone wanting to go from the OE station proposal to the State Capitol would end up transferring to another bus, or only taking the bus halfway, and walking the rest. 4. I was not aware of the high speed rail project tearing through downtowns of Tualatin and Lake O. I agree that would be a bad idea. An underground rail through those areas could make sense though. It would cost billions to tunnel a HSR line under downtown Tualatin, under the Tualatin River, under I-5...and then you'd be underneath Oswego Lake... Use the UP mainline, eliminate all of those problems.

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ub30 March 05, 2012 at 5:16PM

Okay, some good arguments but questions remain. For example: 1) Salem doesn't want to pay for service outside of Salem. How do you know this information? Link? 2) Using the OE line would require a new park-and-ride lot, new transit connections, and put more traffic on an already strained Highway 214/219 across an interchange/overpass that is already far over capacity. They have already spent money on new park and ride lots along Wilsonville and Tualatin. What's one more in Woodburn? If that's not an option, how about linking WES with an Amtrak Station closer in? Not everyone in Wilsonville who commutes to Salem daily will want to drive east/west to and from OR City just to take the train south to Salem. They'll end up driving and clogging up an already crowded I-5.

3) The existing Amtrak station in Salem is a VERY easy walk to Salem Hospital, Willamette University and the Capitol Mall.

See above on the possibility of linking WES to an Amtrak station. For example, linking WES to the Green Line MAX over to OR City's Amtrak station.

4) It would cost billions to tunnel a HSR line under downtown Tualatin, under the Tualatin River, under I-5...and then you'd be underneath Oswego Lake... Use the UP mainline, eliminate all of those problems.

True. I agree. But, if you say they are definitely going to build HSR through those areas, it's money well spent to go underground and avoid tearing up communities (e.g. MAX & Rockwood). Look at the mistake of an Eastside I-5 along the Willamette River in Portland. Decision makers at that time went the cheap route and it's well documented how much of a mistake that was.

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Dizzy March 06, 2012 at 6:36AM

Yeesh, I bet you all are first on everyone's party invitation list.

6 of 7 3/8/2012 12:46 PM Amtrak gaining popularity among commuters who ride between Portland, ... http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/03/am...

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R A Fontes March 04, 2012 at 2:20PM

Numbers---not---computing (unless daily really means annual): there's no way that 24,146 riders board the trains daily between Salem and Portland.

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