Faster and more frequent passenger train service up and down the Willamette Valley may be a distant dream, but the planning work grinds on. ODOT’s passenger rail program has just published a comparison of all the existing and potential stops. In Albany, the report compares the existing depot, Albany Station, with a potential stop near […]
As for catching a ride on a high-speed or even moderately fast passenger train up the Willamette Valley any time soon, don’t get your hopes up. There is no estimate for when such a service might start, says Jim Cox of the Oregon Department of Transportation. He and Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell spoke about […]
There are at least two ways of looking at the current $10 million planning effort for better passenger rail service in the Willamette Valley, between Eugene and Portland. One is hopeful and visionary, and the other is coldly realistic. Here is the realistic view.
Albany Station, constructed at great public expense, is a hub of transportation activity during some parts of the day. Trains and local and regional bus lines stop there, and there’s plenty of convenient parking for taxis and the vehicles of commuters and other travelers. And yet, incredibly, two of the alternative routes being considered for […]
A state committee working on plans for improved passenger rail between Eugene and Portland has been looking at different possibilities for a route that the trains of the future might take. You can’t say that they have not been thorough. It looks as as though they considered every possibility that somebody suggested. Keep in mind […]
In regard to passenger rail in the Willamette Valley, the meetings continue. Whether they will accomplish anything, though, is open to grave doubt. As previous studies have estimated, improving either the main line of the Union Pacific or the old Oregon Electric to carry more and faster passenger trains is going to cost around $2 […]
On rail, CA is way ahead of us
Say what you want about California and its many problems, but in contrast to Oregon our southern neighbor is moving with breathtaking speed on the subject of high-speed rail.
Tags: California High-Speed Rail Authority, High-speed rail, Oregon passenger rail