JOHN Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What about the WES extension to Amtrak Station at Salem?

1. Involves Union Pacific, not going to happen without hundreds of millions of dollars.
2. Involves building new railroad track - no money for it. (The OE and UP don't have a current connection, aside from the Salem interchange track that is the wrong direction and involves two 5 MPH curves.)
3. TriMet can't unilaterally build outside its own district (Wilsonville's SMART pays TriMet some $500,000 a year to run WES into Wilsonville); Marion County has **ZERO** interest in paying for a train into its county.
4. Cost to upgrade the Oregon Electric is in the hundreds of millions at a minimum. Look at the "Transportation Grand Bargain" that had to cut numerous of far more vital projects.
5. ODOT has too much on its plate. And it still can't act without money, which the Legislature won't provide, because it is cutting left and right (for example, state government workers no longer get free bus passes in Salem.)
6. There were already strong fears that the State was going to kill off the Amtrak Cascade trains south of Portland account pathetically low ridership (even after a decade of operation and millions poured into it, the average daily ridership per train fills up about two of the nine coaches.)

Bottom line - if you want WES to Salem, those Cherriots and SMART buses that run between Wilsonville and Salem need to be filled up, along with Amtrak Cascades - 100% load factor. When you drive I-5, you are ACTIVELY opposing it. And every day, 80,000 plus Oregonians ACTIVELY oppose it (and that's not counting traffic on 99E, 99W, River Road, and Wallace Road), while maybe 200-300 ACTIVELY support it. We're a democracy, what does 80,000 no votes compared to 300 yes votes mean?