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Re: WES ridership and train frequency.
Author: Erik H.
Date: 08-30-2017 - 19:07
J Mann Wrote:
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> The biggest problem with WES as I see it is train frequency. It only runs in the commute
> hours.
Possibly, but the other issue is that WES doesn't serve very many trip origins or destinations - nearly every trip on WES requires at least a transfer at one end, and often at both ends.
Live in Salem but work for Intel or Nike? If you're taking transit 100% you have one bus in Salem to get you to the Transit Mall, another bus to Wilsonville, WES, MAX, and then a Nike or Intel shuttle bus. Four transfers.
Work at Washington Square Mall? Not only do WES's hours of operations not work for you, but you have to take a bus just to get across Highway 217. Work along Kruse Way? There's no direct bus connection from either the Tualatin or Tigard WES stations, so you have to take one bus from either station to get to the Tualatin Park & Ride, and then transfer to another bus to get you to Kruse Way.
The WES station in Wilsonville is surrounded by large parking lots, a wetland, and massive warehouses, so unless you work for Coca-Cola Bottling or Convergys (a large call center), you're taking a SMART bus to get anywhere else in Wilsonville; plus you're likely taking another bus to get to your origin WES station because there's very little housing near any WES station.
Fortunately, SMART is on a railroad that the towns grew up along so hopefully there was a lot more thought put into station locations and connecting transit. WES was literally sold to us by Colorado Railcar: "Look at our cool train!" and politicians throwing a dart on a map to figure out a track to use it. Historically the WES route from Beaverton to Tigard saw virtually no through passenger service (as the Oregon Electric Railway travelled from Tigard northeast to Garden Home and onto Portland, while the Red Electrics only used the route for equipment positioning and ran only a small number of revenue trains for a couple years between Beaverton and Cook). As a result, the station locations don't match up with the cities' development patterns aside from Tigard TC - where the station is in a good location, but doesn't match up with local travel patterns.
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> The biggest problem with WES as I see it is train frequency. It only runs in the commute
> hours.
Possibly, but the other issue is that WES doesn't serve very many trip origins or destinations - nearly every trip on WES requires at least a transfer at one end, and often at both ends.
Live in Salem but work for Intel or Nike? If you're taking transit 100% you have one bus in Salem to get you to the Transit Mall, another bus to Wilsonville, WES, MAX, and then a Nike or Intel shuttle bus. Four transfers.
Work at Washington Square Mall? Not only do WES's hours of operations not work for you, but you have to take a bus just to get across Highway 217. Work along Kruse Way? There's no direct bus connection from either the Tualatin or Tigard WES stations, so you have to take one bus from either station to get to the Tualatin Park & Ride, and then transfer to another bus to get you to Kruse Way.
The WES station in Wilsonville is surrounded by large parking lots, a wetland, and massive warehouses, so unless you work for Coca-Cola Bottling or Convergys (a large call center), you're taking a SMART bus to get anywhere else in Wilsonville; plus you're likely taking another bus to get to your origin WES station because there's very little housing near any WES station.
Fortunately, SMART is on a railroad that the towns grew up along so hopefully there was a lot more thought put into station locations and connecting transit. WES was literally sold to us by Colorado Railcar: "Look at our cool train!" and politicians throwing a dart on a map to figure out a track to use it. Historically the WES route from Beaverton to Tigard saw virtually no through passenger service (as the Oregon Electric Railway travelled from Tigard northeast to Garden Home and onto Portland, while the Red Electrics only used the route for equipment positioning and ran only a small number of revenue trains for a couple years between Beaverton and Cook). As a result, the station locations don't match up with the cities' development patterns aside from Tigard TC - where the station is in a good location, but doesn't match up with local travel patterns.
| Subject | Written By | Date/Time (PST) |
|---|---|---|
 WES ridership and train frequency.
|
J Mann | 08-29-2017 - 09:58 |
|
Re: WES ridership and train frequency. |
Erik H. | 08-30-2017 - 19:07 |