My point, exactly.

I live in Tigard - I'm a mile from the WES station, but WES has proven to be utterly useless for me whatsoever. I have used it exactly ONE time for a non recreational trip (i.e. ride WES for the sake of riding WES) and only because TriMet was a massive FAIL during an afternoon snow flurry event in January and my 94 bus was a no-show (nor was the 12 bus I would have used as my alternate).

I make at least one trip to Salem a month, but I'm not going to leave Friday night, spend two nights in Salem, and then commute to work from Salem (not to mention I'd be over an hour late to work) on Monday morning. I'm also not going to reverse-travel ten miles to Union Station, and then reverse-travel five miles in Salem to my mother-in-law's home in N.E. Salem.

On a weekend, it'll take me approximately 45 minutes (each way) to get from my home to Union Station on the #12 bus. I can drive TO Salem in less than 45 minutes - even if I take the backroads if I-5 is congested (99E, Boones Ferry Road, Butteville Road, River Road, Wallace Road).

Salem has no weekend bus service - FAIL. Salem also has no late night or early morning bus service to get me to/from Amtrak - FAIL.

And even if the HSR route makes a stop in Tualatin eliminating the Portland reverse-travel, the 76 bus only runs 30 minute headways on Saturdays and 60 minutes on Sundays, so unless TriMet and the HSR folks time their connections in Tualatin and Tigard, I could be in for a lot of waiting...when I could have just gotten in my car, and driven, and arrived at my destination - all in the same time I was waiting.

HSR is a joke in Oregon, if we can't even get around our own communities effectively. What makes HSR successful in other countries is that once you step off the train, you have a plethora of local transit at the waiting for you. In Seattle it isn't too bad - go up one elevator, cross a street, go down an elevator and you have the Metro Tunnel with plenty of buses and light rail. Don't want to walk that far - you still have a lot of buses right on Jackson Street and on 4th Avenue that stop right at the station. (It could be easier, though...the stairs and elevators are discouraging to many would-be riders.)

At Portland Union Station, there is just ONE TriMet bus that stops AT the station - and it is a cross-town route that doesn't go downtown. FAIL. If you know where to walk to catch the #9 bus it'll get you downtown, but it's a three block walk. Two and a half blocks to the 33 bus. Three blocks to MAX. Sorry, but by international HSR standards - that is not acceptable - it needs to be at the front door!!

Salem, as mentioned, has no late night or weekend bus service. HSR won't work if you walk off the train and have no way to get anywhere. Oregon City is also a FAIL with absolutely no TriMet bus routes anywhere nearby; the station was put in a ridiculous location, instead of the historical location right smack downtown, underneath the Elevator, and just a short walk to the Oregon City Transit Center.

Vancouver, Washington, is another FAIL - Vancouver, if located in Oregon, would be the second largest city in Oregon (it is larger than either Eugene or Salem). But it's train station is located far removed from the city core, and has no transit service to it - just taxis. Olympia/Lacey's station is also far removed from anything but at least it has a city bus route to it.

Albany is slightly better with the city's transit hub right next to the train station, but its service is limited. There is some Saturday service, and a regular route to Corvallis...so Albany is better than Salem. (But what is there in Albany???)

Tacoma is within spitting distance of being a success story - but in its infinite wisdom, decided to build TWO train stations that are several blocks apart. Tacoma could drastically improve by moving its current Amtrak station to F Street - about four blocks west - putting it just across the street from the Tacoma Dome Station (used by virtually all Pierce Transit buses, Sounder, ST Express Buses, Greyhound, Trailways, and Tacoma Link Light Rail). However if the Lakewood line is built, then this should move the Amtrak Cascades service to Freighthouse Square resolving that.

Eugene...it's transit hub is a full half mile south of the Amtrak station. It does have two routes that are somewhat close to Amtrak - but the 40 route makes a large loop through downtown and the Eugene Amtrak Station stop is on the outbound, not inbound loop; the 1 route suffers from the same failure in that the Amtrak station stop is on the outbound loop but not the inbound loop. One would have to know to walk two blocks east and catch a 66 bus in order to access the Eugene Station to access most buses in the region.

Kelso/Longview and Centralia/Chehalis have stations in decent, downtown locations, but both have very limited public transit.