Portland, Oregon: TriMet Westside Express Service

[lbshelby]

I remember when Washington County LUT had a rather interesting idea to run the train actually to terminate in Forest Grove so that it could "extend" MAX to Forest Grove.

The idea of the train terminating in Hillsboro actually was thought of when Downtown Hillsboro was ripped up for MAX work at Hatfield center; you will notice that the P&W tracks were re-done on Adams St which goes right next to the western terminus for MAX.

Well, the rebuild of that track probably had more to do with the general mayhem in the area of the station during construction. However, that that idea was suggested by LU&T folks in that time frame doesn't surprise me at all. There's been a lot of ambitious scheming surrounding the WES project from day one. It would make an interesting study to see how the project scope ballooned, shrank, ballooned, and shrank again.

[westr]

The Portland Oregonian has an extensive story on Tri-met's dealings with Colorado Railcar for the DMUs for the Westside Express. It shows how precarious Colorado Railcar is and how much Tri-Met has put into it to keep the company going to get its DMUs. See http://www.oregonlive.com/special/index ... rimet.html Portland's anti-rail folks are going to have fun with this.

[railohio]

Throughout this past week the first departure north from Wilsonville in the evening and the subsequent first departure south from Beaverton has had the two-unit set. I'd be interested in tracking regular operations with others and noting which equipment is on which run to aid in future photographic pursuits. Anyone else game?

[AgentSkelly]

Well, as of today, the trains now use the "TriMet" callsign on the radio instead of the odd CRMX callsign.

[pdxstreetcar]

railohio, the 5:33 pm departure out of beaverton transit center this afternoon was a two-car operation, i'd assume that train would stay pretty consistant

anyone know which station was/is giving out the travel mugs?

saw this on flickr...
WES Travel Mug

[railohio]

Tigard was giving mugs in the morning. I was on the 7:37a north out of there which also had the two-unit set as did the final southbound out of Beaverton in the morning.

[railohio]

I'm sitting on WES on a Wilsonville layover waiting to head back north. Wireless Internet access is a major perk!

[AgentSkelly]

I'm sitting on WES on a Wilsonville layover waiting to head back north. Wireless Internet access is a major perk!

It does indeed.

I'll be taking a trip on it this Friday to see if its feasible to use the evening service to make a quick trip to Frys Electronics.

[UH60L]

Boy, I'm really jealous of you guys. I've been following this project for a couple of years now, and wouldn't you know it, I shipped out to Ft Sill on my way to Iraq last week. Totally missed out on seeing the WES actually start running. I love trains (and helicopters, thus my current situation!!!) and am one of those people living in Salem that hopes this line gets extended eventually.

Luckily I have my laptop and internet access. I'll be watching this thread when I can and watching for news about the system on the net. Having a computer sure does make being in a different state or different country easier to deal with.

So, for those that have ridden WES, how was it? Are they running on schedule? Sounds like the wifi is working, that's sweet! How has the ridership been, lots of people?

Later,
UH60L

[wigwagfan]

So, for those that have ridden WES, how was it? Are they running on schedule? Sounds like the wifi is working, that's sweet! How has the ridership been, lots of people?

Rode it last Friday. It was fine, nothing to call home about.

Initial ridership reports show ridership is brisk but not "jammed packed", virtually all trains have had plenty of seats available.

It doesn't really go where I need to go, but I am considering taking a trip in a couple weeks from my downtown office out to Beaverton and doing a trip out to Wilsonville and back to Tigard just to gauge ridership before catching a bus back home, essentially a very large circle trip.

[AgentSkelly]

I just took a trip this afternoon, here's some photos:

[AgentSkelly]

More!

[Patrick Boylan]

Hard to figure from your photos where the operator sits. It looks like one of your shots shows controls in a partial cab on the car's right side, but another shot shows somebody in uniform sitting in at the center window at a console that wraps around all 3 windows of a full width cab.
So do my eyes deceive me, or do they have 2 different kinds of cab, or did you take cab shots of 2 different kinds of trains?

[AgentSkelly]

Hard to figure from your photos where the operator sits. It looks like one of your shots shows controls in a partial cab on the car's right side, but another shot shows somebody in uniform sitting in at the center window at a console that wraps around all 3 windows of a full width cab.
So do my eyes deceive me, or do they have 2 different kinds of cab, or did you take cab shots of 2 different kinds of trains?

On the return trip back to Beaverton, I was in a one-car train, meaning one end has a control stand and the other has a full operator console.

[wigwagfan]

Here's a video I made while riding the WES line a week ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF_y4oHf ... annel_page

At about 1:10, you'll see a video of the 1001 coming into the station (A end first), followed by a picture of the 1002 at the same station (B end first) - a comparison between the two ends of the cars.

There is a picture of the A-end cab, but I never saw the B-end from the inside.