Portland in an hour? Say hello to new commuter rail

Railroad says it could run diesel trains from Forest Grove’s Pacific University to Hillsboro

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Aug 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (25 Reader comments)

Pamplin Media Group file photo

A new plan could link a privately run commuter rail system from Forest Grove with the Westside light-rail line in Hillsboro.

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Forest Grove’s light-rail dreams may be a long way down the pipe, but a new proposal from Portland and Western Railroad could bring diesel-powered commuter rail to the city as soon as 2013.

“It’s a wake-up call,” said Forest Grove Mayor Richard Kidd said of the proposal.

Portland and Western’s plan calls for about $35 million of infrastructure investment in the crumbling tracks that the railroad company owns between Hillsboro and Forest Grove. The line would run from Hatfield Government Center in downtown Hillsboro, stop once in Cornelius, then run to Pacific University in Forest Grove, possibly stopping at a park-and-ride station near McMenamins Grand Lodge on Highway 47.

The trip between Forest Grove and Hillsboro would take an estimated 15 minutes, beating TriMet’s 57 line by 5-10 minutes (or more during rush hour) and running about on par with driving a car.

Transferring to the MAX at Hillsboro, a commuter could reach downtown Portland from Forest Grove in 59 minutes.

Last week, Washington County Chairman Tom Brian, Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington and officials from Forest Grove, Cornelius and Hillsboro met with railroad officials to talk about the proposal, which has been in the works for about a month.

“It’s a pretty fuzzy, squishy kind of proposal at this point, but intriguing and worth talking about,” said Cornelius City Manager Dave Waffle.

Some of the fuzziness comes from the fact that at this point, the proposal is still in the idea phase. Kidd generated 30 questions that needed to be answered about the proposal in order to move forward. Others in the meeting had their own.

But some of the squishiness comes from the proposal’s novelty. Pitched as a low-overhead, quick turnaround public-private partnership, the project is missing some of the structure of a TriMet driven mass transit project.

Since the proposal is meant to bypass the federal bureaucracy — and the federal funds that come with it — it’s not clear yet who would pay a $35 million tab.

“There’s no question that it’d be really difficult to find $35 million at the state level,” said state Sen. Bruce Starr, a Republican who represents the three cities in the Salem.

The other question is who would pay for the day-to-day cost of running the rail line.

“The only downside to this proposal is that there is no clear indication of operation and maintenance funding,” Kidd said.

Private project can move quickly

For the past two years, Forest Grove Mayor Richard Kidd has been doggedly gunning for an extension of TriMet’s MAX line from downtown Hillsboro to Forest Grove – and idea that was included in the original proposal to bring light rail to Washington County.

His persistence has put the project on TriMet planning maps and in 2006 the city commissioned a concept study for the project.

But with a $175 million price tag, and a number of regional transportation efforts ahead of it in line, MAX cars likely wouldn’t arrive in Forest Grove for another 15 years.

The Portland and Western proposal, by contrast, calls for an aggressive five-year timeline. How is that possible?

For starters: The rail company is about to open the Westside Express Service, a commuter rail line between Wilsonville and Beaverton.

“Obviously Portland and Western brings some experience as a rail provider to the table, the fact that they’re already here and they’re already in the area, and it’s their line,” said Larry Harvey, a Portland and Western spokesman.

And, the railroad already owns all the property it needs. The project would upgrade the freight rails that run east and west between Forest Grove and Hillsboro, roughly aligned with 23rd Avenue in Forest Grove.

The tracks run behind Cornelius Fred Meyer, the Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery and terminate next to the Hatfield Government Center in Hillsboro.

Harvey said that the handful of freight trains that currently run the rails don’t generate enough revenue for the company to invest in a massive upgrade of the line.

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