Sneaking Up on High Speed Rail in Oregon

A "High Speed Rail Corridor" (HSRC) has been designated for some time running from Eugene to Vancouver, BC. The state of Washington has taken the lead by investing heavily in track and signaling, as well as trainsets. Last year Oregon bought two new Talgo trainsets (pictured left) to contribute to the service. As I pointed out, though, in a March 2, 2010 post, poor track is the big impediment to realizing the goal of truly high speed service in Oregon. Circumstances require that we rethink how this service is approached in Oregon and it starts with the foundational concepts of limited budgets and looking at actual demand. A new report does just that.

The report is entitled "High Speed Rail in America" and ranks various proposed corridors around the country including the one above. www.america2050.org/2011/01/high-speed-rail-in-america.html It concludes that in the Northwest Corridor the focus should really be between Seattle and Portland and service both south and north of these points should be more conventional feeder-type service. For example, in 2009 there were 740,000 passengers between Seattle and Portland. The numbers beyond those end points drop off to under 100,000 annually, although the north end had a boost last winter with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC.  Big difference. As much as I like riding the sleek Talgos to Seattle from Salem, it doesn't make much economic sense to tie up these expensive trainsets for traffic volumes far below their capacity on track that is not designed for high speeds. Building frequency of service is the key to moving people out of cars and on to trains, so how does one do that?

The first step is to restrict the Talgos to the SEA-PDX corridor. By doing so, instead of Talgos poking along to Eugene and Vancouver, BC, additional roundtrips could be added with them between SEA and PDX; more frequency = more passengers = more revenue.

The second step is to grow the feeder services and frequency is the key here too. To do that requires cheaper equipment, with cheaper operating costs that matches capacity to demand - something like the DMU railcar pictured to the left. Instead of carrying 420 passengers like the Talgos, the DMU carries roughly 140. Instead of being designed to run at 125 mph, DMUs travel at a respectable 79 mph. The trailing unit on a DMU is unpowered so operating costs are lower. They can be run from either end, so there is no need to turn them at their destination. They are modern looking and offer many passenger amenities for the 2-hour run up the Willamette Valley. Running from both Portland and Eugene throughout the day, DMUs could be timed to offer connections to the high speed SEA-PDX service, as well as providing frequent commuter service to Portland. The economics of DMU units might also make it possible to extend rail service up the Columbia Gorge to The Dalles or even Pendleton/La Grande.

The tracks cannot be forgotten, of course. Oregon will need to identify and remove bottlenecks to high speed service, but by going cheap on equipment, more money will be available to do the track work over time. As passenger volumes build because of increased frequency, it will become more evident that investing in passenger rail is a prudent way to enhance mobility for Oregonians without the enormous expense of turning I-5 into an 8-lane mega road - that still gets jammed.

High speed rail will happen in the Northwest. If we wait until I-5 is just one big traffic jam, it will be too late to economically build our rail passenger network. Prudent and deliberate steps now, not wishful thinking, is what will get the job done.

(Tip o' the hat to Glenn Geisendorfer for this report!)