Oregon asks for recovery funds, hopes for six fast trains a day

By Hasso Hering

Albany Democrat-Herald

Oregon is working on a plan to expand - in a big way - passenger rail service in the Willamette Valley.

If it's carried out, the plan may make use of the old Oregon Electric line through Albany to carry as many as six passenger trains daily between Portland and Eugene.

In Salem on Thursday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced that the state had applied for $2.1 billion in federal recovery funds for the expansion of intercity rail for both passengers and freight.

On the passenger side, the Oregon Department of Transportation said the goals include increasing daily round trips from two to six between Eugene and Portland, raising the top speed from 79 to 110 miles an hour, cutting the travel time from 21/2 hours to just under two hours; and reducing carbon emissions with electrified service, "possibly powered by solar panels."

In the draft of an intercity passenger rail study, ODOT studied the old Oregon Electric, now operated by the Portland & Western Railroad, as well as the existing route on the Union Pacific main line.

"It would be feasible to shift Portland-to-Eugene intercity passenger rail service from the UP line to the OE line," the ODOT study concludes.

Using the Oregon Electric line would cost less and attract more riders, the study says.

The OE alternative would cost $856 million, compared to nearly $1.3 billion for the Union Pacific route.

If the money is granted, ODOT plans to do an environmental impact statement, which would identify a preferred alternative by 2012, said Betsy Imholt, ODOT Rail Study director.

In Albany, the improved service using the OE line would use the existing station. It would run partly in the UP right of way.

South of Albany, it would rejoin the old OE line either via a new bridge across the Calapooia River or, using the existing bridge south of Tangent on the main line, cut west to the Oregon Electric from there.

The Oregon Electric started as a passenger line, but its interurban passenger service stopped in the early 1930s.