Wish Oregon luck in its application for more than $2 billion through the federal High Speed Intercity Rail program.

The governor's office announced the application last week. It's a preliminary step, to be followed by a formal application in a few months.

Oregon would use the money to upgrade tracks and related works in order to step up passenger rail service up and down the Willamette Valley. The talk is of up to six daily round trips shuttling between Eugene and Portland, via Albany, Salem and Tualatin or Oregon City depending on which route is chosen.

The most intriguing part of the idea is that it might shift passenger service from the Union Pacific mainline to the old Oregon Electric track used by the Portland and Western.

The Union Pacific runs 25 to 30 freights on its mainline, which complicates passenger service and leads to occasional delays. On the Oregon Electric track, freight is light, with two to six trains a day, and passenger trains would have an easier time sticking to their timetable.

Hundreds of millions of dollars would be required to upgrade the Oregon Electric track. In the long run this would benefit freight service too, because the few freights could run much faster on the stretches that go through open country.

Passenger service on the Cascades trains subsidized by Oregon has always suffered from low frequency of trains (two round trips daily, supplemented by bus connections) and the 21/2 hours it takes between Eugene and Portland.

More trains and much faster travel times - less than two hours - would be a big boon to train travel in the valley.

The plan would make use of Albany Station. It would have another side benefit. It would reroute the Oregon Electric line on the south side of Albany. This would get the line away from Water Avenue, where it has complicated redevelopment projects and prompted plans for costly though essentially unnecessary crossing gates.

Passenger trains have a long history, but they are not history. As highway congestion increases and the cost of driving does too, having more usable passenger rail connections in the valley would be a big advance. (hh)