(The Oregonian posted the following article by Timothy A. Akimoff on its website on October 10.)
OREGON CITY, Ore. — Oregon City ended its second summer of Amtrak service much like its first summer began, with about 20 passengers a day and most of the trains running late.
“That station has had some mixed performances,” said Jonathan Hutchison , intercity passenger railroad coordinator for the Oregon Department of Transportation. “As far as usefulness, inroads have to be made in three areas: Customers want convenient departures, quicker travel and more reliability.”
To date, rail service from Oregon City is used mostly by leisure travelers who enjoy the novelty, roominess, the bar car and — lately — the low cost of train travel.
“I use it once or twice a month,” said Suzanne Baldwin, a University of Oregon student. “I live in West Linn and come home on weekends occasionally. . . . Now with gas prices the way they are, this really makes sense.”
A roundtrip ticket from Eugene to Oregon City costs $42, with some discounts available.
In the long term, Oregon City Mayor Alice Norris believes the Amtrak station, about a half-mile north of downtown, can become part of a city center where people can travel in and out with ease. Across the tracks is Interstate 205. Across the street is the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and extensive free parking. Between the station and Oregon 213 is a site the city has tried to market as a shopping center to rival Clackamas Town Center.
Norris sees the Oregon City stop, one of seven Amtrak stops in Oregon, as a great service to local communities and notes how much people appreciate the free parking.
“It’s stress-free,” said Norris, who trekked to Salem twice during the past legislative session to lobby for rail improvements.
Oregon City plans to upgrade its stop by moving a historic train depot to the site and adding parking spaces, but those improvements are still several years away.
Oregon is several years behind in improvements to track and signals, Hutchison said, though a multimillion-dollar rail project is under way to bypass the busy Albina freight yard near downtown Portland.
Washington’s intercity passenger rail system is more extensive than Oregon’s, with 17 stations and 1,067,768 riders in 2004, versus Oregon’s seven stations and 691,487 riders.
In 2004, Washington approved $200 million for rail capital projects in a 10-year transportation-funding package. Oregon allocated $15 million for track and capacity upgrades, according to an Amtrak report.
Much of the track north of Portand, which is owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, is dual track, which allows Amtrak passenger trains to pass slow-moving freight trains in Washington. Single track in the Willamette Valley, most of which is owned by Union Pacific, often creates a logjam of freight trains and passenger service trains, which affects on-time performance in other states, Hutchison said.
At least 61.5 percent of trains ran late in Oregon and Washington during the first eight months of 2005.
The Amtrak Cascades, which is the only Amtrak service to stop in Oregon City, runs daily roundtrip service between Eugene and Seattle. Marilyn Athenour of Oregon City uses the train station for its convenient location but certainly not for the on-time performance.
“We were late last time,” Athenour said. “Something about the engine breaking down.”