(The following article by Steve Mayes was posted on the Oregonian website on April 12.)
OREGON CITY, Ore. — When the first Amtrak train pulls into the city’s new station Friday, it will be both long overdue and right on time.
Service was supposed to begin last fall but was delayed when Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks, unexpectedly demanded that the city pay for $100,000 in track improvements.
But the daily service to Portland and Eugene starts just as the city revs up its economic development efforts, which include trying to attract more tourists and jobs, and giving its downtown a makeover.
The city will be served by Amtrak’s Cascades trains, which make two daily round trips between Portland and Eugene.
“A train station is . . . a stimulus for economic development,” said Oregon City Mayor Alice Norris, one of several city and county officials who have pursued an Amtrak stop in Clackamas County for more than a decade.
Norris will be one of 120 special guests who will make a short trip from Canby to the new station aboard an Amtrak train for the grand opening. The celebration will begin at the station, 1757 Washington St., about 11 a.m.
The blare of the train’s horn will be sweet music for city and county officials who had to fight last year for continued state funding of the Cascades service. Norris worked with mayors from Eugene, Albany and Salem to lobby the Legislature and build support for rail funding.
When Norris briefed city commissioners on the latest development, she often would punctuate her report by blowing on a train whistle.
Norris will be joined by a chorus of dignitaries who will salute the new station with a collective toot of wooden whistles like the one she’s been tooting for months.
Connor Lang, 5, grandson of Vicki Lang, Canby Historical Society secretary, will cut the ceremonial ribbon.
A brass band and the Oregon City High School jazz band will provide the soundtrack for the day. A dash of historical flavor will be added by a band of buckskin-clad modern-day mountain men, who will fire their black-powder rifles to mark the occasion.
And the weather “is going to be absolutely perfect,” said the ever-upbeat Norris.
Hopes are high that the train service will dovetail with a new tourism marketing effort that will promote Oregon City as a historical site and highlight the town’s significant role in the development of the West.
“Its a tremendous shot in the arm for the county,” said John Rist, who oversees Clackamas County’s economic development efforts. “I’m anticipating that it’s going to bring a lot of people” to Oregon City and spur redevelopment around the station, he said.
Amtrak service has the Rivershore Hotel gearing up for more guests, said Kathy Franco, the general manager. “Tour operators have shown a lot of interest in using us as a hub-and-spoke (destination),” she said.
Tour groups arriving on Amtrak would stay at the hotel, the only one in Oregon City, and take side trips to the Oregon Coast, Mount Hood or fishing on the Willamette River, Franco said.
“There’s a wealth of things to do” in the Oregon City area, said Cindy Passannante, owner of CP Trips travel agency in Boring. “Having a train station opens up the city.”
Bringing passenger service to Oregon City was a top priority of former Mayor John F. Williams Jr., whose term ended in January 2003.
Many suburbanites will board the train in Oregon City rather than fighting the traffic and paying to park at Union Station in downtown Portland, said Williams, a rail enthusiast.
“They’ll start spending money here,” Williams said. “In the long run, I think it will pay. It will make tourism a lot more attractive.”
Passannante said Oregon City will become the jumping-off point for tours she organizes.
“Now that things are starting to happen, we can open the door to that,” she said.