WES rail car debuts in Wilsonville

TriMet still does not have a starting date for its commuter rail service

The Times, Jun 19, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (37 Reader comments)

Jaime Valdez / Pamplin Media Group

Washington County Commission Chairman Tom Brian sits at the controls of a Colorado Railcar diesel commuter rail engine Thursday morning in Wilsonville. The first car for the WES commuter rail system arrived there this week. The car’s trailer (shown) can carry 74 passengers on the line from Wilsonville to Beaverton.

Appropriately enough, the first rail car for TriMet’s Westside Express Service commuter rail arrived in Wilsonville Thursday, June 19, by freight train.

The diesel multiple unit and trailer car were shipped last week from the Colorado Railcar Manufacturing facility in Fort Lupton, Colo. The final two DMUs are set to arrive later this summer.

TriMet’s WES project – a commuter rail line that stretches 14.7 miles from Beaverton to Wilsonville – is more than 90 percent complete and all the track is in place.

When completed, WES will connect to the Beaverton Transit Center, which serves nearly a dozen bus lines and MAX Blue and Red lines. Bus services will also be provided at each of the five commuter rail stations along the line in Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

Wilsonville’s SMART system will provide bus services to Salem.

TriMet boasts that WES is the first commuter rail line in Oregon and among only a handful of suburb-to-suburb commuter lines in the country.

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