More woes for WES

By: Daily Blog//June 4, 2009//

More woes for WES

Daily Blog//June 4, 2009//

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It may be June but the streets in the Portland metro area look more like winter. The drifts of white aren’t snow, though. They’re the blooms from cottonwood trees. Pretty, yes. Unless you’re trying to run the WES commuter rail trains.

Apparently, the blooms have clogged the air filters on the trains’ cooling systems. Bad enough. But the white fluff has also blocked the very sensors that help keep the trains running.

TriMet says the filters have been cleared — a process that will continue every week until the cottonwoods stop blooming. But the situation has given the “I told you so” contingency one more reason to look smug when it comes to discussions about whether commuter rail was the right option — for TriMet and for the region.