PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Passengers stranded on an Amtrak train for more than a day in a remote and snowed-in part of Oregon said the train was moving again Tuesday after it got stuck when it hit a tree that fell on the tracks.

“It’s just like relief. I’m just excited to get off of here,” Abbie Jeffrey, 16, told the KGW television station.

The Coast Starlight train left Seattle for Los Angeles early Sunday. It hit a tree southeast of Eugene on Sunday evening. The 183 passengers were kept on the train because the heavy snow had knocked out power in the town of Oakridge, the closest populated place to the train, Amtrak said in a statement.

There was enough food on the train for the passengers, the statement said. More than a foot of snow had fallen in the area by Monday.

Rebekah Dodson boarded the train Sunday afternoon in the small Oregon city of Albany and had expected to be in Klamath Falls by 9:50 p.m.

The train at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday “came to a sudden halt and the conductor said that they had some damage from some low-hanging limbs because of the sudden snow storm and they were going to stop and fix it,” Dodson said.

Amtrak Executive Vice President Scot Naparstek apologized in a statement.

“With more than a foot of heavy snow and numerous trees blocking the track, we made every decision in the best interest of the safety of our customers during the unfortunate sequence of events,” he said.

Officials decided that the train was the safest place for passengers to stay because it had food, heat electricity and functioning toilets, Naparstek said.

He said Amtrak will contact customers “to provide refunds and other compensation as appropriate.”

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The Portland Development Commission is laying the groundwork for a major rehabilitation of Union Station – the city’s 121-year-old train depot.

The project, which wouldn’t begin until 2020 at the earliest, would restore and preserve the main concourse and replace the building’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. Railroad tracks and platforms also would be replaced.

The unreinforced masonry building, clock tower and annex are in need of a full seismic retrofit, PDC officials said. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the PDC is working to save the “Union Station” and “Go By Train” signs that adorn the clock tower.

“A lot of people are excited about a revitalized train station,” said Elise Hendrickson, the PDC’s construction services coordinator. “It’s an iconic Portland building.”

Existing office tenants on the second and third floors will be evicted, but such action may be years away.

“They’ll have plenty of heads-up,” Hendrickson said, adding that the PDC has already met with office tenants.

Current tenants include a few attorneys, architects, small nonprofit groups, poetry publisher Tavern Books and custom shoemaker ExIT Shoes. Many of the offices are vacant.

John Bradach, a construction attorney and mediator, has housed his solo law practice in Union Station since 2010.

“It’s real comfortable,” he said. “It’s not class-A space by any means. What I love is coming and going through the station.”

Bradach, who intends to retire in a few years, said the PDC’s 2020 timeline “works for me.”

It has yet to be decided whether the second and third floors will be retained as offices and renovated, or whether they will be repurposed. PDC officials emphasized it’s early in the process for the Union Station project.

“I think we’re leaning toward offices, but who knows what the future may hold?” Hendrickson said.

PDC officials were reluctant to put a price tag on the rehabilitation effort, but Hendrickson said the cost would be “significant.”

“Funding is a big unknown at this point,” she said.

The PDC is likely to pursue state and federal grants for the project, including high-speed rail, energy conservation and historic preservation grants. The agency also is exploring the possibility of bringing in a private-sector partner.

“The very earliest construction would start is 2020, and that’s all contingent on finding funding sources,” Hendrickson said.

DOWA-IBI Group has been hired for early design work for Union Station. HDR Inc. is examining the rail infrastructure and Amec Foster Wheeler is grappling with environmental issues at the site.

The future of Wilf’s Restaurant and Bar, a Union Station fixture since 1975, is an open question. General Manager Adele Nofield said there “weren’t a lot of clear answers” when she met with PDC staff recently.

“Obviously, our goal would be to stay here,” she said. “We’re still quite successful. I’m not sure how that would all play out.”

The remake of Union Station is seen as complementary to the Broadway Corridor plan for the U.S. Postal Service parcel that is estimated to result in 3.8 million square feet of residential, office and retail development.

Train station officials have long dealt with complaints about homelessness and panhandling. The neighborhood remains somewhat gritty.

Amtrak serves the station with its Cascades, Coast Starlight and Empire Builder trains. The station sees 10 passenger trains a day, and two more will be added this summer. Union Station also sees light freight traffic.

Union Station in 2016 served more than 590,000 passengers – an amount that is expected to double in coming years. Amtrak officials did not respond to messages seeking comment. PDC officials said Amtrak and the Oregon Department of Transportation are interested in upgrades that would shave time from train trips through the station.

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Greyhound executives have put their downtown Salem station up for sale, in preparation for a move to the local Amtrak station.

Alex Rhoten, the Coldwell Banker Mountain West Real Estate agent handling the 11,766-square-foot building, said the asking price is $965,000.

“It’s a downtown zone, so there are a lot of potential uses,” he said.

Timothy Stokes, a spokesman for the bus company, said he had little specific information about the plan. However, Rhoten confirmed that the move probably will take place in August.

“But that’s a moving target,” he said.

Speaking of moving, Greyhound stations seem to be switching locations across the country, Rhoten added.

“Greyhound is doing this in areas across the country – downsizing as people are finding different transportation options,” he said.

Rhoten said the downtown building was built in 1948 and needs renovations, including a new roof and an upgraded heating and air-conditioning system.

Greyhound buses will use the Amtrak station temporarily until a permanent bus depot is established at what is called Dixie’s Depot – the soon-to-be-renovated Railway Express Agency building next to the train station on 13th Street in Salem.

Renovation efforts by the Oregon Department of Transportation (the owner of Dixie’s Depot) and the city of Salem were kick-started by a $100,000 anonymous donation from a man whose late wife, Dixie, loved the old structure.

The building was part of Salem’s second train depot. Salem’s original station, built in 1871, burned down in 1885. The second station, a Queen Anne-style building, was built in 1889 and burned down in 1917.

The smaller “baggage depot,” as it was known, is a remnant salvaged from the fire. After the fire, it was moved 100 feet to the south of its original location and rotated 180 degrees. It was then used for freight handling by the Railway Express Agency and continued to be used for freight until the 1970s.

“Cool is what I would call it,” Rhoten said of the building. “It’s a perfect match for people catching the train or bus.”

Greyhound executives committed $60,000 to the $900,000 renovation project. Work on the project is expected to begin this summer and take approximately 18 months.

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The historic South Pacific Railroad freight depot in Oregon City has a new location – its fourth in its lifetime.

The depot, originally constructed in the 1920s at 16^th and Washington streets, was moved to St. Johns in North Portland during the mid 1970s. In 1986, it was brought back to Oregon City, where it was used for office space.

Now, the freight depot has moved yet again, this time to a more appropriate location: Oregon City’s Amtrak Station at 1757 Washington Street.

“The train started stopping in Oregon City four or five years ago,” said Nancy Kraushaar, public works director for Oregon City. “But we had to wait to get funding to move the depot. It’s really nice to see some progress.”

The move was funded by an $800,000 grant from regional government Metro’s Transportation Improvement Program.

Local preservationist and former Oregon City Mayor Dan Fowler has been working for the past decade to make the freight depot function as a station once again.

Kraushaar says the depot will initially be leased as office space, but she’d ultimately like to see it function as a regular train station. Currently, passengers have to wait for trains outside on the platform.

“We’d like to have it function as a station with office space, a ticket kiosk and sundries,” Kraushaar said. “There would be a place for you to sit and wait for your train. That portion of the project won’t come until ridership picks up.”

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The Amtrak Pioneer hasn’t run through Oregon since 1997. On Wednesday, however, it’s scheduled to appear at Portland City Hall.

That’s when the Portland City Council considers a resolution in support of reinstating the Pioneer line, which had stops in Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise and Seattle.

Restoring the Amtrak Pioneer service will connect Portland with eastern Oregon communities and will make travel easier when flying is difficult, according to the resolution.

The resolution also urges Portland’s representatives in Congress to push for the route restoration.

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Even though Amtrak trains don’t carry lumber to job sites, development might not happen without them. And, in this economy, developers need all the help they can get.

It’s hard to overstate the business impact of having Amtrak service in Oregon City, said Amber Hoveck, executive director of the Oregon City Chamber. She pointed to two large destination developments, The Cove and The Rivers at Oregon City, planned to be built near the train station.

“For big development pieces like that, certainly the Amtrak station is a tremendous bonus, because it’s connecting a major destination with rail service,” Hoveck said.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is in the process of buying two new train sets to ensure that service between Portland and the Willamette Valley continues. The state doesn’t own any of its own trains, and Washington state has other plans for its trains, two of which presently run on the Amtrak Cascades route between Seattle and Eugene.

Washington has announced plans to add two round trips between Seattle and Portland. That could pull trains off the Portland-to-Eugene leg, which also stops in Oregon City, Salem and Albany.

Another Amtrak service, the Coast Starlight, passes through Oregon City but doesn’t stop.

Outside of Portland, Oregon City’s train station offers the only metro-area Amtrak service in the state. That’s a useful tool to offer businesses, Hoveck said.

“I recently met with someone who was thinking of locating near, but not in, Portland and was thrilled to learn we have an Amtrak station here that would let him transport his children back here for visits.”

Train service is an important tool not just for attracting businesses and development to Oregon City, Hoveck said, but for retaining existing businesses. “For midsize firms looking at being here in Oregon City, that’s one more amenity, one more service they can offer to employees that will keep them in Oregon City.”

Dan Drentlaw, the city’s economic development manager, said The Cove’s developer, Pacific Property Search, committed to build a 220-apartment phase of the development, with site grading set to start this summer. Other phases, scheduled to start within the next four years, would add 200 condominiums and 40,000 square feet of office space.

Getting the first development in a site is often the hardest, Drentlaw said. “What happens is when a big developer makes a commitment, others follow.

“We’re hoping that will happen here.”

In terms of the local economy, trains have brought more than employees to Oregon City, Drentlaw said. “The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is located right across the street” from the station, he said.

“(Trains) give visitors and tourists an easy way of getting to town.”

ODOT negotiated to buy two trains, for $36.6 million, from Talgo-America. The trains will be built in a new Talgo plant in Wisconsin.

The money for the trains comes from Oregon’s savings on projects in the federal stimulus package. The trains will be delivered in 2012.

While the new trains would ensure continued Willamette Valley service, ODOT spokesman Patrick Cooney said schedules and route frequency haven’t been determined yet.

Oregon City isn’t the only community depending on trains. For businesses with offices in Eugene and Portland, employees rely on Amtrak to travel between locations.

Guru Hari Khalsa, the research and development director for Yogi Tea, takes the train between the Golden Temple food company headquarters in Eugene and its Yogi office in Portland.

“It’s safe and relaxing,” Khalsa said, “and (it) allows me to work wirelessly or rest.”

Once he arrives, Khalsa said, it’s easy to grab other forms of transportation. “In Portland the train conveniently connects with MAX light rail, and there are Zipcars nearby.”

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Contractors are criticizing a decision to spend savings from Oregon’s federal stimulus projects to buy passenger trains. Money saved on road projects should be pumped back into road projects, four contractor groups wrote in a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission.

The commission approved the purchase of two trains, for $35 million, to run on the Amtrak Cascades line between Portland and Eugene. That made up the bulk of the nearly $43 million left over from what the state planned to spend on transportation stimulus projects.

Because the savings came from contractors bidding below estimates on road projects, the money should be spent on more such projects, said Melinda Dailey, executive director of the National Utility Contractors Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Dailey and the heads of the Asphalt Pavement Association of Oregon and the local chapters of the Associated General Contractors and Associated Builders and Contractors signed the letter.

“What I found most disheartening was that they’re going to take (away) that $43 million surplus that came about because all these companies are doing whatever it takes to stay open, cutting to the bone and underbidding on projects,” Dailey said.

“That argument doesn’t hold any water,” Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Patrick Cooney responded. The state is getting the projects it paid for, Cooney said, but has no obligation to spend money left over on similar projects.

“If you need to buy a new refrigerator, and find out all the refrigerators are 25 percent less than what you thought you would spend, are you required to spend the savings on another refrigerator?” Cooney said. “Or would you buy a new washer, if that’s what you need?”

In that example, Oregon’s new washer is a train. The state now uses a train owned by Washington state on the Cascades line between Portland and Eugene. Washington rail officials plan to use that train to run another round trip between Seattle and Portland, said Andrew Wood, deputy director of the state’s rail and marine division.

“When that happens, in a couple years, we wouldn’t have a train set just sitting there in Portland that runs to Eugene and back,” Wood said.

“If we want to run one on the more profitable (Seattle-to-Portland) route, that capability wouldn’t exist.”

Oregon hasn’t bought the new trains yet. “There’s not a whole lot of trains sitting out there to be purchased,” Cooney said.

But buying new trains serves a dual purpose, he said: continuing the Portland-to-Eugene route and demonstrating a commitment to rail that will boost the state’s chances to win $2.1 billion in federal rail grants. “The federal government is looking to the states for that level of thinking,” Cooney said. “You don’t do nothing and come to the federal government with your hand out.”

ODOT‘s decision rankled Dailey. “Instead of putting this into other projects, they’re putting it toward a speculative venture, trying to attract $2 billion in stimulus money that may or may not happen,” she said. “These companies are on the verge of dying on the vine right now and need that money to stay alive.

“We’re more concerned with what’s happening right now than what’s possibly happening down the road,” she said.

Roughly $5.8 million of the $43 million savings will go to expand current road projects, Cooney said. Another $2 million will go to expand the state’s “solar highway” array along Interstates 5 and 205.

The unanticipated money provided an opportunity to address a pressing need, Cooney said. And just because buying trains doesn’t require construction jobs, it doesn’t mean the purchase won’t bring jobs to Oregon, he said.

“The trains don’t operate themselves,” Cooney said.  “You need people to operate and maintain the trains after the purchase, to conduct daily operations, and to keep the line safe and operating.”

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A federal grant could speed passenger trains in Oregon. But not everyone is on board yet.

The Oregon Department of Transportation asked for $2.1 billion for rail improvements that promise to cut travel time between Portland and Eugene to less than two hours. Trains would travel up to 110 mph, compared to Amtrak‘s current top speed of 79 mph, according to the grant application.

Trains won’t go anywhere, however, without an agreement from the railway owners and users. In Oregon, that’s a complicated jumble of government agencies and private railroads.

The state owns some of the right-of-way it plans to improve to accommodate high-speed rail. But Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway and Portland & Western Railroad also own portions. Complicating things further, the railroads also own rights to use the rails on sections of land owned by other railroads and the state.

Current agreements allow for Amtrak trains to run through this network. But plans to bring quicker, more frequent passenger trains risk disrupting the freight trains that use the same line.

Portland & Western has not expressed its support for the state’s high-speed rail plans, although railroad officials are in discussions with ODOT‘s rail division, said Ronald Russ, president of Portland & Western.

“It’s still a case where we’re studying the impacts, and if our property and operations would be impacted,” Russ said.

Both Union Pacific and BNSF have expressed support for the project, according to ODOT’s application. But that support is qualified, at least in Union Pacific’s case.

“What we support is, if funding is made available, we’d participate in a study,” Union Pacific spokesman Tom Lange said, “… as long as the study includes the entire Portland-to-Eugene corridor.

“Right now, we’ve agreed to nothing more than to participate,” he said.

Unless that participation leads to an eventual agreement, the high-speed rail plan can’t move forward, ODOT spokesman Patrick Cooney said. “The owners of the rail lines would have to agree to the use of it,” he said.

A BNSF spokesman said he was meeting with Oregon officials regarding the high-speed-rail proposal Thursday morning and couldn’t comment yet.

States are competing for a piece of the $8 billion for high-speed rail projects included in the federal stimulus package. Oregon could hear whether it will get a grant through the program, called the High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program, after a second application phase this fall. Construction could start in September 2010.

While the most expensive part of the application, at $1.84 billion, involves electrifying and improving tracks to allow for 110-mph passenger trains, other items are designed to benefit freight operators as well. Those include improving junctions, building new connections, doubling tracks and easing tight curves.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in a statement that improvements identified in the grant application would allow six round trips over the route, compared to the two Amtrak currently offers. Trains would average 65 mph, up from 42 mph, and make the trip between Portland and Eugene in 1 hour, 55 minutes instead of 2 hours, 35 minutes.

Kulongoski touted the plan as a way to reduce carbon emissions, including the possibility of using solar panels to help power the trains.

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