Ridership on TriMet‘s MAX light-rail and Westside Express Services lines appears to be growing.

The number of rides on the two lines increased by 6.1 and 9.8 percent per week, respectively, in December 2010, compared with the agency’s numbers for December 2009. But weekly bus ridership, the largest overall segment, dropped 3.1 percent over the same period.

Trips using busses, MAX and WES grew 0.5 percent in total, with about 1.74 million total trips per week. That includes about 1 million weekly bus trips, 711,400 MAX trips, 19,300 MAX green line trips and 5,900 WES trips.

As part of an effort to better share travel data, the transportation agency has also launched a portal with more ridership statistics. It’s online at .

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Ermine Todd was sick of the 40-minute drive to work from his home in Hillsboro. A year ago, he started taking the Westside Express Service train, or WES.

Now, it takes Todd an hour or more to get to work. But he couldn’t be happier.

Todd, a software engineer with Xerox in Wilsonville, said he’s less concerned with the amount of time it takes than what he can do with that time. Driving is a waste of time, he said, but the WES train is like a second office.

“I get on my laptop and connect, and I’m already at work,” Todd said.

Stories like Todd’s cheer transit agency TriMet, after a year of running WES trains. The area’s first commuter rail service began carrying passengers between Beaverton and Wilsonville Feb. 2, 2009.

The first year of WES has been filled with surprises, both good and bad. For one, the trains are less crowded than planners would have expected.

An average of 1,170 people boarded WES trains each day, fewer than half of the original goal of 2,400. That goal was always going to be a stretch, said TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch, based on filling all the park-and-ride lots along the route.

Because WES runs only during the morning and afternoon rush hours, it mostly attracts people commuting to work. For this reason, the recession hit the WES even harder than bus or light rail, Fetsch said.

“This is an employment-type service; obviously that is impacting ridership,” Fetsch said. “When you think about having 55,000 jobs lost in the region, that translates into fewer transit riders throughout the system and particularly during rush hour.”

Ridership will increase as the economy rebounds and employers add jobs along the WES route, or in spots with connections to WES, Fetsch said. TriMet has also stepped up the marketing for WES, reaching out to new audiences, including recreational cyclists and families with children.

“When you think about taking the kids out to the zoo for a day, you could take the WES in the morning, take the MAX to the zoo, hang out there for a couple hours, have lunch, and take the train back,” Fetsch said.

Commuters will remain the core WES riders, Fetsch said, in part because TriMet’s budget won’t allow for service outside the rush hours. That’s fine with Walter Watson, who commutes from Beaverton to work at Affiliated Computer Services in Tualatin.

Watson switched from bus transit to the WES eight months ago because the WES reminded him of comfortable Amtrak trains. “Now it’s a necessity, because it cuts my ride in half,” he said.

According to survey research commissioned by TriMet, 47 percent of WES riders were former bus riders, while 42 percent had driven motor vehicles. The remaining 9 percent had taken the MAX.

When service is disrupted for mechanical or other reasons, shuttle buses carry passengers along the WES route. TriMet is working on two railcars it bought last year to use as spares when a WES train becomes inoperative.

Some malfunctions could have been expected, Fetsch said. And others, nobody expected.

“Fortunately, we’ve only had 16 days of service disruptions,” she said. “And who knew cottonwoods would be one of them?”

Last June, the trees’ white fluff clogged the trains’ cooling systems and sensors, causing maintenance workers to clear the filters weekly during the cottonwood bloom season. It’s a learning experience, Fetsch said.

Another was the popularity of WES with cyclists. After first offering trains with only two spaces for bicycles – Federal Railroad Administration rules require bikes to be secured – TriMet removed four seats to add spots for four more bicycles.

That change eliminated an annoyance, Todd said. If there’s no room, commuters have to wait 30 minutes for the next train. That hasn’t happened since the bicycle capacity expanded last August.

“During the summer months, I’ll ride my bike,” Todd said. “This has actually given me a chance to get some exercise.”

Jim Pasko, an engineer on the WES trains, said he enjoys passing through the train and talking with regular riders. Most people enjoy the ride, though Pasko hears all sorts of suggestions for improvements.

People want Amtrak amenities such as a coffee bar and bathrooms, he said. “They’d like to see it run all day; they’d like to see it go all the way to Salem.

“But it’s a money thing.”

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Delays caused by out-of-service trains aren’t necessarily the biggest reason more people don’t ride TriMet’s Westside Express Service, spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said. They’re just one the transit agency has the power to change.

TriMet is in the process of buying two railcars – $75,000 apiece – from the Alaska Railroad. The cars, which will run as a single train, would let TriMet take another train out of service without disrupting its schedule.

That will add reliability, but won’t change the economy, which Fetsch said is the biggest drag on ridership. WES, which runs only during weekday rush hours, targets a shrinking population: people with stable jobs.

“It’s a commuter rail system, and so it’s targeted to commuters and workers,” Fetsch said. “And with double-digit unemployment, the jobs piece is affecting it more than anything else.”

WES probably won’t reach its end-of-first-year goal of 2,400 average daily boardings by February 2010, Fetsch said. Fewer than half that number of people used WES, according to TriMet’s most recent data.

“That projection was made when we were not in such a deep recession,” Fetsch said. “It will take longer to get to that (2,400) number.”

The metro area’s employment situation is as bad as the numbers suggest, said Jill Cuyler, state workforce analyst for Washington County, which contains most of the WES route. Seasonally adjusted unemployment nearly doubled in the year that ended September 2009, from 5.4 percent to 10.1 percent. Clackamas County, which includes Wilsonville, fared no better.

“The trend, especially in Washington County, has been rapid employment declines,” Cuyler said.

TriMet will use the new railcars starting next summer to back up its existing fleet, not as part of the regular three-train rotation, Fetsch said. The two cars were built in 1953 by the Budd Co. and ran on a remote stretch between Talkeetna and Hurricane, Alaska, until March.

Despite their age, TriMet expects the railcars to have a long service life, Fetsch said. “For now, they’re a permanent spare,” she said. “It’s a long-term solution.”

The railcars – older versions of the type of rail diesel car, or RDC, currently used on WES – could feasibly last for decades, said Jim Howell, a planner with the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates. Howell and a partner once owned two similar RDCs.

The Budd Co. railcars are “very well built,” Howell said. “They can last forever as long as they keep upgrading them.”

They’ll also bring reliability to a line disrupted 15 times by mechanical problems since opening in February, he said. “It’s definitely an improvement, because then they don’t have to rely on bus service.”

When TriMet takes an existing WES train out of service, shuttle buses serve the stations, causing delays. Having a backup ready will increase reliability, Fetsch said, but that won’t guarantee ridership will as well. As a suburb-to-suburb commuter line, WES will see its use grow as the local economies grow, she said.

“People would like more service, longer service other than limited to commute hours. Others say to run it on weekends.

“But at this point, it’s targeted to commuters.”

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John Charles is a self-described train buff. So when TriMet opened its Westside Express Service, or WES, Charles rode the trains to Wilsonville and caught a bus to Salem – to testify at the Capitol against the expansion of WES.

As the president of the Cascade Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, Charles has opposed the suburban commuter rail from the start, arguing it would be a money drain. It’s the cost, not the quality, of the service that bothers Charles.

“If you like trains and, where you want to go, you can make it work, it’s a very comfortable ride,” said Charles, who has made roughly 20 round trips on WES. “There are headrests, Wi-Fi, air conditioning, and you can stretch out and take up two seats.”

Those empty seats play into TriMet’s revenue and expense numbers for the five-month-old WES. Charles pointed out that the costs to run the system have increased quicker than its ridership. From March through May, the cost per rider has risen from $16.44 to $25.53.

TriMet is aiming to increase WES’ daily boardings, 1,180 in May, to 2,400 by next February. Meeting that goal would narrow the gap between operating costs and revenue, Charles said, but it still wouldn’t get the system close to breaking even.

That’s where Charles and TriMet take separate philosophical paths. WES won’t break even simply by increasing ridership, TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said.

But then again, highways don’t pay for themselves either, Fetsch said. Although drivers don’t calculate the costs of maintaining and keeping Interstate 5 and Highway 217 running safely and smoothly in their commute, they’re still paying for the roadway system.

“A���� transportation investments (are) subsidized and an investment in the community,” she said.

Although TriMet operates other types of rail vehicles, Fetsch said, the heavy-rail WES is an entirely different animal. The oversight agency – the Federal Railroad Administration – requires more costly staffing and maintenance than the Federal Transit Administration, which regulates light rail. In addition, TriMet leases freight rail rights-of-way for WES, instead of owning the line, and must buy insurance.

WES is Oregon’s first suburban commuter rail service. As such, Fetsch said, it’s hard to calculate the value of having a new form of transportation available to future commuters – especially as the region grows and roads become clogged with motor vehicles.

The WES line connects Wilsonville, which has about 14,000 residents but a large employer base, to the populous western suburbs. “For bigger corporations like Xerox and Mentor Graphics, (WES) gives the employees another option to get to work,” said Cynthia Thompson, transit director for SMART, the Wilsonville-area bus service.

“And it gives you another way to attract an employment base from another area, like people who live in Tigard but who wouldn’t want to drive on 217 and I-5 and work in Wilsonville.”

Thompson’s point isn’t just hypothetical. Her son lives in Tigard and takes a WES train to work in Wilsonville.

For the Associated Builders and Contractors, which in November 2008 moved its Pacific Northwest regional office near a WES stop, the proximity to rail was a key consideration, chapter President John Killin said. “It’s good to provide for the employees,” Killin said.

However, none rides WES. “A number of us live in a position (where) we could, but none of us have yet,” Killin said.

Beyond ridership and economic effects of WES, TriMet gauges its success on the desire for the service. The Legislature just authorized a study on the possibility of extending WES to Salem, which would allow for a trip from Beaverton without transfers.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of excitement, as the study to take it to Salem suggests,” Fetsch said. “Even before we began construction, people were saying ‘We want more.’ ”

That enthusiasm won’t show up on TriMet income statements, but even its detractors have it. Charles, who would be loath to encourage TriMet to add more trains to the WES line, has enjoyed the ride.

“I opposed it, and I lost. And it’s there,” Charles said. “It’s two miles from my office, and there’s free parking when I have to go to Salem.

“And I hate driving to Salem,” Charles said. “You have to pay $6 to park.”

But as the southbound trains pulled away from the developed roadway corridor, Charles leaned back against his WES headrest and enjoyed the view. “There are some beautiful scenic vistas,” he said.

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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.

The post More woes for WES appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

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.

The post More woes for WES appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.