Oregon gets $1.5M to improve rail service

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Oregon landed $1.5 million of the $2 billion for high-speed rail announced Monday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

While the bulk of the money went toward projects to speed up train travel in the Northeast and Midwest, Oregon landed $1.5 million to analyze overnight parking tracks for passenger trains in Eugene, the southern end of the Pacific Northwest Corridor, with an eye toward adding new capacity for increased passenger and freight rail service.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement over the weekend that Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Portland developer John Russell will lead what the Eugene Register-Guard calls a "high-level advisory group charged with writing a plan for Oregon’s 105-mile segment of the 466-mile Amtrak Cascades line."

Read more at Sustainable Business Oregon.

BELOW: Current talk on Twitter on this topic

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0 #1 wow. That's really puny. — Aaron Douglas 2011-05-10 10:52:35

Pretty infinitesimal out of $2 billion! How depressing.

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0 #2 Not a lot of money, but a start — Nathan 2011-05-10 13:39:22

Yes, $1.5 M isn't much. In fact, it might only buy a new platform in Eugene and some more study about how to improve the service, but at least it's something. I take the train between PDX and EUG regularly and find that it's not only a lot cheaper than driving (@$4/gal and 30 MPG), but much more productive with WiFi and time to relax and concentrate on work.

If with that money we can move towards better service and a better plan for how to make this happen, then it's money well spent.

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