On Monday, I was in downtown Portland with a couple of hours to kill before catching a train back to Seattle. I wondered if I had enough time to do a little railfanning on WES, using public transportation only, before my train left for Seattle. The answer was YES and my trip from downtown Portland to Tigard to Beaverton and back to downtown Portland was really quick and easy, although I was very lucky with my connections.
Here's my itinerary:
1. Bought an All Day/All Zone pass ($4.75) at one of the TVMs along the MAX route.
2. I caught a #12 Barbur bus at 3rd and Yamhill at 255pm and rode it to the Tigard Transit Center. (Bring a book, the bus takes about 40 minutes to get to Tigard and there isn't much scenery along the route.)
3. My bus arrived at the Tigard Transit Center just as WES was arriving, so I hot-footed about 100 feet to the train platform and boarded the Beaverton bound train.
4. At the Beaverton Transit Center I caught a Blue or Red MAX train back to downtown Portland, about a 20 minute ride. I de-boarded MAX at Pioneer Square at about 420pm, less than 90 minutes after I departed.
If anyone wants to replicate my journey, I would recommend going first to the Beaverton TC and returning from the Tigard TC. The Beaverton TC is located near a commercial area, so if you just miss the WES, you can get a cup of coffee, walk around or do some quick shopping while you wait for the next train. If I had just missed the WES at the Tigard TC, I would have spent 30 minutes twiddling my thumbs at a desolate transit center.
I was only on WES for about 10 minutes, so I shouldn't try to give an in-depth report on the WES/CRC products, but I'll offer a couple of general impressions from the trip. I was impressed with the appearance of the trains and the ridership. The trains look nice, the seats are very comfortable and the train looked to be about half full, which is good for a service that has been running for about one month. However, based only on my 10 minute ride, I have to say I wasn't impressed with the performance of the trains. When accelerating from a station stop, the CRC train seems underpowered with lots of noise, rattling and shaking going on. It felt like I was seated in an old jetliner making a long take-off roll down a bumpy runway. At track speed, the ride was smooth, but once the train begins to decelerate, the shaking and rattling starts again and the brakes really start to squeal. Later that evening, as I was rolling back to Seattle on a smooth riding Talgo trainset, I concluded that Amtrak made the right decision when they didn't place an order for CRC railcars.
Here's my itinerary:
1. Bought an All Day/All Zone pass ($4.75) at one of the TVMs along the MAX route.
2. I caught a #12 Barbur bus at 3rd and Yamhill at 255pm and rode it to the Tigard Transit Center. (Bring a book, the bus takes about 40 minutes to get to Tigard and there isn't much scenery along the route.)
3. My bus arrived at the Tigard Transit Center just as WES was arriving, so I hot-footed about 100 feet to the train platform and boarded the Beaverton bound train.
4. At the Beaverton Transit Center I caught a Blue or Red MAX train back to downtown Portland, about a 20 minute ride. I de-boarded MAX at Pioneer Square at about 420pm, less than 90 minutes after I departed.
If anyone wants to replicate my journey, I would recommend going first to the Beaverton TC and returning from the Tigard TC. The Beaverton TC is located near a commercial area, so if you just miss the WES, you can get a cup of coffee, walk around or do some quick shopping while you wait for the next train. If I had just missed the WES at the Tigard TC, I would have spent 30 minutes twiddling my thumbs at a desolate transit center.
I was only on WES for about 10 minutes, so I shouldn't try to give an in-depth report on the WES/CRC products, but I'll offer a couple of general impressions from the trip. I was impressed with the appearance of the trains and the ridership. The trains look nice, the seats are very comfortable and the train looked to be about half full, which is good for a service that has been running for about one month. However, based only on my 10 minute ride, I have to say I wasn't impressed with the performance of the trains. When accelerating from a station stop, the CRC train seems underpowered with lots of noise, rattling and shaking going on. It felt like I was seated in an old jetliner making a long take-off roll down a bumpy runway. At track speed, the ride was smooth, but once the train begins to decelerate, the shaking and rattling starts again and the brakes really start to squeal. Later that evening, as I was rolling back to Seattle on a smooth riding Talgo trainset, I concluded that Amtrak made the right decision when they didn't place an order for CRC railcars.