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Podcast: Cascade CounterPoint
Episode: Legislative committee wants to extend commuter rail to Salem at a cost of $118 per ride.
Description:
On February 22, the Joint Committee on Transportation of the Oregon Legislature unanimously approved SB 1572, which would appropriate $250,000 to ODOT to study the feasibility of extending TriMet’s Westside Express Service (WES) train from Wilsonville to Salem.
The committee did this despite the fact that average daily ridership on WES was down to 370 in January. With so few riders, the average operations cost per ride was $118.
By comparison, the average operations cost per ride for TriMet’s frequent bus service in January was $6.68, and $9.35 for light rail.
WES opened in 2009 and runs from...