Commuter rail worth celebrating, investing in

The Times, Jan 29, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (7 Reader comments)

Jaime Valdez / The Times

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Monday’s opening of WES — the Westside Express Service — commuter rail will not send shock waves of immediate improvement through local communities or Washington and Clackamas counties.

Congestion, for one, will remain a significant issue that requires attention.

But the arrival of the commuter rail line linking Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville is well worth celebrating. Here are a few reasons why:

WES will carry passengers who otherwise would have driven cars along crowded Interstate 5 and Highway 217 to get where they need to go. While WES will only operate during weekday morning and afternoon commute hours, it will carry an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 riders daily. This incremental benefit will make these crowded highways safer and will slow the growth of future strangling congestion.

The commuter rail line offers the chance for initiating economic development along its tracks and near its five stations. Over the past three decades, more than $7 billion in economic development has occurred along the many MAX light rail lines crossing the region. While WES and MAX are quite different, there is reason to believe that locations along the 14.7-mile commuter rail will see an economic boost. We can think of two good places to start: ever-idling downtown Tigard and Beaverton’s old town city center. But it will take more than commuter rail to spur revitalization. Both Tigard and Beaverton should learn from Tualatin’s achievements over the past 20 years and Lake Oswego’s most recent success to discover and implement what it takes for a city center to flourish.

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