All TriMet MAX trains across the tri-county area will arrive two minutes later than normal next month, a move the transit agency described as a “relatively minor adjustment” designed to help riders on its struggling WES commuter rail line.
The delay reverses a previous schedule change that made transferring from the Westside Express Service commuter rail to light rail trains challenging, forcing some riders to have to run to make their connection, spokeswoman Tia York said. Delaying MAX trains across the region will help WES riders transfer to westbound light rail trains at the Beaverton Transit Center, York said.
“Due to the intricate scheduling and train deployment required for MAX, we are unable to adjust schedules for just a couple of trips,” York said in an email. “The system requires a change on all MAX lines.”
TriMet is opting to delay departures for the tens of thousands of metro residents who ride light rail on weekdays to accommodate its increasingly shrinking WES ridership, a decision that comes on the heels of a protracted debate about closing four light rail stations in downtown that was pitched to the public as a way to carve precious minutes off a lengthy commute between Goose Hollow and Old Town Chinatown. TriMet instead opted to close two stations permanently and a third on a trial basis. Those changes are expected to save three minutes on commutes through downtown.
The MAX changes won’t change total commute times, but riders will have to factor the delay in as they try to get to destinations on-time. York said TriMet wanted to communicate the changes to riders because the agency didn’t do that last year, and many riders were “caught off-guard.”
The two-minute shift was tucked away in the latest service changes publicized by TriMet this week, paid for by the 2017 statewide transportation package and payroll tax. Most of the changes are added weekend bus service on various routes, including the new Line 74 route introduced last year on 162nd Avenue. More significant changes are coming in the spring, such as making the Line 20 on Burnside and Line 76 through Beaverton and Tualatin frequent service lines, meaning buses will come every 15 minutes or less. TriMet makes service changes in both the fall and spring every year.
WES, the 14.7-mile commuter rail between Wilsonville and Beaverton, continues to be plagued by poor ridership. Weekly rides on the suburb-to-suburb line plunged 10% compared to July 2018.
Paul Baca sits alone a few minutes before his WES train leaves for Beaverton in May 2018. Baca said ridership is more packed during the evening commute, but he, and other commuters, say they haven't noticed a significant decline despite double digit declines reported by the agency for months
That’s not a new phenomenon.
The $161 million rail line, which opened in 2009, has never lived up to its ridership goals. Planning documents from 2003 showed the agency predicted 3,037 daily rides by 2020. In 2009, then-General Manager Fred Hansen predicted WES would draw 2,500 daily riders its first year.
The route has never approached either figure. In July, the line drew an average of 1,460 daily riders. System-wide, MAX tallied more than 120,000 daily boardings on average last month.
At every monthly board meeting, TriMet General Manager Doug Kelsey gives an update on ridership trends and the WES figures are consistently down. “We have a long term basically no-cut contract here,” Kelsey said last week, alluding to 50-year operation and maintenance agreement with Portland & Western Railroad railroad to operate the transit service. “We’re doing everything we can to manage it.”
He added that “the people who use it, love it, but we have some structural issues.”
TriMet points to “employment changes” in the suburban corridor as one reason the ridership has never materialized. But even TriMet leaders have said the rail is hindered by its very route: it doesn’t take riders into downtown Portland. It operates only during the roughly four-and-a-half hour morning and evening commutes (last train is around 8 p.m.) and does not run on weekends. TriMet must coordinate with the railroad company, which owns the freight line WES travels on through the mix of farmland and industrial areas in Clackamas and Washington counties, and the transit agency hasn’t pushed the railroad for permission to add service given the low ridership.
The line is also significantly more expensive to operate, per rider, compared to bus or MAX. According to TriMet figures, WES costs $18.14 per boarding ride (when a person gets on a bus, MAX or WES train). Buses tally $3.80 per ride while MAX costs $2.95, according to TriMet.
MAX trains will arrive two minutes later starting Sunday Sept. 1. The three downtown MAX stations will close in March.
Check out the rest of TriMet’s service changes here.
-- Andrew Theen
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen
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