Tualatin | |||||||||||
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WES Commuter Rail station | |||||||||||
General information | |||||||||||
Location | 18955 SW Boones Ferry Road Tualatin, Oregon, U.S. | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 45°23′00″N122°45′52″W / 45.383283°N 122.764556°W | ||||||||||
Owned by | TriMet | ||||||||||
Line(s) | Portland and Western Railroad | ||||||||||
Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||
Tracks | 1 | ||||||||||
Connections | TriMet bus, Tualatin Shuttle | ||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||
Structure type | At-grade | ||||||||||
Parking | 129 spaces | ||||||||||
Bicycle facilities | Lockers and racks | ||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | February 2, 2009 | ||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||
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Location | |||||||||||
Tualatin is a train station in Tualatin, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of WES Commuter Rail. Situated next to Hedges Green Shopping Center on Southwest Boones Ferry Road, it is the fourth station southbound on the commuter rail line, which operates between Beaverton and Wilsonville in the Portland metropolitan area's Washington County. The station was approved in 2004 as part of the Washington County Commuter Rail Project, but construction was delayed following a dispute with its location and the amount of available parking. A compromise was eventually reached, and it was completed in time for the line's opening in 2009. The station includes a 129-space park and ride and connections to the Tualatin Shuttle and TriMet bus routes 76–Hall/Greenburg and 97–Tualatin–Sherwood Rd. WES connects with the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center.
In 1908, the Oregon Electric Railway (OE) established an interurban line between Portland and Salem, which at its peak extended as far south as Eugene. [1] OE built a depot in Tualatin that is believed to have stood on the site of the present-day WES station. [2] When automobiles began to dominate in the 1920s, ridership on the interurban failed to grow as projected, and OE ended passenger rail service in May 1933. Diesel freight trains continued to utilize the route into the 1990s. [1] [3] Washington County officials started planning for a commuter rail line between Beaverton and Wilsonville in 1996. [3] In 2001, local governments approved the Washington County Commuter Rail Project, [4] which included plans for a station in Tualatin along Boones Ferry Road, in consideration of the city's transportation plan. [5] The Federal Transit Administration authorized funding for the project in 2004, [4] and construction began in October 2006. [6]
After construction of the line had started, nearby grocery retailer Haggen Food & Pharmacy tried to have the station in Tualatin moved; Haggen argued that the station did not have enough parking and that it would worsen traffic around the area. [7] [8] Haggen's protest led to a delay in the station's construction, which had been scheduled to begin in July 2007. [7] [9] The city and Portland's regional transit agency, TriMet, countered that the location was selected in 2001 and was re-affirmed in 2005 with no objections from Haggen; TriMet further threatened to forgo building the station. [5] In August, Haggen and TriMet compromised; the station's location remained as planned but with additional parking. [5] [10] The station's construction commenced on January 9, 2008, with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by local dignitaries. [11] The public artwork was installed that September. [12] Tualatin station was completed in time for the opening of the line, by then named "Westside Express Service" (WES), on February 2, 2009. [13] [14]
Park and ride | |
Side platform, doors will open on the left or right | |
Northbound | → WES toward Beaverton Transit Center (Tigard Transit Center) → |
Southbound | ← WES toward Wilsonville (Terminus) |
Tualatin station is situated on the east end of Hedges Green Shopping Center near the intersection of Southwest Boones Ferry Road and Seneca Street in downtown Tualatin. [15] [16] It is one of five WES stops along the 14.7-mile (23.7 km) rail segment owned by Portland and Western Railroad. [17] The station has 129 park-and-ride spaces, 24 covered bike racks, and six bike lockers. [18] The side platform measures 146 feet (45 m) in length and 15 feet (4.6 m) in width, covers about 2,000 square feet (190 m2), and sits four feet (1.2 m) above the ground. [2] It features card-only ticket vending machines and a digital information display that shows WES and bus arrival information. [18] The platform shelter exhibits enhancements to TriMet's standard design practices; it includes a clock tower and red brick columns intended to blend in with the neighborhood's existing architectural styles. [10] The Tualatin Development Commission contributed $491,000 for the enhancements. [15]
Tualatin station's public art consists of an interactive sculpture created by Frank Boyden and Brad Rude entitled The Interactivator. It features bronze heads and a vehicle designed to represent the train and the variety of people who ride the line. The vehicle moves along a track and has an animal figure displayed in a scene atop the piece. [19] : 28 The shelter's glass windbreak is etched with a willow pattern. [20]
Tualatin is the fourth of five stations southbound on WES, between Tigard Transit Center and the line's southern terminus, Wilsonville station. WES provides a connection to the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at its northern terminus, Beaverton Transit Center. [21] Service operates only on weekdays during the morning and evening commutes and trains arrive at the station every thirty minutes per direction. [22] [23] A bus stop near Tualatin station connects to TriMet bus routes 76–Hall/Greenburg and 97–Tualatin–Sherwood Rd. [18] Additionally, a fixed-route bus service operated by Ride Connection called the Tualatin Shuttle connects riders between Tualatin station and local employers. As of 2019, the Tualatin Shuttle operates two routes within Tualatin; it coordinates with WES train arrivals and is free to use. [24] [25]
Beaverton is a city in Washington County, in the U.S. state of Oregon with a small portion bordering Portland in the Tualatin Valley. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was 97,494 at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in the county and the seventh-largest city in Oregon. Beaverton is an economic center for Washington County along with neighboring Hillsboro. It is home to the world headquarters of Nike, Inc., although it sits outside of city limits on unincorporated county land.
The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five lines that together connect the six sections of Portland; the communities of Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove; and Portland International Airport to Portland City Center. Trains run seven days a week with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and three minutes during rush hours. In 2019, MAX had an average daily ridership of 120,900, or 38.8 million annually. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted public transit use globally, annual ridership plummeted, with only 14.8 million riders recorded in 2021.
TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 by the Oregon legislature, the district replaced five private bus companies that operated in the three counties: Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas. TriMet started operating a light rail system, MAX, in 1986, which has since been expanded to five lines that now cover 59.7 miles (96.1 km), as well as the WES Commuter Rail line in 2009. It also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of Portland-owned Portland Streetcar system. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 53,889,500, or about 173,600 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.
The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem began in January 1908. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in 1910, and extended service to Eugene in 1912. Regular passenger service in the Willamette Valley ended in May 1933. Freight operations continued and the railway survived into the 1990s, ultimately as a Burlington Northern feeder. Operation as an electric railroad ended July 10, 1945.
The MAX Blue Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It travels east–west for approximately 33 miles (53 km)—the longest in the network—between Hillsboro, Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham and serves 48 stations from Hatfield Government Center to Cleveland Avenue. The line carried an average 55,370 riders each day on weekdays in September 2018, the busiest of the five MAX lines. It runs for 221⁄2 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and five minutes during rush hour. Service runs later in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays and ends earlier on Sundays.
The MAX Red Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. An airport rail link, it connects Beaverton, Portland City Center and Northeast Portland to Portland International Airport. The line serves 26 stations; it interlines with the Blue Line and partially with the Green Line from Beaverton Transit Center to Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center and then branches to the 5.5-mile (8.9 km) Airport MAX segment to Portland International Airport station. The Red Line carried an average 10,310 passengers per weekday in September 2021, the second-busiest MAX service after the Blue Line. Its trains run for 22 hours per day with headways of up to 15 minutes.
Pioneer Square South and Pioneer Square North are a pair of light rail stations in Portland, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. Situated directly west of the Portland Transit Mall on the perimeter of Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, facing Yamhill and Morrison streets between Broadway and 6th Avenue, the pair are the 21st and 7th stations eastbound on the Blue Line and the Red Line, respectively. They consist of one side platform each as MAX operates in a one-way pair along this segment; trains traveling eastbound stop at Pioneer Square South while trains traveling westbound stop at Pioneer Square North. With connections to the Green, Orange, and Yellow lines, the Pioneer Square stations, along with the Pioneer Courthouse/Southwest 6th and Pioneer Place/Southwest 5th stations located one block east, mark the only transfer point in the MAX system where riders can board any of the five existing lines.
Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. Metro, the metropolitan area's regional government, has a regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role. This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.
Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."
Beaverton Transit Center is an intermodal passenger transport hub in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it is served by bus, commuter rail, and light rail. The transit center is MAX Light Rail's 15th station eastbound on the Blue Line and western terminus on the Red Line. It is also the northern terminus of WES Commuter Rail and a hub for bus routes mostly serving the westside communities of the Portland metropolitan area. Beaverton Transit Center is situated on Southwest Lombard Avenue, just north of Southwest Canyon Road in central Beaverton, connected by walkway to Canyon Place Shopping Center. It recorded 9,709 average weekday boardings for all modes in fall 2018, making it TriMet's busiest transit center.
Willow Creek/Southwest 185th Avenue Transit Center is a transport hub in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it is a light rail and bus station. The transit center is the ninth station eastbound on the Blue Line and a hub for bus routes mostly serving Washington County in the Portland metropolitan area. It is located by the intersection of Southwest Baseline Road and 185th Avenue near the city's boundary with Beaverton. Opened in 1998, the station was originally conceived as the western terminus of the Westside MAX, but the line was extended further west into Hillsboro, due to population growth occurring at the time the line was being planned. Artwork at the stop represents a reading motif, as a library was planned for the station, but never built. Willow Creek is near the Oregon National Primate Research Center and the rest of the Oregon Health & Science University's West Campus in the Tanasbourne neighborhood.
Portland International Airport, or just Airport on station signage, is a light rail station in Portland, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It serves Portland International Airport as the eastern terminus of the Red Line, which connects travelers to downtown Portland and Beaverton. The station is attached to ground floor of the main passenger terminal, near the southern end of the arrivals hall and baggage claim area. It features a wedge-shaped island platform, just beyond which both tracks join because the section approaching the terminal is single-tracked.
South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) is a public transit system operated by the city government of Wilsonville, Oregon, United States. The system currently consists of seven routes and is funded by local businesses. It was created when Wilsonville petitioned to withdraw from the TriMet service district in the late 1980s. Offices of the agency are in the former city hall off Wilsonville Road.
The MAX Green Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It is 15 miles (24.1 km) long and serves 30 stations from the PSU South stations to Clackamas Town Center Transit Center; it connects Portland State University (PSU), Portland City Center, Northeast Portland, Southeast Portland, and Clackamas. The Green Line is the only service that shares parts of its route with the four other MAX services, sharing the Portland Transit Mall with the Orange and Yellow lines and the Banfield segment of the Eastside MAX with the Blue and Red lines. Southbound from Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, it operates the Interstate 205 (I-205) segment through to Clackamas Town Center. Service runs for approximately 211⁄2 hours daily with a headway of 15 minutes during most of the day. It is the third-busiest line in the system, carrying an average of 19,160 riders per day on weekdays in September 2019.
The Portland and Western Railroad is a 516-mile (830 km) Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamette and Pacific Railroad.
The Westside Express Service (WES) is a commuter rail line serving parts of Washington and Clackamas counties in the U.S. state of Oregon's Portland metropolitan area. Owned by TriMet and operated by Portland & Western Railroad (P&W), the line is 14.7 miles (23.7 km) long and travels north–south from Beaverton to Wilsonville via Tigard and Tualatin, along a route just west of Oregon Highway 217 and Interstate 5 (I-5). It consists of five stations and connects with MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center. Service operates on a 45-minute headway on weekdays during the morning and evening rush hours. In Spring 2022, the service saw daily ridership of 420 passengers, about 109,000 rides annually.
Wilsonville Transit Center, also called SMART Central at Wilsonville Station, is a bus and commuter rail transport hub in Wilsonville, Oregon, United States. The transit center, which is owned and operated by the City of Wilsonville, is the hub for the South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) bus system. The Portland metropolitan area's regional transit agency, TriMet, operates the southern terminus of its WES Commuter Rail at the facility; WES connects with the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center. Opened in January 2009, the transit center includes a 400-car park and ride.
Tigard Transit Center, formally Thomas M. Brian Tigard Transit Center, is a transport hub in Tigard, Oregon, United States, that is owned and operated by TriMet. It is a transfer facility for bus routes mainly serving the westside communities of the Portland metropolitan area and the third southbound station from Beaverton Transit Center on WES Commuter Rail. The transit center is the located in downtown Tigard just south of Oregon Route 99W on Commercial Street. It recorded 1,627 average weekday boardings in fall 2019. The facility opened in 1988 as a bus transit center, and a platform for WES was added in 2009.
Hall/Nimbus is a train station in Beaverton, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of WES Commuter Rail. It is the second station southbound on the commuter rail line, which runs between Beaverton and Wilsonville in the Portland metropolitan area's Washington County. Opened in February 2009, the TriMet-owned station is located west of Oregon Route 217 near the Washington Square shopping mall on Hall Boulevard. It includes a 50-car park and ride and connections to TriMet bus routes 76–Hall/Greenburg and 78–Beaverton/Lake Oswego. WES connects with the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center.
The transportation system of Oregon is a cooperation of complex systems of infrastructure.
Ride Connection is a private, nonprofit organization that provides fixed bus route and paratransit services in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded as Volunteer Transport, Inc. on May 26, 1988.