Moving to Portland

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by pathrunner

You are absolutely correct. I should have remembered how good the transit system in Portland actually is. It could be even better but it is definitely possible to get around without a car. I was thinking too much about the west in general, particularly California except for San Francisco. I lived there for many years, several without a car.

That's interesting about Colorado. Will have to look that up.

The Colorado statewide bus service looks far from perfect. But it's a 100 times better then what Oregon is doing. Somebody needs to bring it up with the Oregon legislature.

Bustang | Colorado Department of Transportation | Regular and reliable statewide service.

[StealthRabbit]

My experience with Bustang (Colorado) is... Rent a car!

It goes within 20 minutes of my destinations, but is very expensive (for 2), and not worth the wait. Much improvement can be made nationwide. And to think there once was rail service to nearly every dinky town. Apparently train tracks kinda bothered the revenue expectations of oil companies, so they paid their favorite politicians to defund the railroads and trolleys.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

My experience with Bustang (Colorado) is... Rent a car!

It goes within 20 minutes of my destinations, but is very expensive (for 2), and not worth the wait. Much improvement can be made nationwide. And to think there once was rail service to nearly every dinky town. Apparently train tracks kinda bothered the revenue expectations of oil companies, so they paid their favorite politicians to defund the railroads and trolleys.

Oh now a good passenger train system for Oregon would be a dream. I could see passenger trains running from Ashland to Portland, and tourist trains running from Tillamook to Portland and Coos Bay to Eugene. From what I can tell the Tillamook line would take a lot of work to extend it to Portland, but a Coos Bay line could be operating as soon as they could get a passenger train for it. They have already spent well over $30 million to restore freight traffic on it.

[Nell Plotts]

I would love to see train service to Bend, particularly on Friday evening returning on Sunday evening.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

I would love to see train service to Bend, particularly on Friday evening returning on Sunday evening.

That would be difficult. When I wrote that post about a passenger train system for Oregon, I thought about Bend too. But there is no good rail routes to Bend. The only realistic option for a rail route from Portland to Bend, would be from Portland east along the Columbia river past The Dalles, then south along the Deschutes River to Bend and then continuing south to connect with Amtrak at Chemult. The train trip would be around 8 to 10 hours. A bus ride would take about 3 to 4 hours.