Should high capacity transit reach downtown Tualatin as part of the Southwest Corridor Plan?
In a pair of reports released Friday, planners for the project recommend saying “no.”
Instead, Bridgeport Village should be the furthest southern terminus considered for a Southwest Corridor light rail or bus rapid transit line at this time, the planners recommend.
The Southwest Corridor Plan Steering Committee will consider those recommendations at a Jan. 11 meeting.
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Planners based their terminus recommendation on several factors, including cost, logistics, ridership potential and station accessibility. They found that a Bridgeport Village terminus -- likely at SW 72nd Avenue and Lower Boones Ferry Road -- would serve many of the same riders who would use a downtown Tualatin station, while saving considerable costs.
“A terminus at Bridgeport Village would result in a more cost-effective project and would have logistic advantages compared to a project terminating in downtown Tualatin,” the planners wrote. “It would serve many of the projected Tualatin station users equally well.”
Bridgeport Village is a significant retail destination just inside Tualatin city limits, near a major freeway interchange and with an already heavily used park-and-ride for several bus lines. Planners note the potential there for supporting additional housing and commercial development as well. One drawback they note is more challenging access by foot or bicycle.
Two potential routes could connect the line from downtown Tigard to Bridgeport Village: one paralleling WES and freight rail tracks, and another swinging east further north to parallel Interstate 5. Planners recommend moving both forward.
Public feedback to the project’s online comment map tool indicate that people think a southern terminus should have strong local bus connections, good car, pedestrian, bicycle access, and be viable for future expansion of the system, planners report.
The recommendation will not come as a great surprise to most observers of the Southwest Corridor Plan. At its September meeting, the steering committee approved a motion by Tualatin Mayor Lou Ogden that largely closed the door on light rail in downtown Tualatin.
Ogden has said that he doesn’t believe a light rail or bus rapid transit station in downtown Tualatin is worth the cost – although he has said the Southwest Corridor Plan can still improve access there by other means, including buses.
The recommendation does hold out the possibility of extending the line to downtown Tualatin sometime in the future, noting, “because of its proximity to employment and opportunities for future transit-oriented development, and because of its good bike and pedestrian connections, downtown Tualatin could serve as a good station location in a future expansion.”
Read the reports
Read the reports referenced in this story:
Tigard, Barbur options also narrowed
Also on Friday, planners recommended moving ahead with three of five potential route options to connect light rail or bus rapid transit to downtown Tigard from the Tigard Triangle across Highway 217: a direct bridge from the southern Triangle; a longer direct bridge from the northern Triangle; and “branch service” that would include a spur along the existing WES tracks from just south of downtown. All remaining options would serve downtown Tigard and the northern edge of the Triangle; two of the three would serve the southern portion of the Triangle.
All of the bridges could also include room for people walking and bicycling. The third could include autos as well.
Planners recommended removing two downtown Tigard loop route options from further consideration, citing slower travel times, reduced ridership and impacts to downtown Tigard.
Finally, planners recommended removing a route option that would have paralleled I-5 north of SW 13th Avenue in Southwest Portland, focusing on a Barbur Blvd. alignment instead. South of 13th Avenue, they recommend continued study of both Barbur Boulevard and adjacent to I-5 route options.
The steering committee – composed of elected leaders from each of the corridor’s seven cities, Metro and Washington County, plus top executives from TriMet and the Oregon Department of Transportation – will consider the recommendations at its Jan. 11 meeting. The public is invited to provide testimony at the beginning of the meeting.
In February, the steering committee will decide on whether light rail or bus rapid transit is the preferred mode for the whole corridor, and whether to keep studying a light rail tunnel option to serve the hilltop campus of Portland Community College – Sylvania.
Any route options left on the table will be included in a “Preferred Package” to be adopted this spring, which would then go through a detailed federal impact review before a final route is chosen, likely not before 2018.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect the rescheduling of the Southwest Corridor steering committee originally scheduled on Dec. 14.