Westside Express Service
| WES Commuter Rail | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Overview | |||
| Type | Regional commuter railroad | ||
| Status | Operational | ||
| Locale | Washington County, Oregon, United States | ||
| Termini |
Beaverton (north) Wilsonville (south) |
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| Stations | 5 | ||
| Services | 1 | ||
| Daily ridership | 1,800 (Q2 2016, weekday average) | ||
| Operation | |||
| Opened | February 2, 2009 | ||
| Owner | TriMet | ||
| Operator(s) | Portland & Western Railroad | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 14.7 mi (23.7 km) | ||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
| Operating speed | 37 mph (60 km/h) avg. | ||
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WES Commuter Rail, or Westside Express Service, is a 14.7-mile (23.7 km) United States commuter rail line between Beaverton and Wilsonville, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area, mostly following busy Oregon Highway 217 and Interstate 5. The diesel-powered passenger rail service opened in February 2009 on upgraded existing freight rail tracks owned and operated by the Portland & Western Railroad (P&W). TriMet, the metropolitan area's regional transit agency, manages and funds the service, and it also owns and maintains the railcars and stations, but P&W staff operate the vehicles. In planning since the mid-1990s, the line has five stations: two in Beaverton, one in Tigard, one in Tualatin, and one in Wilsonville.
From the start of the first serious discussions of the idea, it took thirteen years and $166 million to get WES operational.
The route of WES comprises of two historically separate railroads.
The route between Greton (near Tigard) and Wilsonville was originally built by the Oregon Electric Railway in 1908; at Greton the line continued northeasterly to Portland, a route that was abandoned in the mid-1930s. The Oregon Electric stopped running passenger trains in the late 1930s and soon after switched to diesel locomotives, continuing to run freight trains to Beaverton and Portland to the north, and to Salem, Albany and Eugene to the south.
The route from Greton to Beaverton was built by an affiliate of the Southern Pacific Railroad beginning in 1906, and opened to traffic in 1910. This route connected with Southern Pacific's existing west-east line in Beaverton that provided service to Portland and Hillsboro, and a second route south of Tigard to Cook, which was a junction with an existing route between Lake Oswego and McMinnville. In 1914, the Southern Pacific electrified these lines as part of its Red Electric service in competition with the Oregon Electric Railway; by 1929 the Southern Pacific ended electric service, and passenger service was switched first to steam trains and doodlebugs, and later buses.
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