Project Description

In October 1996, Oregon Department of Transportation entered into a cooperative agreement for the Pacific Northwest High-Speed Rail Corridor Study. The project is for a revised capacity analysis of the Portland to Eugene segment of the corridor and a programmatic environmental impact statement for the Oregon segment of the corridor. This is an extension of work by the State of Washington Department of Transportation for the northern part of the corridor. The total project costs $240,000, with the revised capacity analysis costing $40,000 and the programmatic environmental impact statement costing $200,000. The State of Oregon bears 50% of the total funding, requiring Federal funding for the balance.

The Oregon Department of Transportation completed a capacity analysis of the Portland to Eugene segment of the High-Speed Rail Corridor in 1994. The study generated a list of capital improvements needed to reduce the running time for trains between Portland and Eugene from the previous 2 hours 37 minutes to 1 hour 58 minutes. The needed improvements were predicated upon a number of freight traffic growth scenarios relating to the level of traffic estimated by the Southern Pacific. A range of options was developed with the final list of capital improvements relating to a "moderate" increase in freight traffic. This base scenario was viewed as inadequate as a result of an impending merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. A new through route for the merged system between Seattle and Los Angeles was predicted to double the Southern Pacific intermodal traffic on the Portland to Eugene segment (three a day each way) within one year of merger and a fourfold increase within three years. In addition, the merger generated a need for the Union Pacific to move their north-south trains through Portland in a much more efficient manner than the previous interchange between carriers arrangement. The revised capacity analysis uses the original consultants to review the older study, rerun the scenarios with the new Union Pacific base line data and generate a new list of projects for the corridor.

The Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement builds upon earlier work by developing alternatives and improvements on appropriate base maps, showing horizontal and vertical alignments, determining right of way needs, preparing cross sections to determine quantities, revising the operations plan, estimating travel times and ridership impacts, and refining capital and operating costs. Collected data will be used to examine the general characteristics of the corridor and map the appropriate information.