As I drove along Highway 217 this morning, briskly passing a WES car that was ambling along the adjacent track, I recalled that WES - the west side commuter rail that runs from a parking-free transit station in Beaverton to a relatively unpopulated part of Wilsonville -- runs only two trains an hour each way, and that only during the morning and evening rush hours.
Ridership on WES has been increasing -- average daily ridership is up to about 1,600, compared to about 1,200 a year ago -- but it still well below the 2,400 riders/day that TriMet had forecasted when it built the line. Because riders who ride one way in the morning likely ride the other way in the afternoon, WES is serving about 800 people a day.
Is it a transportation heresy for me to wonder if more people would use the line if it were converted to a bike path? $160 million was a lot to spend for a rail line that serves 800 people a day.