WES and me: a Westside Express Service preview ride story

I was fortunate enough to take a ride on the Westside Express Service (WES) Preview Ride on January 23rd.  The Tualatin Station was situated right next to a Haggens; the parking situation might be a little dicey with the park and ride parking lot being shared with the grocery store.  In any case, got there a little early and waited for the WES:

Al M, Jason McHuff (who has a nice collection of Fickr photos from the WES preview ride), Adron (and his GF) and Julian and I all congregated near the ticket machine while we waited.  Hmm… when will the next Transit Beer be?

At 3:36 or so (right on time!), the WES came up from the southern tracks:

One thing to note here: these aren’t MAX trains.  The WES trains are bigger and bulkier.  A TriMet official told us several times that the drop off from the platform to the tracks was four feet… so watch your step!

When we got on the WES train, a couple of things jumped out at me:

• It’s really nice inside
• The seats are more spread out
• There’s plenty of room

Here’s the view from where I was seated:

And a shot of the seats themselves:

While very comfy (infinitely more comfy than the seats that are currently in TriMet buses and MAX trains), I’m weary of how fast they’ll probably deteriorate.  I can’t imagine when people start sitting in those seats with wet coats and the like.

Anyway, I was able to get a shot (and some video!) of the operator controls for the WES.  First the pic:

You can access the short video clips I recorded on the TriMetiquette Youtube page.  Please excuse the quality – I was only able to use my Macbook’s video to record some footage.

WES Wireless Internet

I was able to test out WES’s wireless internet capabilities.  I saw two networks in my list of available networks when I opened up my Macbook:

I’m guessing the have one towards the front and another at the rear.  The download speeds seemed just fine; pages loaded quickly and I had no problems with my chat program (Adium).  I also tested out uploading one of the videos on my YouTube page and it uploaded successfully.

Here is what the download / upload speeds looked like:

As you can see from the other pics, there were a good amount of people who rode on this preview ride.  Here’s a shot I took that’s looking down from one end of a train to the other (notice Adron from Transit Sleuth taking a picture of ME taking a picture):

We went a couple of stops north then came back south and I got off the WES back at the Tualatin stop.  The scenery is quite beautiful so if you forget your book, you’ll probably be quite entertained looking out the window.

I have to say – the WES really does deliver.  Riding in the train itself is comfortable, it’s quite pleasant inside (along with some nice seating that will probably go down the tubes in half a year) and the scenery is really quite beautiful.

The Westside Express Service will be fully functional on February 2nd.  The ticket machine only accepts debit / credit cards, so if you only have cash you’re out of luck.

Bonus weird-head-thingy that you can move around at the Tualatin stop!

Adron has a great post with some more commentary over at The Transit Sleuth.

Julian of PDX Pipeline fame took this video:

WES (Westside Express Service) Preview Ride

How cool!  I received an invitation (thanks TriMet!) to RSVP for a WES Preview Ride.  So it looks like I’ll be riding the WES later this week.  I’ll try to get some pictures (or even some video?) and a nice comprehensive post on how the experience went probably this coming weekend.

Anyone have any specifics they want me to pay attention to?

Would anyone like to provide first-day WES coverage?

WES (Westside Express Service) is making long-awaited maiden voyage on February 2.  I was hoping to be chosen in the “WES Time” Essay Contest, to be one of 30 lucky riders to ride WES on that date, but alas was not chosen.

So I was hoping a TriMetiquette reader was chosen or perhaps will be riding WES that day to snap some pictures and tell us how the WES is.

Anyone interested?

Wish I could be invited… *nudge nudge TriMet higher-ups* 

WES Time Essay Contest

It’s getting close to WES time (that would be February 2, 2009)!  And in celebration for the upcoming Wilsonville – Beaverton commuter rail, TriMet has an essay contest!  Access it here.

While prizes aren’t specifically mentioned, the contest rules do state that there’s one prize valued at $86, which is, hmmm, how about this: just about how much a monthly all-zone pass costs!  I wonder what the first prize is…   There are also “up to 30 prizes” that are valued at $4.25 a piece… which, yes yes, are the price-point for an all-day all-zone pass.

In any case, what I’m most interested is this:

“All participants will be entered into a drawing to win an invitation to a preview ride on WES Commuter Rail and your essay might be published on trimet.org!”

TriMet!  Let me on a preview ride on WES!  And also, TriMet!  Please link to me!

The contest closes on December 9th at 5 p.m., so you have a month to write a 100 words or less essay.  What are you waiting for?  Get writing!

First Westside Express Service (WES) car arrives

You know the Westside Express Service?  The WES?  If you were just thinking, “I’ve known the plans, seen the construction… where are the trains?!” – here you go.  The first WES train has arrived and it’s a real beaut!  The seats look comfy!

Sidenote: KGW – do I really need to register on your site in order to participate in a poll?