Portland will break ground on the area's first commuter train line on Wednesday, extending the light rail system farther into the city's suburbs. Of course it's under fire from critics.
The TriMet project will run 14.7 miles between Wilsonville and Beaverton, adding passenger capacity along the congested I-5 corridor. The trains will run on track owned and used by a private freight railroad, connecting park-and-ride lots through the suburbs to Portland's light rail system by mid-2008.
That's not good enough for critics, who point out that the $117 million project is expected to serve only 4,000 passengers a day by 2020. The claim tha the project won't take enough cars off the road is the same criticism still faced by Seattle's Sounder train and likely by West Coast Express in Vancouver.
In fact, the investment on fixed passenger-rail infrastructure is exactly what Cascadia needs in order to focus development, curb sprawl and lessen pollution from cars -- as the region grows. Let's hope the scrutiny makes TriMet pull off the project efficiently so similar the idea spreads.