WES Commuter Rail To Open this Fall

TriMet WES Commuter Rail

Weekday rush-hour service between Wilsonville and Beaverton

Commuters in Washington and Clackamas counties will soon have a new alternative to I-5/Highway 217. Starting in fall 2008, you can travel hassle-free from Wilsonville to Beaverton on WES.

TriMet’s WES (short for Westside Express Service) is a new commuter rail line serving Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville. WES will run about every 30 minutes, Monday through Friday, during the morning and afternoon rush hour.
Instead of sitting in traffic, you'll have your own "WES time" to use however you like. Plus, you can depend on WES to get you there on time. Now isn't that a nice way to start your workday?

* Rush-hour service from Wilsonville to Beaverton
* Free parking at four stations
* Free Wi-Fi internet access on board
* Comfortable seats and a smooth ride
* Real-time arrival displays at all stations
* Bike racks and lockers at stations

Public Art on Commuter Rail

Working in collaboration with project partners, TriMet is continuing its commitment to public art with the Washington County commuter rail project.

The project has allocated $500,000 to fund the commuter rail Public Art Program based on 1.5 percent of eligible project costs.

The program is guided by an Art Advisory Committee, which is composed of representatives from every station area. The committee selected artists Frank Boyden and Brad Rude to develop artwork for the stations.

Artists

Frank Boyden is one of the region's most accomplished and versatile artists, equally at home with ceramics, printmaking and sculpture. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Governor's Arts Award and most recently was the subject of a retrospective at the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem.

Boyden and Washington sculptor Brad Rude, who collaborated on artwork for Doernbecher Children's Hospital, have teamed up again for commuter rail. Artwork

Boyden and Rude have created a series of five sculptures, called Interactivators, for the five commuter rail stations. Each sculpture features moveable, cast-bronze heads and a vehicle mounted to a stainless-steel table. The heads, which appear in different guises at each of the stations, symbolize a wide range of emotions, traits and conditions. Like the cross section of humanity that may be found on any train car, these sculpted archetypes serve as a metaphor for the human experience. The bronze vehicles each carry a sculpted scene of an animal representative of the station area where they are located. Sculpture for Commuter Rail station

At each station, a table features sculptures of 16 heads expressing the full range of human experience, from comedy to pathos.

The figures and vehicles are attached to the tables in a way that allows them to move within "tracks" cut into the surface of the table. The sculptures, in addition to being unique works of art, offer a potential game that can be played by one person or an entire station full of people. There are no winners or losers, but rather opportunities for infinite encounters that can create social connection, offer insight or produce a simple moment of pleasure.

Other artwork includes a mural painted on a wall at the Tigard Transit Station and a willow pattern etched in the windscreen glass at stations in Tualatin and Wilsonville.