can I get there from here?

[TransitGeek]

Nashville, cool fact, is the only major city in the US to have a commuter railroad that does not connect to Amtrak.

Actually, while the Portland metro has both Amtrak and commuter rail, the two are not connected- at least directly. The WES runs from Beaverton (7 miles west of Portland) to Wilsonville (18 miles SW of Portland), and passengers bound for Portland must change at Beaverton to a MAX light rail train. Amtrak does not serve any of the WES stations, or even run on the same track. (Amtrak Cascades stations are in Oregon City and Portland, while the Starlight serves Portland.)

If your contention is that Nashville is the only US metro served by commuter rail and not intercity rail, you're probably right. However, it's one of two that don't connect to Amtrak.

</nitpicking>

 

[Shawn Ryu]

I thought WES was a light rail service. it looks like it. Its sure slow like it.

 

[highballing]

I wish the Thurways bus provided more routes to get people to the Train station nearest to them. So it would open up more areas to take the train back and forth from where they live. I know Thruways can't be a greyhound like bus service, and they must provide strategic routing. But I believe some towns are left in the dark when it would be easy to provide Thurways bus routing back and forth to the Train Station.

 

[AlanB]

I thought WES was a light rail service. it looks like it. Its sure slow like it.

Nope, WES is commuter rail. Unlike light rail, it can mix with freight trains on the same tracks without special conditions of what can run at what times. And it does hit a top speed of 79 MPH IIRC.