Costs for operations and maintenance for light rail are substantially lower than a previous estimate but that is because estimates for service to Vancouver have been cut in half … leading at least one C-TRAN board member to wonder if it’s a savings at all

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

A new estimate for the operations and maintenance costs for Oregon’s light rail extension into downtown Vancouver is about half of the previous estimate but there is a significant reason for the new numbers:

Administrators with the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program now estimate that train and bus service to Vancouver will be cut in half.

The old estimate was based on the O&M costs for nine light rail trains per hour and express bus service every three minutes during peak times.

IBR officials advised the C-TRAN Board of Directors on Tuesday that the new estimate is based on four trains per hour (one every 15 minutes) and express bus service every 7.5 minutes during peak times.

Surely, politicians who are already uneasy with the potential of forcing C-TRAN to pay for O&M costs have to be wondering if light rail is even necessary if IBR administrators now believe that ridership demand is half of what they expected just a few years ago.

Tim Hein, representing Camas on the C-TRAN board, once again brought up the potential partnership with Oregon’s TriMet, which runs light rail.

“There is a key group that is not here tonight,” Hein said, referring to TriMet. “They are a huge stakeholder in this. They signed up to be a stakeholder, and yet everything I’ve read is that they are an organization that is having some significant challenges. Not only in funding but ridership. Yet, we are in this project linked with them.”

TriMet has recently announced major service reductions in Oregon and is warning that more cuts are coming as TriMet faces a budget shortfall.

Hein has previously wondered why C-TRAN would partner with a failing organization.

In fact, the City of Camas has unanimously adopted a resolution in support of a new Interstate Bridge but against the idea of light rail and against forcing all of Clark County — via C-TRAN — to pay for operations and maintenance costs for less than 1.9 miles of track that will only come to downtown Vancouver.

Oregon has already agreed to pay for 55 percent of the O&M costs, and organizers are looking for ways Washington will pay for the other 45 percent. Last November, C-TRAN changed language in its policy, allowing C-TRAN to potentially pay for O&M costs. The previous language said C-TRAN shall not pay for those costs.

The old estimate for O&M was $21.8 million for both states. The new estimate — again based on a little less than half the service — is at $10.3 million. After fair recovery and Washington’s 45-percent share, the new estimate for Washington is $4.1 million. 

Is it a savings? Or a little more than half off because it is a little more than half the service initially proposed?

The IBR team said the initial numbers were based on pre-pandemic estimates. This new estimate reflects what the IBR team now expects service to be once a new bridge and light rail opens in Vancouver. The numbers were estimated for a 2035 start of service.

Hein still is not so sure.

“I see Southwest Washington becoming a more vibrant, standalone, economic area,” Hein said. “What’s going to drive increased ridership to Portland and substantiate this investment and ongoing cost?”

To view the C-TRAN board meeting, go here: C-TRAN Board of Directors Meeting (10-14-25) | Clark/Vancouver Television

The IBRP presentation starts at about the 47-minute mark of the video.