John, if you read anything that Trimet posts, they have made it clear that they are receiving 30 new trains and have a break-in period after which they will enter service. If you look at Trimet’s social media, you will see they are sending all 26 Type 1 trains to the scrap heap after 39 years of service. While I am not debating you about the need or not for new vehciles, they certainly don’t have the number of excess vehicles that you state and is at the core of your post. Be honest but not misleading. Most of your story is that they have all these surplus trains that they don’t really have if you take a closer look.

Look I do think they are trying to fold a bunch of expenses into this project. I think they probably are using this project to pay for some trains that need to be replaced in about 10 years. And I don’t think they are being upfront about it. Also, their operational costs seem out of whack with reality. Again, I think they are using this project to pay for other expenses. So we do agree there.

The story reported data from the FTA reports for 2024. It was accurate for that year. When the data gets updated for the end of 2025, assuming TriMet actually RETIRES the 26 light rail vehicles, we will happily do a story using the new numbers. Thank you.

It might be that TriMet, because of their budget crisis, actually retire MORE vehicles rather than attempt to maintain them.

But the point of the story is that there is NO need for the IBR to buy 19 new light rail vehicles for TriMet. Especially for a 1.83 mile light rail extension that will operate (at best) with 4 departures an hour.