By ED COX
The Dalles Chronicle
November 28, 2007

Residents of The Dalles and Hood River no longer need a car to visit Portland on Thursdays — just $16 and a bus schedule.

Starting this week, the Mid-Columbia Council of Governments’ Transportation Network and Hood River County’s Columbia Area Transit (CAT) will run a new Thursday service between the three cities.

A bus will leave The Dalles Transportation Center (201 Federal St.) at 7:30 a.m. to connect with another at CAT’s port marina office next to DMV in Hood River. The CAT bus will then leave for Portland at 8 a.m.

Its first stop will be about 9:05 a.m. at the Gateway MAX station (nearest the I-84 and I-205 interchange), which offers access via light rail to Gresham, the Portland airport and downtown.

From there, the bus will proceed to Oregon Health and Science University, arriving about 9:45 a.m. and, after a 15-minute break, to Clackamas Town Center, arriving about 10:30 a.m.

Taking the reverse route back, the bus leaves Clackamas Town Center at 2:15 p.m., arriving at OHSU about 2:45, stopping at the Gateway MAX about 3:25, and arriving in Hood River by 4:35 and The Dalles by 5:10 p.m.

According to Dan Schwanz, who directs both CAT and the Transportation Network, the service will be one day a week for the foreseeable future. He said the choice of Thursday was based on driver availability and a desire to avoid both Monday holidays and Friday afternoon traffic in Hood River.

This week, the bus will run only if someone shows up in The Dalles or Hood River to ride, he said. However, starting next Thursday, the route will be run faithfully regardless of ridership.

Because it’s a fixed route, he stressed, people must be on time both heading out and returning in order to avoid being left behind.

For the sake of simplicity, the fare is $8 each way, regardless of where a rider gets on and off.

The route was made possible by grant money from the federal inter-city program, which also funded the new daily (weekday) commuter service between The Dalles and Hood River, added late last month.

The schedule for the commuter route is as follows:

6 a.m. — depart CAT office (Hood River)

6:38 — depart intersection highways 197 and 30 (The Dalles)

6:46 — The Dalles Transportation Center

7:04 — Mosier’s “pocket park” (south side of bridge over railroad tracks)

7:12 — Best Western Hood River Inn

7:17 — Hood River Hotel

7:24 — Wal-Mart

7:30 — Rosauers Supermarket

5 p.m. — Leave Rosauers Supermarket (HR)

5:09 — Wal-Mart

5:16 — Hood River Hotel

5:21 — Best Western Hood River Inn

5:31 — Mosier

5:49 — TD Transportation Center

5:56 — Junction highways 197 and 30

6:22 — Arrive CAT office (HR)

Schwanz also reported he will be receiving a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation to purchase a vehicle for an originally-planned midday run on that same route.