By ED COX
The Dalles Chronicle
December 6, 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 last week, the Mid-Columbia Council of Governments’ Transportation Network and Hood River County’s Columbia Area Transit (CAT) is running 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.

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. — leave CAT office (Hood River)

6:38 — leave 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 — at the Hood River Hotel

7:24 — Wal-Mart

7:30 — Rosauers Supermarket

5 p.m. — leave Rosauers Supermarket

5:09 — Wal-Mart

5:16 — Hood River Hotel

5:21 — Best Western Hood River Inn

5:31 — Mosier

5:49 — The Dalles Transport. 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.

It might be six months before he is able to add the second run, he said.